Greetings,
I have been using this cleaver for a while now and I just have to say that it is great.
The fit and finish is very nice, you can tell that Pierre cares. The spine and choil are nice and smooth. Pierre had said that they were "relaxed" and not fully rounded. This is all that is needed in my opinion. Also, he said the handle was a big. While larger than most handles I have in my possession, I think that it fits the knife perfect, it is also beautiful. I like the size of the handle and I would not make it smaller.
The knife balances well and is a veggie prep machine. It slices chicken breasts fine as well and allows me to chop them up nice for adding to salads or making chicken salad. I have been making lots of salads and stir frys and this is turing into my main knife. it stays out on the board all the time. It is a fun knife to use.
I like flat knives and this edge is perfect for me. No issues with food accordions. The amount that the front and back lift up is perfect in my opinion as it is enough so that the tip or back do not get in the way. I have a kamagata usuba that I tried to use as a prep knife, it is dead flat and the ends get in the way. Hope this makes sense.
The grind that you put on it (slightly convex) has food pretty much fall off the blade and not much stickage at all. I can cut radishes paper thin and they do not stick and ride up the blade. Potatoes and other hard veggies have not been a problem and wedging has not been a factor.
I have sharpened it and it sharpens up great. I have other knifes in CPM 154 and it takes the same edge as them just as easy as they do. Edge retention seems to be very good and as far as I can tell it is the same as the other CPM 154 knifes that I have.
I like the overall size of the knife as well and the rounded front corner is cool looking in my opinion as opposed to a squared off corner.
All in all a great effort on this one, I am completely satisfied. If some one is looking for a cleaver you would be hard pressed to do much better than something like this in my opinion.
The only negative I can think of is that I now have put a couple of my other "favorite" knifes in the drawer because this one is great.