I don’t disagree.
But many times a knife runs its course and sharpening it is a Sisyphean effort, especially when the blade is worn down, there is rust/corrosion, or damage to the blade
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My first Kiwi is many years old and has been sharpenable the whole time. If you sharpen a Kiwi, Sisyphus would have the boulder over the mountain in <3 minutes.
Dexters are great knives, too. I’d say they stay sharper longer than Kiwi, but a tad more difficult to sharpen; but they sharpen pretty easily.
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That was my take. I hefted it and my immediate reaction was heavy and unwieldy.
I have seen a few knives that were rusted, ground down, etc. brought to new life with a good scouring and regrinding. Sure, the edge profile will be a bit different, but the positive vibe of a well used tool outweighs that for me.
Which one do you have? Some of the Shun cleavers are outliers in terms of weight–just bonkers heavy compared to ones made for daily use. Shun’s Premier one is 386 grams which is the heaviest Chinese cleaver I’ve seen. If it’s that heavy, I better be able to smash, peel, and mince a home intruder with it.
Oh my. I think I had one very similar (probably not the same). Same heavy cleaver and I did not like the knife. Just not very good quality.
$165 is a little high now, but you know what… I still think it is worth it. Not to say it is the best, but still not unreasonable, but yes, it is gradually getting closer to the higher end knife such as the Suien VG-10 large slicer.
Price aside, I think it is a good test to see if you even want to go in this direction. Good to hear.
This one:
DM-0712 I guess? Sorry about the glare, I couldn’t figure out how to get a decent photo of it.
I put it on my scale - 347g!
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But this is suppose to be the thin knife (Shun has an actual thick cleaver too, but I don’t think sell that anymore).
LOL. I can’t imagine the thick version.
Also if you look at the photo you might notice a bunch of scratch marks toward upper back part. They made the top of the knife sharp 90-degree angles, which is really bad if you hold it life a western chef knife. (I’m not sure if that’s common or not for Chinese cleavers?) At some point it actually cut my hand a little bit after a big session, so I took some sandpaper to the edges. Not very carefully apparently. I think I was angry with the knife at that point…
Normal for cheaper knives where they expect the customers to grind and smooth out the spine. For Shun level knives, this is a little unexpected.
347 grams is heavy, but since I made my comment, I have found several chinese cleavers over that weight just through browsing and paying more attention to specs. I guess I spoke to soon. Most of the cleavers I have looked looked at the specs on are cheap ones for professional cooks that are a good bit lighter. Either way, that is a pretty knife you have there!
Do you own this one? For me, $220 is high end! 
Too much over $200 and you’re paying for frills a lot of the time.
No, I don’t own that Suien $220 one, but yeah, I have heard that this Suien knife right about the cut off mark between mid price to high price Chinese knife.
What year did you buy that knife? It looks older than me, like the ones they made in the 50s and 60s.
I think it’s important to comment here that some of the knives pictured are actual cleavers…heavy, thick, and can be used for chopping bones.
CCK makes many models, from thin bladed chinese chef knives to full on cleavers for cutting bones. They have similar outlines, but different construction, blade thicknesses and edges.
Vecchiouomo, I think what you originally described wanting was a chinese chef’s knife (not a cleaver) for slicing vegetables and meat without bones.
The Takeda chuka bocho that I have and use has a blade that is thinner than most western chef’s knives. It’s meant for vegetables and not whacking at bony things. I wouldn’t even use it to break down a chicken.
It all comes down to using the right tool for the right job.
It 's a Sab from the fifties. Note the dimple on the ferrule. That made it a “B” and knocked a ton off the price. I got it on Bernal under their new vintage stuff. I bought it last year.
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My interest is in a light, nimble vegetable knife with a very straight edge, carbon steel.
