Other cleavers to buy in Hong Kong?

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gic

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I have a stopover in Hong Kong coming up on my next trip and already did the CCK visit on my last trip. Since I crave new things, are there any other shops/brands that are worth visiting/picking up while I am in Hong Kong? For example, are there any Chinese brands that are interesting that might be available in Hong Kong?

TIA
 
Other than passing through the airport several times in the last couple of years, I haven't been cleaver shopping in Hong Kong. But I have spent a fair amount of time in main land China. For me, the real pleasure is searching through the wet markets and shops for "the knife guy" (there is always one in a wet market) and discovering brands previously unknown to me for myself. I know Hong Kong has some very large markets and they are on my to do list for the future.
 
gic said:
I have a stopover in Hong Kong coming up on my next trip and already did the CCK visit on my last trip. Since I crave new things, are there any other shops/brands that are worth visiting/picking up while I am in Hong Kong? For example, are there any Chinese brands that are interesting that might be available in Hong Kong?

TIA
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, having lived there and knowing the place a bit, I think I did a decent bit of poking around last time I was there (year ago) but didn't really find anything special.

Not what you asked for, but I remember there was a J-knife place near Causeway Bay (left side of road, approaching along the tramline from Central, a few stops from Causeway MTR on the left side if you're in the tram; googled and read about it previously).
 
So, in HK, CCK is pretty much the only one that's famous, but you might be able for find other famous makers knives from different places.

For example, Maestro Wu( http://maestrowu.8898.tw/ ) from Taiwan, which is a famous maker of Kinmen Cleavers(金門菜刀). They are supposed to made with steel from the outer shells of bombs/missles after the 823 Artillery Bombardment, when there were a lot of unexploded artillery lying around. No idea what they are made with now though. From China, I think Shibazi(十八子) http://www.shibazi.com/, and Wangmazi(王麻子) http://www.bjwangmazi.com/ are famous. Mind you, they are all mass manufactured.

I think they can find these in HK if you just look around a bit.
 
CCK is the only one I know of left. One of the oldest knife makers (open since the Qing dynasty) closed down a little while ago.

Having said that, you may want to visit Chan Wah Kee at Temple St. They don't make their own knives but the owner is a very famous sharpener. There's generally a 3-6 month wait for his sharpening as people send knives from all over the world to him but if you buy a knife from him he'll thin and sharpen the knife for you right there to what he considers is best for your knife. He usually goes through 9 different stones per sharpening and the knives come out incredibly sharp.
 
Looks like it. :)

[video]https://youtu.be/INnfMK2SwBU?t=93[/video]
 
There is a place that I went to in Hong Kong island that had Chinese cleavers made of "German steel". The price was around $50 usd . I didn't buy one as I only had a one knife quota for the trip. Might be worth a trip on the ding ding.

SCW cutlery
369 Hennessy Rd, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
http://goo.gl/maps/EIGJC

Ninja edit : it's on the list in the post right above mine.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Lol, I think that SCK place is where I bought my first knife ever years ago. I lived around the corner, and bought a survival knife for camping.

Anyway, clicking on YT more I found this playlist of Chan Wah Kee:
[video=youtube;3UEmX9ocKes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UEmX9ocKes&list=PLV8q6QezVVmHWZ3gSzvjX9mBmvQii-s4V[/video]

Looks like he uses a mix of water and oil stones, wonder what kinds he's using.

Edit:
Looks like video tag only grabbed the first one. Whole playlist here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UEmX9ocKes&list=PLV8q6QezVVmHWZ3gSzvjX9mBmvQii-s4V
 
Everything pretty much looks custom/natural.

If you watch the video I've never seen anything like the 7th stone (greenish). it is about as tall as a floor tile but with the width of a sharpening stone. He's definitely got some interesting things there.
 
Would be interesting if anyone has the patience and interest and can understand Cantonese, and could summarise any of the interesting points in these. ;)
 
I do. :doublethumbsup:

He doesn't really talk exactly about what stones he's using except for the fact that the first one is very coarse and will mess up the knife if it is used too long. He's using it to "open the edge up". The last 2 are natural stones from some mountain. The progression is coarse to fine. I'm guessing the number of stones creates something that is similar to Watanabe's togidashi finish.

He also lays the knife very flat and I remember in another video he mentions the cutting edge (bevel?) must be at least a certain width (maybe a convex grind that he's doing or potentially even thins out the blade). He does mention that the angles must be increased for "Min Mo" knives (chinese cleaver between a chopper and a slicer).

For him the most difficult things to sharpen are scissors because they don't cut straight if you don't sharpen them properly.

That's sort of the points I got from the video. I sharpen my own knives but I am no expert so some of the guesses above may or may not be correct.
 
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