
Originally Posted by
JKerr
Ooooo, this should be great, look forward to seeing what you produce.
Profile wise, I think most cleavers are pretty similar. Too much belly seems to be a real turn off for most, as for super-flat profiles (a la CCK/Moritaka), that seems to be personal preference. I like a fairly flat heel with a slight rise to the tip, the Mizuno stainless is pretty much spot on IMO.
I think handles are a major issue with cleavers and as with any knife, it's going to come to personal taste. I don't really care between full tang/scales like the Konosuke, Mizuno etc or rat tail/barrel like CCK/Sugimoto, just so long as the handle is pretty fat. On the other hand, I hate wa-handles and long/thin handles on cleavers, I just find I can't relax my hand completely as they just sit too lose without a firm grip...hope that makes sense.
Grind wise, I like a slightly chunkier knife. Food release seems to be a problem with most cleavers I've tried; not to say it's bad, but some are just worse and can be quite frustrating on certain foods. For example, the sugimoto #7 and fujiwara teruyasu are both pretty good in this area those that obviously comes with the fact that they are thicker behind the edge. The Yoshikane from Maxim and the Mizuno stainless are great all rounders where as the Konosuke #6 really suffers in this area, albeit it is stupidly thin.
I've got about 6 or 7 fairly high end cleavers that I can give you traces/measurements of if you like.
Sorry it's probably all a bit vague, but hopefully it'll help a little. With any luck Jaybett or Andy will chime in.
Cheers,
Josh