I am surprised that Sugiomoto does not stay sharp. Sugimoto sf4030 is a small knife, but not a thin blade knife (medium blade). The Sugimoto cm4030 is the thin blade. I suppose if you want a reason to explode a CCK knife. There are two reasons for you to consider a KF19XX knife. It is stainless steel and it is a thin blade knife.
I have a few different type of CCK knives (you saw the photo), so it will take awhile to describe them all.
I dont own one of his carcass splitters, but I do own many of this other knives, including his bush sword shown at the top of his website.
To keep this thread on track. I own several CCK slicers, but use a Dexter Russell meat cleaver with Sani Safe handles as my bone splitting cleaver. I made the mistake a long time ago of trying to cleave a frozen pice of meat with a CCK slicer. The chip it made in the blade was…mmm…sizable. I did not attempt to repair it. Lesson learned. Use the right tool for the job. CCK, Dexter Russell and others make bone chopping meat cleavers that are designed to work with small bones. CCK, Chopper King and a host of others make decent chinese slicers that have the same blade profiles as nice gyutos, and chef knives, and despite their "cleaver " profiles, are meant for slicing vegetable and boneless proteins. I wonder how many of those pricey Shun cleavers have been ruined by their naive user using them as chopping bone or frozen foods?
CCK 1112 stainless slicer ~480g nice and thin behind the edge, yet has some weight.
CCK 1102 carbon slicer ~380g even thinner behind the edge and overall. Goes through dense vegs even easier than the 1112.
CCK 1503 BBQ chopper carbon ~860g. I think the knife is in use in this Hong Kong street food video: https://youtu.be/84HbkJ5ntJU?t=76 It’s really nice for roasted chicken, I have used it plenty for chopping chicken legs especially, just the right thickness behind the edge for the job, makes clean cuts. Not for heavy duty raw bone chopping.
Zwilling twin pollux meat cleaver, 378g heavy duty, but small so not that powerful really. Edge can sure take a beating though.
Sugimoto CM4030 stainless 300g. This is a bit thicker behind the edge than the CCK slicers yet not for bones. Nice craftmanship, but I like how the CCKs feel to move through food a bit easier if that’s a priority and this would be a bit more durable edge
The confusion is two fold. First, a good portion of Chinese knives have the same side view. This is a slicer and a bone knife. They look very similar at a distance.
A European chef’s knife and a cleaver have different looks:
Second, the English translation did not help. People still call a thin blade Chinese slicer as a “Chinese cleaver”.
Look likes it, and also like you said, it is good enough for smaller bones like chicken and duck. Work really well to cut through small bones even without too much of whacking motion. It is perfect for its job. The Sugimoto CM4030 certainly is a great knife. Yes, the CCK thin blade slicers like the KF110X and KF111X have great design. The overall blade and edge profile are great.
Yes, the 1503 is great for chopping them and I really don’t have a need to chop much thicker ones than those, so it’s almost perfect for me. I might take a slightly thicker spine for it still, to make it a bit nicer to wham it with my hand. Granted I don’t do this all day so my hand is not as seasoned for the job as the guys’ in the video. Much like the handle of my knife is not as well seasoned as his either :D.
I take it you own the CM4030 also then right? I am pleased with the 11xx knives, I knew I wanted the bigger slicers. The 1912 or 1911 would be tempting also, but I have the Sugimoto. Also the new CCKs would now come with the lasered logo.
On a slight side note, I bought a mallet for my cleaver. I haven’t get to use the mallet yet, but it is a nice investment.
I haven’t had a chance to get a CM4030 yet, but it is very tempting. I have handled the Chopper King thick knife and it is a good knife. Too bad that Chopper King does not get more recognition. Oh yes, I heard many people are disappointed with the laser logo. Ha ha. I am sure CCK did it to try to attract a more modern and younger crowd. It is surprising that many “traditional” and “classic” people are getting disappointed.
Personally, I am still thinking if I want to get a Takeda Chinese vegetable knife. Not cheap, but I have very good experience with Aogami Super (blue super), and Takeda is a great knifesmith.
Nice mallet, I should get at rubber mallet also, sometime wished to have one. Going to the hardware store today with my older son so might grab one if I see it. The Takeda cleaver was on my list back in time also as I have the large gyuto. I wanted the CCKs though then as I felt they were an original choice for a cleaver and I knew they’d be like I wanted. Also all the HK street food videos… they are great to watch and inspiring.
I have also been browsing the Chopper Kings on their own Taiwanese website. Interesting blades indeed I have to say. Stainless clad shirogami, skd12 , vg10 ,aus10, and so on. I don’t think these are yet sold in Europe and I would not order from cktg.
This is the Taiwanese Chopper King site. I linked to the “special steel” section, here are the shirogami knives at least, but one can browse for the others.
Easiest from here and chrome or other translate may come in handy? :D. :
Yeah. I was actually looking at Chopper King website too. I am confused if it is a large factory or not because it has so many knife varieties, but interviews they did almost suggest they are not a large factory.
I could like the white#2 clad in stainless for a cleaver, the prices are nice too there in Taiwan, 1200NT$, so about 40USD for the “ST1” model that seemed the biggest white #2, still not very big though, similar to the one you showed there in VG10. I think chef knives to go is selling the slightly smaller ST2 white#2 model and its going for 60 USD atm there.
I believe once they finally start to catch up more here and selling in EU also, they will be considerably more than what they go for now at chef knives to go.
