He may actually be trolling with this latest batch. "If I make odd sizes with ugly KU that has areas that look like rust, and slap on the most gaudy handle material I can find, will people still buy them, just because they are Wat cleavers?"
1303 is as thin a knife can get, any thinner you are getting into flimsy territory. Wat is thicker than 1303. If you want really thin stuff consider a custom, Keskin did a ridiculously thin nakiri, Pig Iron Forge stuff is also quite thin.
Yea I don’t get it. I’ve seen some examples of other batches that pop up on google images, and there wasn’t one that I didn’t like. It’s unfortunate that I only got into knives recently. I would have already purchased one if he had one that I liked. I’d kill to get the pink handled one. I messaged him directly and he won’t restock until this current batch sells out, which seems like never since they aren’t well liked.
I've also never seen western handle scales installed so unevenly. And this is even considering all the TFs I've had.
That looks pretty nice for that price. Is their quality control decent? I haven’t seen more than a handful of posts about them. For roughly $130 bucks shipped I might have to give it a shot anyway. Not as tall as I might like, but still quite tall at 78mm.
What do they measure at?There you go.
How do you like it?There you go.
Thanks for the info. I actually just gave in and put a deposit down for a Pig Iron Forge custom cleaver. Now for the long 4-5 month wait. I might still order a Keskin in the meantime to test the waters.
What do they measure at?
Ooh what wood did you choose? I like it
It’s Jacaranda Da Bahia.
This.
Been eyeing those for a while. I believe the virgin carbon is supposed to be a very hard blue 2. Unfortunately, it’s way too heavy, basically #7 territory even though it looks pretty thin BTE. I would have to send it to a custom maker or knife store/service that could shave off at least 100 grams which I’m assuming would be pricy on top of the already $600+ price tag.
I would guess because Chinese cleavers are usually seen as relatively cheap, utilitarian, working knives. Most Chinese and Japanese makers would assume the cleavers they make are probably going to get the crap beaten out of them, likely in a working kitchen, so why make them fancy and more expensive? You can put nice handles with rare woods and shiny spacers on single bevel knives that get used in front of customers at a sushi restaurant, but most Chinese cleavers don’t make it out to the front of the house.
I’m hoping to get on Hyde’s list next year and get a fancied up CCK. Big fat handle and all.
I've tried a number of the various Sakai brand chukas with western handles and I really have not found one that even sorta feels good to me. They all are too tall and narrow. It's the main reason why I don't already own a denka cleaver. So with Japanese-made Chinese cleavers, I tend to go with wa handles so at least I can modify it or replace with my own.
I’ve only seen a small size of the Nakagawa cleaver. Besides custom makers, the only Japanese maker I know off the top of my head making cleavers with really “showy” handles is Takeshi Saji out of Echizen (and maybe Yu Kurosaki). One of his Damascus cleavers with ironwood handle will run you about a grand though. Here’s a video of a guy using one at a more upscale joint.Those do look good. Do they come in 200-210?
I can see your logic in the BoH/FoH. It's just that there are so so many good-looking regular knives it's kind of baffling that no one (not many) has/have taken it upon themselves to make a "showy" cleaver. I just said to hell with it and hopped on a custom list. Can't wait to see how it turns out in a few months.
