Is this blade any Good? The Shi Ba Zi 8" Chef's Knife 

Forgot to mention that in a home invasion, arming yourself with this cleaver will debuff your opponent's leadership by 2 and increase their combat attrition rolls by 1.

A piece of advices, when using Chinese cleaver, always use your left hand knuckles to safeguard your finger tips while cutting with right hand holding the cleaver. In other words, always use claw hand gesture to hold whatever you are cutting. Because Chinese cleaver has the extended height compare to the western knife, the side of the cleaver will make contacts with your knuckles while you are cutting, therefore it greatly reduces the chance that you accidentally cut your finger tips as long as you make sure you cut straight down towards the chopping board without tilting the angle of the blade. And be aware of your pinky, I know some people's pinky finger is not fully retract when they use claw gesture.

Chinese cleavers: they don't look great but you can use em in rain, sleet n snow. They're like jeeps.

The Shi ba zi brand used to produce war swords/broad sword for warfare in China near a century ago. The whole township families were black smith. A few decades ago they started making chef knife they made fine chopping cleaver and rough/heavy ones with that traditional wood handle.

Just to correct some misconceptions here. Some people suggest that since the Chinese style chef knife is call "cai dao" (菜刀), lit. vegetable, knife, it means that it's design purpose is to chop vegetable. We sometimes call cooking "zuo cai" (做菜), lit. make, vegetable, but that doesn't mean vegetable is the only thing being cooked. The "cai" here means dishes. It just means this knife is used for cooking. As for the knife, it is a general purpose chef knife. It has been said that the reason it is shaped this way is because of the popularization of stir fires and high heat fast cooking beginning in the Song Dynasty circa 10th century CE, and for that you need to dice and cut the ingredients, meat included, into stripes or thinner slices. The weight and shape of the blade help to expedite that work. The knife can be used for deboning or carving very efficiently, but that would require substantial training. It can cut through softer bones and it will be used to chop up ribs, for example. Professional Chinese chefs all use this knife for all types of preparation unless they face something that requires a special tool. Knife skill is considered the basic of the basic among professional Chinese chefs. This style of knife is intimating and can be difficult to wield for some home users, especially the younger generations, so certain people who have exposure to western style knives would use those at home instead. People who have experience with the Chinese chef knife tend to love it.

As 4/5 Chinese canto guy I can confirm that the clever has durability of a diamond. My parents still have a cleaver made in the 1800s from my grand parents and it looks fine and works fine

Love my Chinese style cleaver. I even nicknamed it, Choppy Chop because of how well it works on all sorts of fruits and veggies. Plus when it comes to sharpening, I prefer it to a traditional chef’s knife because I don’t have to worry about maintaining a point on the blade. It’s a great example of simplicity being king. Loved this video, and I can’t wait to watch more of your work!

As a knifemaker, I need to point out that that cleaver is NOT a full tang knife, it is a through tang knife. A full tang is sandwitched between two scales of other material, filling ut the entire contour of the handle and provides a much better weight distribution, as you point out with your western style knife (which looks to be an actual full tang knife).

Imagine a armed thief break into your house, if you have this knife in kitchen, it can be used as shield too. A perfect balance of offensive and defensive. I have two of them in my kitchen.

@6:51 "Sucks for cutting meat." You can actually see this in a lot of poultry dishes in China, where instead of doing fine knife work, the pieces are cut straight through the bone. Drunken chicken, or BBQ duck is usually served this way.

Lived in Hong Kong 19 years, but only started using the Chinese cleaver in the final four years - absolute revelation. It is true that you can't put the tip down and rock it back and forth like a western chef's knife, which takes the weight off the wrist for sustained use - but for home cooking where you don't need to dice 100 onions at a time, the Chinese cleaver wins.

I like how this guy is liking and replying every comment. Love ur good work.

My cleaver is now the only knife I use for cooking, it's so darn versatile, you can get some in so many different styles, for cheap, I have a small(ish) 6" cleaver, even though it's only 6", most people's jaw drop when I pull this out for cooking, an I'm waiting on my 8" that should get here today. The only things you need for cooking is a huge cutting board, a cleaver, a carbon steel wok, and pair of wok spatula and ladle, and you are golden. You can make ANYTHING in this... Soups... Steaks... Pasta... sauces... You can use it to fry anything too from chicken to making french fries... And if you get a metal handle wok, you can even stick it in the oven. I don't see anything you can't do with a wok, you aren't limited to chinese dishes!

awsome man just found your channel love your content and the voice overs are epic keep it up

I have just purchased one and can't wait for it to arrive!! It's the fact the when laying it flat on the copping board it rests "Like a Muffin on a Hill" that got me to buy it!! Also an old trick to stopping water from exiting your eyes whilst cutting onions is to put them in the freezer about 20 mins before cutting. This solidifies the liquid that would normally offgass when being cut hence no crying!!

It does my heart good to see some more Chinese cleaver content being made and people filling the comments section with there Chinese cleaver experiences and knife opinions and insights

I've had a Martin Yan Chinese chef's knife for 40 years and I love it .

I found a Chinese cleaver at the flea market; rusty and dirty but it cleaned up and sharpened nicely. I use it almost exclusively for vegetables and especially like it when slicing cabbage for coleslaw or stir fry. It also performs well cutting semi-frozen meats for stir fry or fajitas. When I make biscotti I use it to make clean cuts with little or no crumbling. My cleaver is made of carbon steel and requires a light coat of oil after each use to keep it from rusting. Great addition to my kitchen tools. Darlington, South Carolina

OMG thank you SO SO SO MUCH i just realised that my blade wasen't flat so i got left with a extra piece! Thanks for sharing !

Thanks for the review, i just got mine and i love it, still getting use to it

Hey, you're the one that got me to start using a cleaver to chop with, and I love it.(I am not a cook, covid/keto made me give it a try) Now I want one of those. Thanks for the comparison. Keep up the great info.

Loving the editing on this video, nice work!

I brought this cleaver 8 months ago after watching your video and it's been my go to daily knife for the very same review you provided here. The blade has also kept its edge for a long time.

I got a quality santoku knife about 10 years ago and I'm still using it daily, best knife I ever had.

The Shi Ba Zi is my personal favorite prep knife in a professional kitchen where I do ALOT of knife work. Actually a great deli meat knife as well as veggies of course. Easily the most versatile and durable of all my knives and the one I default to 80% of the time.

Had my Chinese clever passed down from my parents Its just a simple stainless steel clever doesn't have any fancy wood handle Just a simple practical clever Used it on a lot on different foods, it doesn't matter meat fish chicken bone or vege A simple prep on the 5 dollar whetstone( also passed down) and its good to go One thing to elevate the pleasure lr experience of using a Chinese clever is a higher chopping board made from thick wood trunk, like those used by chefs in Chinese restaurants The cutting position would be better and some dampening from the chopping board itself The grain , hardness and type of wood would effect the cutting experience and how the clever stops when hitting the cutting board Typically western style comes with flat grain this will make the wood stronger when used and slight tendency to bounce the knives, and will give positive feedback when then knives hit the board, but this could cause some stronger vibration on the knives itself Compared to those used in Chinese restaurants, they're typically made by wood log or trunk milled in vertical grain and around 3"or even more depends i personally own a 2" thick Put a cloth under the board if u use a thinner one The weight and thickness kept the board sturdy and the grain itself would dampen the impact of the clever and if u use it daily and it would absorb moisture, the top layer will become mushy overtime, just scrape it off, and the moisture and the steel band around the board actually keep the grain intact and less prone to crack and split, as wood would shrink when dries up and start cracking Hope u could give it a try, different wood different experience Cheers from Malaysia

First video I've seen of this channel, it's already my favourite cooking show.

The cleaver is now my favorite kitchen tool and peels garlic like mad. You don't understand until you've tried it. Thank you for the recommendation!

When it comes to deboning, you should see the techniques used with a Chinese knife. That may shed some light on how they can use this wide style knife to do that.

You bought the right one. Shibazi Zuo makes a great knife. I own 4 cai dao, and my 2 favorite are the 8" from this video and the stainless handled combo chopper/slicer Chef Wang Gang uses in a lot of videos.

Hi, I am from the region where this blade is branded of, great to see this on RU-vid make me so nostalgic!

Not only did I learn a lot of things but I was thoroughly entertained. ✌

I personally have used both types for a year plus in a professional kitchen and I and a vertical cutter so i typically go for my 3rams brand Chinese cleaver. That being said because the center weight of the cleaver you should be using a loose grip like a machete where you use the forward weight to allow you to just let the force do the work if you hold it more firm the weight will wear your wrist and tire you out faster.

in Chinese, this knife is called 菜刀 which is veggie knife, that's why is so good to cut veggies

I really enjoy your sense of humor and cooking prowess.

I have 2 of those, they are great and not heavy! Loves them both!!!

I got one of these knifes soon after Nixon got back from China. Got it in a finger jointed wood box with a cutting board top along with a wok and a few other cooking things that I had never seen before. Still using them all and it still is sharp as a razor with just a few strokes on a steel but never sharpened. It's never chipped or failed in any way. The set cost me $8. It's cut through lots of chicken bones.

Hey there! My first video of yours, I enjoyed it thoroughly! I wanted to mention that I too had bought a chinese cleaver recently. I really enjoy it as well, has really become my go to knife. I wanted to make an observation that as an amateur home, and not professional chef, I really wouldn't consider the weight a huge issue as I don't think I'd need to cook for more than a few hours tops, and very easy to switch between smaller or lighter knives for other jobs too. I just love its massive cutting surface, and shovel feature it provides as well. Sometimes I won't even use bowls, just cut up into piles on the cutting board and shovel them in when v ready. Plus, I think it's the sharpest knife I have, so it's a beast. The knife I've been using is the Kyoku Daimyo Series 7" Cleaver. It's around 110 USD, but I've thought worth every penny since I bought it March of last year. Anyways, take care, God bless, keep cooking! I'll be sure to watch more and subscribe.

I love this show and the narration is stunning!

I made the similar rounded edge on the pinch grip area on my Nakiri( before watching your video), made a world of difference even if it's barely visible. Feels great that you thought and did the same. Cheers. I love your video and the reference in 3rd person.

I chuckled when you said "My first Chinese Cleaver but definitely not my last". There are 2 ways to understand this: 1. "I enjoy Chinese Cleaver and I will definitely buy more Chinese Cleavers from now on" 2. "This Chinese Cleaver sucks so I will definitely buy a different one." They mean completely opposite things, lol

Thanks for the video! Shi Ba Zi (十八子）is definitely one of my childhood nightmares lol It’s made in a city called Yangjiang, which is not far from Guangzhou City. I was about 9 years old on a road trip to Yangjiang with my parents. On our way back, we decided to check out a souvenir shop. In the shop, you can find many local snacks and all kinds of knives, swords all made by Shi Ba Zi. So I was walking around in the shop, a lady suddenly screamed : “OMG, what’s going on? Blood everywhere!” I looked at the floor, it’s like a murder scene. After a short moment, I realized blood was dripping from my hand. No sure which blade cut me, but damn it’s shape. I didn’t even feel any pain after the cut. So I kept walking in the shop and created a huge mess. The staffs were very helpful and brought Band-Aid within a second. (I am sure they probably encounter this kind of shit pretty often). Then my parents had to cut the shopping short. They bought some local snacks and a similar knife. It’s almost 20 years after, they are still using the knife…Also a little fun fact why it’s called Shi Ba Zi (十八子）, because the owner’s name is Li (李）. If you try to write the character 李, you will first write 十 (Shi) then 八 (Ba) then子(Zi). It’s shared by one sales girl in that shop, after 20 years I can still remember the scene so vividly. 😂😂😂

Just stumbled in on this clip and I'm here to stay! Fantastic, love your style!

This is such a good video. Well done. Very creative approach to a review video

First time I've seen your videos. Really liked it. I also really want a Chinese cleaver now. The narration was a classy touch, love it.

I use this type of knife for most of the applications except for removing the bones from meat.

I found you because of this video, I stayed for your style, thank you for the wonderful and extremely entertaining content.

That's why I love a Nakiri Style Knife! All the pros of a Cleaver, while being very handy.

For other use of the Chinese style cleaver, I recommend the movie "Big Trouble in Little China", with a demonstration from the king of stuntsmen Al Leong himself!

You'll get used to the weight distribution and cutting meat. I used to work at a chicken shop and the cleaver is way nicer to use. Better leverage and you can apply more force. Also heaps better to cut through bone. Those knives have been going for almost 10 years and they're still going strong with regular sharpening. I've also found that you can do some quite precise cuts with the front of the blade. Similar to a western style blade. Because after all, all that matters is that the meat is cut. And since you can use that much force, you can get the cleaver pretty much anywhere a western knife can.

I became a home cook after buying my cleaver, and struggling with the western knife. It was also cheap, but it's amazing.

I have a 30$ „chinese kitchen knife“ which I think is the correct name for these, since the fall of 2020 and I never let go of it again. I use it for basically everything, as u say not deboning and stuff like that. But I put my index finger on the top, thumb on left and middle finger on the right side of the blade, when cutting. Meaning holding the blade, the handle begins at the end of my index finger/beginning of palm, palm controls the handle, fingers the blade. This allows for amazing control and u dont get tired.

I've been cooking with a cleaver now for a few years. Can't go back to knife now, it feels good in my hand.

And the verdict pays homage to cutting meat at last, since chefs knife was specifically designed for cutting large chunks of meat down. Cai dao is better all rounder because it was designed to be exactly that, an all rounder.

4:54 lols I watching the suspect placement of the ring finger. But this guy is an artisan when explaining the nuances of basic blade dynamics in this video. Looking forward to see your other videos.

Nice job on choosing a Chinese vegetable cleaver, the SBZ F208-1 and S210-1 are crazy sharp out of the box with pretty impressive edge retention. They are great for cutting paper thin salami slices as well.

That knife looks awesome

Really cool video, these Chinese cleavers definitely deserve a place in any kitchen. Something quick to note: The "proper" way to cut with them isn't a vertical chopping cut like you mentioned, but a forward push cut. Thanks for helping bring popularity to a fantastic, simple, and effective tool!

Really high standard explanation i understood many thing, thank you, sir

This review made me chuckle most the video :)) thank you

There is a technique to smash garlic with a chinese cleaver which involves literally smashing it like a hammer. You cannot do this with any other type of knife as far as I know. Hold the blade completely perpendicular to the board and smash down and press in one motion. The weight of the knife completely crushes the garlic and you can then use tip to grind the garlic into a finer paste with one hand on the handle and the other pressing at the top along the cutting board. You can find chinese chefs using this technique on youtube sometimes. The same technique is often used to smash ginger and chinese onions quickly and they are used extremely often in almost all dishes.

Clearly the cleaver is the one I want when the fight scene takes the obvious course and bursts into the kitchen.

I have no clue what this style of video was, but I loved it.

Pretty good video. Thanks for the review and it's funny.

I found a knife like this, believe it was a dexter Russell Chinese Chef's knife, by far the best knife ever, it's the multi tool for anybody in my position, as a farmer. Helps process large portions of raw veggies, meat, and is amazing when utilizing the leverage to chop lots of high stacked produce, fast. I prefer thin blades personally over the thick, as they glide through produce faster and create less drag, or shift the vegetables less, so reorganizing the stack for consistency is not an issue. I threw that knife away as it got rusty and was starting to become serrated from all the bones it had hit, defiantly going to look into another.

Actually the Chinese cleaver is meant to be hold a little deeper than the handle (like the way you showed). I didn’t know about this until recently when my mother, who is Chinese, said I sucked at cutting just because I had my hand on the handle and not a bit more over it. Apparently it’s designed to be handled this way. Maybe that is why the angle under the handle is sharp, since you’re not supposed to touch it 🤔

Bought one and changed the shape into what works best for me, almost a santoku shape just higher, works great now

This video is great thanks :)

You now have a new subscriber. All hail the cleaver.

Fun fact: 十八子 (shi ba zi) is actually the deconstruction of the name 李 （li). Any one found their similarity?

I started using a cleaver 6 years ago when I was gifted one. I found it easier to use overall in the kitchen. I sharpen it especially whenever I use it for cutting whole chicken.

I have this same style of knife from another brand. It's my go to chopping knife and I love it!

You can find it in lots of Chinese family, as it used to be the classic wedding gift (before the standards went up). My parents got theirs as a moving away gift (yeah you eventually got one in your life one way or another).

The heel and the "tip" of the cleaver is also 90 degree-ish so you get a semi point if you need it. I use a cleaver sometimes but I find the balance to be a big disadvantage. The cleaver weight is a big advantage, even in slicing type cleavers, and so is the height where you hold the handle in some applications. I'm Chinese so i grew up using a cleaver but I use a santoku as a daily driver

I still keep my Shi Ba Zi zuo knife set on my counter top, it was bought 25 years ago in Shanghai. I love them.... Only addition to that set is a 8" zwilling chef's knife.

I'm instantly in love with you and your style, subscribed instantly.

I’ve really got to get one of these things ... someday when I have more drawer space ...

My small handed weak ass was having so much trouble with this thing so seeing it be dwarfed in your paws took me aback *.*

I just received one of these knives in the $35 range and instantly fell in love with it. Prepping all the ingredients for bulgogi with it felt like I was using a cheat (from chopping vegs to thinly slicing steak, wow). It's definitely intimidating at first, but it's a daily use blade for me now.

Awesome, never thought about a small cleaved but looks handy as hell....gonna make one now.

This is improved version with stainless steel, I have one of those old one passes from family member, hand made with high carbon steel wedge embedded in iron body( 夹钢工艺）, beside rust issue and watch your finger, this old one works the best

wow!....This Brand ”Shi ba zi”from my hometown，whether the quality was good or not，its very very famous....at least in china, we usually pay around usd10 for ur video cover‘s knife

Just started cooking and was looking for a good knife to cut vegetables. GREAT VIDEO VERY ENTERTAINING

Personnally I'm only using old school antique Nogent-made kitchen knife, from France. Here you can find these pretty easily, they are absolutely awesome and not expensive if you got to some flea markets. But in other countries, that's not so easy...

I believe with the traditional western knife you're supposed to use it to slice/cut while keeping the tip of the blade on the surface, instead of using it in a chopping way. As said below, with the right technique it is nearly impossible to cut the fingertips.

My finger has been saved by my nail a few times, myself. Thank God!

I just minced half of a pork loin into sausage with that very cleaver. Then, I turned a half of a cabbage into shreds, along with several peppers , a carrot and a couple onions. I didn’t have to clean a food processor or meat grinder. It saved time and effort while producing superior results. They’re pretty great .

First video from you I watched Gotta say that I really enjoyed it very much the humor the way the video was set up all really fun to watch

As a dyed-in-the-wool beard despiser, I must say, you have a fantastic looking beard and mustache.

Mandarin and Cantonese are both dialects of Chinese, the language is still called "Chinese". Mandarin uses the simplified writing system whereas Cantonese uses the traditional ☺️

I've been using these $15 rectangular knife since I was 8-9 years old. They the best for chopping anything. Even better than my $200 damascus steel kitchen knife

What a delightful video! Well filmed, well edited, entertaining and informative. Bravo. I shall now subscribe!

There are different type of Chinese knife，the one in the video is called 桑刀(sang dao)，this type is for slice and chop. 斩骨刀（zhan gu dao） are for break bones in the contrary

Seems like you would love nakiris. They're essentially a lighter, narrower version of this that's much better suited for precision cutting and prolonged use in my opinion

I got one for $12 a few years ago and it is absolutely one of my favorite knives, even when compared to some of my more fancy $200+ knives

Im gonna subscribe, but i really hope you do more knife/cookware comparisons like this!

As someone who works in an Asian style kitchen, Chinese knifes are better for general prep work for veg and slicing fried things Western knifes are better for prep work for meat and to do patterns Both knives are used often but the Chinese style knife is favored more by most of the cooks If you use a western style knife, it would take awhile to adjust to a Chinese style one, this is because western style uses the center/front center to cut things, while the Chinese style has the front for slicing, center for chopping and back for meat/bone cutting(bone as in soft bones like chicken joints) Both does have their advantages Highly recommend everyone to try both

chinese cookware have evolved over 5 thoussand years, japanese had learnt from it but included the western chef knife form. that depend on the person who is using the knife, they are all good knifes.

I don’t know how I stumbled on this video BUT as a full time chef that uses this particular knife *all* the time (despite having an arsenal of just about every knife in the book), I’m smiling and happy. Yes, there is no going back once you learn to use a Chinese vegetable cleaver. Knife, mallet, spatula - that is *the* knife. Enough for me to custom forge that knife in full Damascus just for display.

Love the comentary and style😂 yall are great