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

I love knives - they are one of the tools I use every... single... day. Unfortunately, I've had some personal issues with my knives that I just can't seem to work through. Thus, I decided to try the Shi Ba Zi Chef's knife!


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#blacktiekitchen #chinesecleaver #knifereview #kitchenskills

[Autechltd]

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.

[royye]

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.

[greyfreeman]

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

[neerajsoman]

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.

[AZ-Del]

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

[DarkVoidRanker]

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

[DonKangolJones]

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!

[jz]

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.

[yOrK]

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.

[turmat]

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!

[theartofmantis]

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.

[royhoward]

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

[madxp]

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

[Namasu]

@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.

[fortawesome]

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!!

[DarkJester]

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).

[FowlersMakeryandMischief]

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

[pulsingfire]

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

[incidentlyaniguana]

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.

[NickThyy]

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 !