Forged from a single piece of WÜSTHOF steel, offering precision and a lot of power in the hand, the Chinese cook’s knife will allow you to chop cabbage or cut wafer-thin slices from a tomato in seconds, while the wide blade is also ideal for scooping up prepped ingredients and transferring them to the pot. The fine cutting edge ensures exceptional sharpness, but should not be used on bones or very hard fruits (such as coconuts).
I hated this knife when I first acquired it. It felt heavy and unbalanced. Other Chinese style cleavers I have handled were much lighter in hand. Due to Wusthof's forging process, this knife is heavier and more substantial than traditional Chinese cleavers. Plus, the wide blade makes for a lot of metal, so be aware that this is not a lightweight knife.
This knife just didn't feel right to me, so I put it away for a year or more. I decided to give it another shot and used it instead of a Western chef's knife for a few weeks. Once I got used to the heft and feel I started to like this knife more and more.
Despite it's size, this knife excels at slicing vegetables. It is not a chopper--using it like a regular cleaver will damage the fine edge. Due to the relatively flat blade geometry this knife does not do rocking motions well. If I have a small amount of fine mincing to do I'll rock this knife and it works, but I don't like it and I don't think the knife likes it too much either.
This may be the best knife in my house for thinly slicing onions. Counterintuitively, the large blade really helps here. Using a claw grip to hold the vegetables, this knife will glide against your knuckles, allowing you precise control over the thickness of your cuts. I feel that it beats a chef's knife in this regard since your knuckles never reach the top of the blade.
It also excels at chopping romaine lettuce cut across the head in strips. The large blade keeps the ribbons of cut lettuce where they belong rather than flopping back to the uncut side. And as a bonus, when slicing items like cucumbers, all of the cut cukes will often stick to the blade so that when you finish you just wipe them from the blade into the appropriate bowl in one swoop, saving you from lifting them off the cutting board (and cukes do like to stick to the cutting board).
At this point I use this knife almost every night to prep our veggies. I still love my Western chef's knives, but this cleaver is in heavy rotation and is usually what I reach for when slicing vegetables.
If you are used to the lighter, more traditional Chinese style cleavers that you see in Asian grocery stores this knife might feel strange to you. But if you take the time to bond with it, this knife might just become one of your favorites.. Just Call Me B. Pittsburgh. Thu Apr 08 2021
