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Knife and Edged Tools Acquisions

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
I didn’t see an ‘acquisition’ thread like we have with razors, hones, etc, so here one is for knives and edged tools. I’ll start off.

In today from CKTG is a 120mm Kohetsu HAP 40 petty knife and a Tojiro stainless cleaver.

HAP 40 knives are pricey but I’ve wanted to try one and I use a small petty a good bit. I was a bit apprehensive as reviews are mixed about F&F on this knife, but mine is good to my eye. There’s one tiny dip in the bevel at the toe on one side, but that will come out with a honing or two, as I like my kitchen knife tips sharp.

The Tojiro cleaver is a bit of a disappointment in that it has a lot of belly, more than I like on my kitchen tools, I’m a ‘pusher’ not a ‘rocker’. Tojiro is not expensive so sending it back for an exchange is probably not cost effective, so it will get gifted or the belly reduced with a Crystolon/India stone. If you wanted to make the edge straight, that’s losing almost 1/4” in the middle. But I’m used to remanufacturing cheap Japanese knives, so no big deal. Those of you that have been around a while know that the difference between a cheap JKnife and an expensive one is usually F&F not the steel. The Tojiro cleaver is well finished though for under $45 US. My first step though, is just to try it as-is and see how it works. Chili season is close and that’s a lot of slicing and dicing.

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That's a fine-looking Cleaver, Steve. I'm not up on my Jknives as I don't own any. But I'm liking what you are showing.

I managed to pick up these 3 knives at a yard sale. The White stone is a Gok 20k for size purposes. These are some bigg'uns but your Cleaver is pretty!

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Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Nice score Jerry,

Ontario also make some of the best American straight razors too.

I have a Utica Super Edge cleaver that belonged to my parents. Still going strong, as is the Wagner cornbread skillet. That vintage North American metal is good.

The Utica cleaver can get razor sharp, I know because I use it to burnish stones after lapping, and that stone wear adds up to as fine an edge as the steel will hold.
 
I told the wife I was going to clean them up and get them sharp for her, but she doesn't want anything to do with them. She said they are way too big for her. So I bought a Stainless Steel Knife magnet and hung them in my room. I still plan on making them nice so I can use them if I want. The Slicer is the one I really wanted. Thinking it will do a Turkey or Ham really nice.

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Nice find Jerry, I have a Gerber of similar size of the large Chef’s knife you have there. It is our watermelon knife, that makes quick work of a melon.

We eat a lot of fruit and love our summer melons. Found the Gerber in a thrift store in Arizona on a road trip a few years ago, was a steal.

And you always need a good slicer.
 
I didn’t see an ‘acquisition’ thread like we have with razors, hones, etc, so here one is for knives and edged tools. I’ll start off.

In today from CKTG is a 120mm Kohetsu HAP 40 petty knife and a Tojiro stainless cleaver.

HAP 40 knives are pricey but I’ve wanted to try one and I use a small petty a good bit. I was a bit apprehensive as reviews are mixed about F&F on this knife, but mine is good to my eye. There’s one tiny dip in the bevel at the toe on one side, but that will come out with a honing or two, as I like my kitchen knife tips sharp.

The Tojiro cleaver is a bit of a disappointment in that it has a lot of belly, more than I like on my kitchen tools, I’m a ‘pusher’ not a ‘rocker’. Tojiro is not expensive so sending it back for an exchange is probably not cost effective, so it will get gifted or the belly reduced with a Crystolon/India stone. If you wanted to make the edge straight, that’s losing almost 1/4” in the middle. But I’m used to remanufacturing cheap Japanese knives, so no big deal. Those of you that have been around a while know that the difference between a cheap JKnife and an expensive one is usually F&F not the steel. The Tojiro cleaver is well finished though for under $45 US. My first step though, is just to try it as-is and see how it works. Chili season is close and that’s a lot of slicing and dicing.

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Your Tojiro there Steve looks suspiciously similar to this Shibazi I got recently (intentionally as a bit of a project). Though I assume it is actually a little posher, cos the Shibazi cost 12 quid.

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Went to a little junk / reclamation place today and found this rather nice, relatively large William Marples chisel. Two pounds it would've been, though your man didn't take cards and didn't have any change, so insisted that I just take it. He was a little surprised when I did manage to swing by later with a couple of quid for him.

8.5" up to the brass collar, 14" including handle.


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Funny, last week I got these two Chinese Chef Knives, (cleavers) in, that I ordered on the bay a couple weeks ago.

These two also had more belly than I wished. I honed on 600 diamond Atoma to remove a bit of belly and cut new bevels, heel and toe were not well honed/ground. Then a 1 and 4k Norton.

One, (Spevorix, black handle), is more cleaver with much thicker spine, the No.2, Norpro is much lighter with thinner spine, more for veg. I re-honed it on 1200 Atoma and smooth the bevel and edge on a hard Nubatama 1k.

I will remove some more belly from about half- way to the heel on each, so I only need to remove about 1/8th inch or less.

I prepped a bunch of onions, garlic, and parsley the other day and it chopped just fine. I may just flatten a bit at a time with each future honing.

They were cheap, about $40 for the pair with shipping. Love the scoop feature of the wide blade. They hone quick and easy so maintenance will be a snap. So far big fan, can’t beat the price.

BTW, the CNTG plastic edge guards work great for storing these CCK’s in a drawer, couple bucks each. Or you can easily make poster board sleave with a couple of pieces of packing tape.

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Chinese Chef Knives

these CCK’s


[Realising full well that I'm about to appear like the kind of twat who just pops up occasionally to make niche points about nomenclature...]


Knife people do often refer to this kind of thing as Chinese Cleavers, or Chinese Chef Knives, but slightly confusingly that's not what the abbreviation CCK is used for when talking about them. CCK = Chan Chi Kee, who are probably the best known producer of high-quality Chinese cleavers, certainly in the US. Models like the CCK 1302 and 1303 are pretty much a gold standard for caidao and indeed they're also stocked by CKTG.

A few other terms that get used often:

Caidao - Literally this translates as 'Vegetable Knife', but is used more generally to mean something like 'chef's knife' or 'kitchen knife'. For anything from very thin slicing cleavers to more mid weight ones, but not bone cleavers.

Piandao / Sangdao - These refer specifically to very thin types of caidao. Not sure what Piandao means, but Sangdao means 'Mulberry Leaf Knife', i.e. for slicing things as thin as a Mulberry leaf. The two terms are pretty much interchangably afaics.

Chuka Bocho - The Japanese term for caidao.
 

Legion

Staff member
[Realising full well that I'm about to appear like the kind of twat who just pops up occasionally to make niche points about nomenclature...]


Knife people do often refer to this kind of thing as Chinese Cleavers, or Chinese Chef Knives, but slightly confusingly that's not what the abbreviation CCK is used for when talking about them. CCK = Chan Chi Kee, who are probably the best known producer of high-quality Chinese cleavers, certainly in the US. Models like the CCK 1302 and 1303 are pretty much a gold standard for caidao and indeed they're also stocked by CKTG.

A few other terms that get used often:

Caidao - Literally this translates as 'Vegetable Knife', but is used more generally to mean something like 'chef's knife' or 'kitchen knife'. For anything from very thin slicing cleavers to more mid weight ones, but not bone cleavers.

Piandao / Sangdao - These refer specifically to very thin types of caidao. Not sure what Piandao means, but Sangdao means 'Mulberry Leaf Knife', i.e. for slicing things as thin as a Mulberry leaf. The two terms are pretty much interchangably afaics.

Chuka Bocho - The Japanese term for caidao.
Hmm. Learn something new every day. I always knew them as Choi dau, which I guess is the Cantonese version of vegetable knife. Which reminds me to not chop bones with them, which is what killed the first one I owned.
 
Hmm. Learn something new every day. I always knew them as Choi dau, which I guess is the Cantonese version of vegetable knife. Which reminds me to not chop bones with them, which is what killed the first one I owned.


I think I remember you using 'CCK' in the same way a while back, and wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't until HBB's post above that I made the connection, but yeah - if talking to knife people then CCK is the name of a producer.

The spelling I've seen most is 'caidao', which is presumably the Mandarin name then...? (I am no expert on the various forms of Chinese!)
 

Legion

Staff member
I think I remember you using 'CCK' in the same way a while back, and wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't until HBB's post above that I made the connection, but yeah - if talking to knife people then CCK is the name of a producer.

The spelling I've seen most is 'caidao', which is presumably the Mandarin name then...? (I am no expert on the various forms of Chinese!)
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that is the Mandarin equivalent.

I might be getting the spelling wrong, but Choi is the Cantonese for vegetable. Like Bok Choy. Etc. the spelling is a bit random.
 
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