Vegetable Cleaver
Vegetable Cleaver
My take on the traditional Chinese cai dao, some version of which is used extensively through the Asian world and increasingly everywhere else. Thin and lightweight, it’s good for just about every cutting task but unlike Western style cleavers, it’s not for hacking through bones but great for scooping up from the cutting board what you’ve just cut.
This one has a cutting edge of 7” and an overall length of 12”. The steel is 52100 carbon and handled in New Guinea striped ebony and thuya burl, red G10 liners and first pin, brass pins and a pink ivory spline.
From Wikipedia. “A Chinese chef's knife — sometimes referred to as a Càidāo (Chinese: 菜刀, lit. "vegetable knife"), is a Chinese, rectangular-bladed, all-purpose chef's knife used to prepare a variety of meats, fish and vegetables. The popularity of this style of knife has spread with the associated cuisines. They resemble Western cleavers in appearance, but most Chinese chef's knives are relatively thin-bladed and designed for slicing, finely chopping and mincing vegetables, fish and boneless meats.”