Excellent slicing knife for vegetables and boneless meat
A lot of people tend to think that all cleaver-shaped knives are heavy meat cleavers that can chop through bone, but that is not actually the case. There are many varieties (see below).This one, Cleaver8, color silver CN8, with 2# engraved at the top of the blade, is called a light slicing knife or a mulberry knife (that is the literal meaning of the characters after the 2#). Some say it got this name because it is capable of cutting slices as thin as mulberry leaves; others say it is because it was used to cut mulberry leaves into fine threads to feed to silk worms. Whatever the historical meaning, this knife style is quite thin and light compared to other cleavers and is designed to slice vegetables and boneless meat, fish, and cheese. The edge is too fine to chop thick bones, pits, hard stems, rinds, or solidly frozen foods – anything you wouldn’t be able to chew with your teeth. It excels at precision cutting, slicing, and mincing. It has the traditional wooden handle used for centuries by Chinese chefs, in this case made of a light rosewood. The blade is a single thickness of 40CR13 stainless steel. It comes in a nice box in a plastic sleeve with corner protectors on the blade and a general information sheet written in English. The product number on the box is KN200FS2.My initial impression of the knife is that it lives up to its name. As you can see in the photos, it is quite thin (about 2mm at the spine) and comes to a very fine edge. It was sharp enough to cut paper right out of the box. I wanted a slicing knife with a flat belly so that it wouldn’t leave any “accordion cuts”, where the slices end up joined together at the bottom. Mission accomplished. It glides through carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, eggplant and apples, making fine or thick slices without any splitting. Shred a head of cabbage into a fine slaw? No problem. Cube a sweet potato? Easy peasy. The more I use it, the more I'm starting to love it. I haven’t tried it on tomatoes yet, but I expect it to work fine with a gliding cut. If it doesn't, I'll update the review. There is a band on the blade where the metal is brushed at right angles to the rest, which may reduce (but not eliminate) sliced veggies sticking to the blade.I like shiny knives and natural wood, so I find it quite attractive. It also feels good in the hand. The spine and choil (the back of the blade next to the handle) are rounded and polished for comfort. The wood handle is smooth and appears to have a thin finish on it, which I plan to renew with oil from time to time. The handle has a stainless steel cap on the end.I haven’t had the knife long enough to tell how well it will hold its edge. 40CR13 stainless steel is not the hardest, but it is easy to hone and sharpen. The company claims their tempering process improves the hardness considerably. I have a good knife sharpener in my drawer (Spyderco Sharpmaker), so I don't mind if I have to use it occasionally. I also plan to touch up the edge every few days with some strokes on a ceramic honing rod. As a Chinese chef pointed out, the best knife is not necessarily the hardest one, but can be the one that is easiest to sharpen. Toughness (resistance to chipping) and hardness are tradeoffs in knife steel. A harder knife can be more brittle, and it takes much more effort to remove chips than to sharpen a less hard but tougher knife.UPDATE: I've found this knife holds its edge quite well.It’s a big knife, of course, so if you haven’t used a cleaver-style knife before, take your time to learn how to handle it correctly and safely. Look for videos from expert chefs on the knife skills for using this kind of slicer. Push cuts and pull cuts work best with this knife, and the weight of the blade helps it to almost fall through food. Use a pinch grip on the blade to hold it for cutting. Avoid hammering the blade onto the cutting board, because that will dull the edge. The blade dimensions are 7.9 x 3.5 inches (20.1 x 9 cm). It weighs 10.8oz (306g), which by way of comparison is an ounce heavier than my Henkels 10-inch chef’s knife. For the $25 I paid for it, I consider it a great buy.If you want to chop meat with bones or cut solidly frozen foods, parmesan rinds, or a large, heavy squash, Wangmazi has other cleavers that are more suitable. Cleaver5 is a larger, thicker, and heavier meat and bone cleaver, as is Axe1. As far as I can tell, Cleaver1 and Cleaver2 are medium-weight knives meant for slicing and chopping (perhaps chicken and fish bones but not heavier bones?). Cleaver3 and the one called "8Inch Cleaver Knife" are combination chopping and slicing knives thickened at the heel of the blade closest to the handle for chopping and thinner at the other end for slicing -- in the listing photos you can see the line at bottom of the blade that divides these two zones. All are made of 40Cr13 stainless steel except for Cleaver2, Cleaver3, and Cleaver5, which are made of three-ply stainless steel with a harder, sharper center layer of 90Cr18MoV enclosed in outer layers of 30Cr13 for toughness. Of course, these are not the actual names of the knives but the Amazon designations, which could change over time, so take this with a grain of salt.In terms of caring for all of these knives, while the blades are stainless steel, the handles of most are rosewood. You wouldn’t want to put them in the dishwasher any more than you would put a rosewood guitar in there. Even with a waterproof handle, putting a sharp knife in the dishwasher is not recommended, since the food particles thrown at the blade will dull it, banging against other hard objects can damage the blade, and washing with aluminum objects can cause stainless steel to rust or pit. All sharp knives should be hand washed and dried. Occasionally rubbing the handle with oil will help to preserve the wood.No matter how sharp knives start out, they all dull eventually, but they stay sharp longer if you treat them well. One way to do that is to use an appropriate cutting board. Wood or plastic cutting boards are good (end-grain wood is best). Glass or bamboo cutting boards are too hard and will dull the blade. Lay the blade almost flat to scoop up sliced vegetables (a great feature of cleaver-style knives) – never scrape the edge sideways across the cutting board, which damages the edge. You can also use the spine or the unsharpened end of the knife to move the food on the cutting board. Don’t toss the knife into a drawer – protect the blade (and your fingers) by storing it in a knife block or on a magnetic knife holder. Use a ceramic honing rod and/or a leather strop from time to time to keep the blade sharp longer.For the right job and with reasonable care, this knife is a joy to use and should last for a very long time.