I have been cooking for decades. I have owned several cleavers over the years as I lived in Vancouver where we had a large ‘China Town’ area. Chinese cleavers were available everywhere. Both in carbon and stainless steel. Prices were very good. I never got along with any of them. When watching School of Wok with Jeremy during lockdown cooking Asian style food, I noticed that he used his cleaver for virtual every kitchen task from crushing garlic to slicing chicken into very thin pieces for stir frying. I knew I needed one of these. The first time I ever picked it up, I liked the size, feel, weight and most of all the noise it made when you used it. The steel is good. It rings like a bell. It stays sharp much longer than my German knives. The grind is quite versatile so you can chop with it as well as slice an onion thin enough to impress your friends. Is truly a great kitchen tool!
The grind on mine was ‘Asymmetrical’. I don’t know if it was done on purpose or by accident. Western knives are ground symmetrically (or close enough) so they slice evenly in either hand. My cleaver was ‘right handed’. One side of the blade was ground at a different angle than the other. When held in the right hand, it would slice and pull food closer to the blade. If you were slicing a carrot, you could feel the cleaver pull the carrot closer as you cut it. This almost ‘fed’ the food into the blade. Perfect for production slicing by a right handed person. Unfortunately, I am left handed, so when slicing the carrot, the cleaver pushed the food away. To counter this, I held the cleaver at an angle to keep the forces even. Fine if you were going really slowly, but annoying if you were in a hurry.
The first few times I sharpened it, I used a 1,000 grit Japanese Water stone. The results were satisfactory and I happily cut, cut and cut. The stone was not that aggressive, and the steel is tough, so I never fully sorted out the asymmetrical grind. The cleaver is still handed, but much less so than it was.
My goal is to sharpen both sides of the blade to 17 degrees on the Tormek machine so establish a ‘neutral’ grind. 17 degree blade angle is probably a good all round starting point as I don’t chop a lot of bone with this blade. I use it mostly for precise work. I make a point of using the cleaver whenever I cook Asian food as it helps me focus on the final appearance of the finished dish. Think ‘Matchstick’ red bell peppers and carrots.
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