Shi Ba Zi Zuo Stainless Steel Chinese Knife w/ Wooden Handle: 6.7" $23.59, 7" $25.70 + Free Shipping w/ Prime or orders $25+

Eh. Most chinese cleavers aren't hardened to as high of a HRC as Japanese knives and chuka-bocho variants. They don't hold a super sharp edge long, but they also don't chip as a result and are easy to resharpen, especially given the shape. Easiest knife shape to sharpen by far.

They're meant as all around beaters, which includes the usual usage as a pan scraper. This is a cheap stainless steel, so it's definitely soft enough to use and abuse.

If you go into higher end chuka-bocho cleavers that use higher end steels and super steels, which are hardened to 60+ HRC, and tend to have much narrower blade profiles, you'll run into issues with scraping. Though those also tend to have the less common rounded belly, which might be appealing to some, and unappealing to others.

That being said, a scraper is 10 bucks and if you decide to get more into knives, it's annoying to unlearn the habit of scraping your board with knives.

Some people enjoy using cheap knives like Shi Ba Zi, but I'd rather jump to the next price point. CCK has gotten massively inflated in price, but Chopper King is from Taiwan and has pretty good stuff, and in better steels as well. They're on CKTG.

I'm Chinese and I taught myself how to cook on a CCK, and they're fun to use, but I only paid ~$35 back then. For ~$70 I tend to recommend Japanese knives (ex: nakiri) instead. The Chinese cleavers are really fun as beaters, but they are heavy (even though you can use the weight of the cleaver to chop) and I found it fatiguing in longer sessions. They're also a bit more annoying to learn to use for more delicate tasks and the large size makes them harder to store.

CCK was great at its old price point of ~$30-50 but it's double that now and at that price, it falls short in terms of fit and finish vs other options at that price. It doesn't have any frills, fit and finish is meh, the steel is just ok, and the food release is terrible. Not dealbreakers at the original price point, but at the new going price, I find it a lot less forgivable.

I mostly just pull this out for novelty, or leave it at my parent's to use when I visit. My mom likes to take it out to cut napa cabbage (the Chinese ingredient it's most suited for) and other large produce, like watermelons.

Though honestly, even for that, there are cheaper options that have more novelty value; the Chinese cleavers aren't that long so it can get annoying with larger melons. Grab a Tojiro Big Almighty Chopper for around ~$40-50 off eBay if you want a huge novelty knife for those occasions. It's amazing for cutting and serving cake because of the length and the tall height, plus the party fun of bringing it out.

As for knife profiles, if you just want an all around chef's knife with a similarly flat belly for the push cut profile, you can look into nakiri's and santoku's. Santoku is quite versatile, though the gyuto is better if you like to rock chop.

Well you can tell 28 people have no clue how to use a knife in this thread.

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After reading your extensive post. It is all Chinese to me now. Even when I am Chinese. With that said I am just overall confused on which brand and price point I should be paying for a good decent cleaver. I would like to spend no more than $75. What would you recomment for a least expensive brand that is good too? Have a suggestions? Thanks.

Eh. Most chinese cleavers aren't hardened to as high of a HRC as Japanese knives and chuka-bocho variants. They don't hold a super sharp edge long, but they also don't chip as a result and are easy to resharpen, especially given the shape. Easiest knife shape to sharpen by far.

They're meant as all around beaters, which includes the usual usage as a pan scraper. This is a cheap stainless steel, so it's definitely soft enough to use and abuse.

If you go into higher end chuka-bocho cleavers that use higher end steels and super steels, which are hardened to 60+ HRC, and tend to have much narrower blade profiles, you'll run into issues with scraping. Though those also tend to have the less common rounded belly, which might be appealing to some, and unappealing to others.

That being said, a scraper is 10 bucks and if you decide to get more into knives, it's annoying to unlearn the habit of scraping your board with knives.

Some people enjoy using cheap knives like Shi Ba Zi, but I'd rather jump to the next price point. CCK has gotten massively inflated in price, but Chopper King is from Taiwan and has pretty good stuff, and in better steels as well. They're on CKTG.

I'm Chinese and I taught myself how to cook on a CCK, and they're fun to use, but I only paid ~$35 back then. For ~$70 I tend to recommend Japanese knives (ex: nakiri) instead. The Chinese cleavers are really fun as beaters, but they are heavy (even though you can use the weight of the cleaver to chop) and I found it fatiguing in longer sessions. They're also a bit more annoying to learn to use for more delicate tasks and the large size makes them harder to store.

CCK was great at its old price point of ~$30-50 but it's double that now and at that price, it falls short in terms of fit and finish vs other options at that price. It doesn't have any frills, fit and finish is meh, the steel is just ok, and the food release is terrible. Not dealbreakers at the original price point, but at the new going price, I find it a lot less forgivable.

I mostly just pull this out for novelty, or leave it at my parent's to use when I visit. My mom likes to take it out to cut napa cabbage (the Chinese ingredient it's most suited for) and other large produce, like watermelons.

Though honestly, even for that, there are cheaper options that have more novelty value; the Chinese cleavers aren't that long so it can get annoying with larger melons. Grab a Tojiro Big Almighty Chopper for around ~$40-50 off eBay if you want a huge novelty knife for those occasions. It's amazing for cutting and serving cake because of the length and the tall height, plus the party fun of bringing it out.

As for knife profiles, if you just want an all around chef's knife with a similarly flat belly for the push cut profile, you can look into nakiri's and santoku's. Santoku is quite versatile, though the gyuto is better if you like to rock chop.

Is this CCK? $28?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HE8F8S/?coliid=IW93NWI9XUQTT&colid=3EXC7LXAAYE3F&ref_=list_c_wl_gv_ov_... [amazon.com]

Skimming through this thread gave me a headache. A bunch of people who are supposed knife nerds that just spout what they read elsewhere without any actual experience using this kind of knife or this brand.

I have a couple of their knives and they're significantly better than stamped Mercer knives and better than a Global knockoff I bought from Ikea. The only other knife I can compare it to is a Wusthof Classic, but that's well over 5x the price.