ZHEN Japanese VG-10 3-Layer Forged High Carbon Stainless Steel Light Slicer Chopping Chef Butcher Knife/Cleaver, 6.5-inch, TPR Handle -,Black

As a professional chef, I use this knife for my prep and on the line every day. I use this knife for just about everything. Do not let the "light slicer" name fool you, this knife handles meats just as well as fruits and veggies. The minute I took this knife out I knew I had myself a keeper. After 15 years as a chef and as a knife enthusiast, I've been through more knives than I care to admit and this Zhen knife comes on top of all my other ones by far. I've had the chance to use a lot of different brands of professional kitchen knives in my career anything from Shun, Henckels, Wusthof, Global, Zwilling, Porsche, etc. The quality to price ratio on this knife is simply unbeatable. It performs just as well, if not better than a comparable brand such as Shun for a fraction of the cost.As far as manufacturing details go for this knife, everything is simply perfect. The handle material held my grip through and through even after having just mixed a salad with it's oily dressing, the knife never once slipped out of my hand or moved. The knife is shaving sharp straight out of the box. Most knives, even the ones that advertise as professional knives need a quick hone before their first use, but nothing of the sort here. The thinner grinding angle on the blade provides a much sharper result which is, after all, what any cook is looking for in a knife.Generally, with cleaver type knives, food has a tendency to stick to the blade, due to the width. Zhen added a frost finish on a portion of the blade which allows food to slide right off the knife, saving a lot of time and making the knife much safer to use as you do not need to touch the blade after every single cut to remove food off of it. The finish on the knife is impeccable too, a lot of knives often have very sharp corners on the spine making it quite uncomfortable when holding the knife close to the blade but the grinding has been done all over meaning the surface is smooth as can be and I experienced absolutely no discomfort even after using it 8 to 10 hours in a row, every day.If you have any doubts about a cleaver type knife or with Zhen knives in particular, let me put these doubts to rest. Larger knives are actually safer to use. The width of the blade is around double the average width of classic chef knives, this means that when you make a cut, the entire blade rests on your fingers which allows for more control over the whole knife. This prevents the knife from wobbling towards the end of the cut. The manufacturing quality of Zhen is beyond good and I would recommend this knife or any Zhen knife any day. With practice you will soon be cutting as fast as lightning and safer than ever!

I love to cook and like anyone who spends a decent amount of time in the kitchen experimenting and trying to turn our culinary delights to impress family and friends, you come to rely upon your tools. And a good knives are one of the key items. I have a few good ones that I have invested in. I wasn't so sure about a 'cleaver style' knife and if it would work for me, so I liked the price point of this, it seemed enough to get a decent knife without paying a kings randsom for something I wasn't sure I was going to like.I'm so glad I did, this is a fantastic knife. It's really light and easy to use, but the edge is razor sharp on arrival. I've had it 3 months and have used it nearly every day since then, and it hasn't needed sharpening, its still as sharp, so I'm very impressed. If you do a lot of vegetables and want to get through them fast, this is a great slicer and dicer that you won't regret and shoots way beyond the price point, its more comfortable to use and keeps an edge better than knives that I have that are 3 or 4 times the price. I recommend it to anyone.

Cleaver arrived yesterday so haven't used it a lot. Had to try it out right away though. Sliced a couple of apples like a hot knife going through butter without any sharpening just right out of the box. Very impressed with the weight and balance of the cleaver. Definitely will recommend this knife. Having been trained through culinary school I have worked with a lot of different knives. This is a quality knife and a great value for the price paid. I like that I can just scoop up all the things I chopped to add them to the pan. Much easier than trying to do with a standard chef's knife. NOTE: it is not a meat cleaver and not meant for heavy chopping. It is a vegetable cleaver.

The Zhen light "cleaver" isn't a cleaver at all. It's a Chinese vegetable knife - the Asian version of the chef's knife that coincidentally has the same profile as a western style cleaver. Unlike a cleaver the blade is thin and the grinding is a much more narrow angle. This means that the blade is too delicate to operate as a cleaver, but is excellent for fine dicing and thin slicing when used as a chef's knife. Like a chef's knife the blade is slightly curved and is used with a rocking motion. Chinese vegetable knives have the edge over chef's knives because their higher mass and blade height give them more inertia and cutting power. Their high blade height makes them a bit awkward for newbies however. You must hold the food carefully on one side of the blade and feed it into the blade. That's where the Zhen light cleaver comes in. With it's lower blade height it feels more agile and has less of a learning curve for western cooks learning to use this excellent type of blade. Held choked up on the handle the balance is perfect. The factory grind on the edge is excellent. The edge is razor sharp and has held for dozens of uses so far.Zhen is a Taiwanese knife company that specializes in knives reminiscent of the Japanese line called Shun. They have two main lines: a carbon stainless steel series and a fancier prettier damascus steel series (not the item on offer here). The carbon stainless series uses 3 layer construction, with a core of high carbon "VG-10" stainless steel in the middle (to constitute the edge) with layers of high carbon stainless on either side. The use of VG-10 steel and the 3 layer construction is a definite homage to Japanese high end knife manufacturing. The principle benefit of VG-10 steel is that its high Rockwell hardness value which means it will hold an edge better than normal stainless steel. The downsides are that it is more easy to chip, and will be less stain resistant. The handle is made of a rubber type material which is comfortable to grip. The edge of the blade is heavily frosted on the grinding bevel above the edge. I don't know if this is meant to hide the fusion line of the two types of metal or improve the release properties of food on the broad surface of the blade but it is attractive and does help vegetables release. The blade is surprisingly thin and light for such a broad profile. The thin-ness translates to agile slicing. I doubt it has the strength to chop bones or other very tough food items (such as the stems of winter squash, for example). Indeed the instruction sheet for this knife specifically warns against using it for bones - underscoring the fact that is is a Chinese vegetable knife and not a cleaver.All in all, the construction is amazing for the price. I will follow up on how well it holds up over time. I will say for the moment that initial quality is surprisingly high for such a reasonably priced item. At this price level you usually get rustable carbon steel with a rat tail tang and a cheap wooden handle with rings of loose metal as the bolsters. Here you get an exotic fused blade of the type used in the manufacture of Samurai swords, using an exotic type of steel I've never seen outside of Japan before. The blade shape is clearly forged, not stamped, with impressive grinding and finishing. The full tang and nice heel piece are also unusual at this price. Performance in use has been in line with the luxury appearance: excellent. So far I'd rate this item as an extreme bargain - when used as a chef's knife - not a cleaver. It's a taste of high end Japanese materials and construction, but made in Taiwan, with a price to match.