Square knives are for squares

If you like cleavers and nakiri, you must also have a three piece suit, fedora and orange bathroom tile. You get winded walking up a flight of stairs, obsess about old whiskey and have a mirror on the ceiling you think is edgy. You don’t understand the raps, and are a mere 5 years from a rocker on a porch with a shotgun. And you smell of Bengay.

Justify yourselves.

Only photographic and video proof will be accepted.

This is what real knives look like
#realkniveshavecurves

 

Lol ok

 

I can identify... Also, I wear a fedora daily.

Honoura AS Nakiri (also known as the entry down the rabbit hole)


Shibazi carbon cleaver (actually completely useless until substantially thinned)

 

It's the Circle of Knives
And it moves us all
Through daikon and squash
Through carrots and cabbage
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Knivessss...

 

Shibazi carbon cleaver (actually completely useless until substantially thinned) View attachment 64889 [/QUOTE]

"Shibazi carbon cleaver (actually completely useless ...)" raves @Kristoffer Tyvik !

 

Well, it was all of $25. ...and it gave a perfectly good excuse to buy a 220 grit stone (to all but my souse, surprisingly enough)

 

It's like you stared into my soul. Jokes aside, cleavers I can justify as having unique advantages. Nakiris maybe not but you can pry mine from my cold dead hands.

 

@cleaver lord

https://www.instagram.com/p/B351_E3n_u3/?igshid=10l1wy2l87vf5

 

This may be heresy… I really like my nakiri but, if I'm honest, it works only marginally better than my gyutos for chopping things. And, for veggies that require fine tip work, the nakiri is near useless.

I'm still working on my cleaver skills. So far, I'm sitting on the fence. It's an interesting knife to use, looks very cool, and it adds a bit of variety and challenge to my cooking routine. But, again, using a gyuto, I think I'd get the job done just as efficiently (except for scooping up chopped ingredients from the board, which I normally do with a dough scraper).

Both knives firmly belong in the "optional" category for me.

 

Here's a nice quote from Watanabe on nakiris:

"Nakkiri: People sometimes feel danger from knives with a sharp point. That is why the Nakkiri doesn't have the point. The rectangular blade which people love, has a less intimidating shape. The Nakkiri brings back fond memories of my grandma. This is an old shape. Actually, we can't find many Nakkiri knives in shopping centers even in Japan, but please try one. The wide, straight edge blade is really functional and is specialized for cutting vegetables!"

Source: http://www.kitchen-knife.jp/pro/santoku.htm

So, if you're afraid of your knives, a nakiri is the way to go!

 

I use my nakiri when my kitchen counter is full of stuff (I live in a studio, small kitchen) and I need to cut more stuff up. Often times I would stab containers with a gyuto - this is where the nakiri comes in for relief.

Honestly though, I usually just glance at my knife magnet, and grab a knife that I want to use. That means if I want to slice steaks with a nakiri, I will slice steaks with a nakiri.

 

Racist thread IMO



Just kidding. I hate nakiri but love cleavers. Prefer cleavers for most every task except slicing certain proteins. Then I'll usually use a sujihiki.

That being said, I have way too many gyuto right now.

 

Lots of nakiri love here. If you haven't used one, you may not realize the advantage of having a super-sharp front curve for draw-slicing that is never dulled by chopping with the main part of the blade. And a flat front for scraping product together on the board without dulling the sharp edge.

My Yoshikazu Ikeda 165mm nakiri in Aogami/Blue #1:



Chinese sweet and sour fish tiles with sliced garnish and egg fried rice:



The cheap ($19 each from Amazon) stainless steel Chinese cleavers I use for mincing pork and fish for Chinese dishes, two hand Whack-Whack-Whack style:

 

Well I like em so whatcha gonna do bout it

 

Nakiri is pretty darn good for serious bulk veg prep with precision, like the other day when I used my Wat to race a guy with a mandoline slicing cukes for pickles. And the Chinese cleaver is just cool, though I don’t need more than one. That said I have numerous gyuto, a bunch of pettys, several sujihiki and getting more ... and one nakiri and one cleaver.

 

All of this begs for a video. Unless you just want to link a scene from Kung Fu Hustle. That's OK too

 

So....who won? Nakiri or Mandolin? You can't talk about that and not give results!

 

All I know is Martin Yan is the coolest chef I know, so if he likes them that's cool I guess

 

Nakiri...tried a couple but have no true benefit to me so I don't own one. File it away with a Santoku.

 

Of course I won lol, without too many ugly or fat slices either. But we agreed on no doubling up, two cukes at a time would have fit on the mando and might have been a stretch for a 180

 

I figured, just had to make sure.

 

I want to see more nakiri/cleaver cutting videos from y'all !!

 

I have a wide assortment of squarish knives.

 

Well that’s very Jeffrey Dalmer of you.

 

Honey I married an axe murderer

 

Speaking of square knives

 

Details?

 

Standard Heiji carbon 180mm (it'll probably come out longer) nakiri with KU finish and octagonal keyaki handle. Originally I wanted migaki, but after I saw @Iggy's KU nakiri I couldn't help myself and emailed Heiji-san to have the order changed.

 

Be honest. Pan down and show us the chicken heads underneath. How high is that pile?

 

So this is Heiji’s picture, before finishing the knife?