Please critique my vegetable cleaver

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Mar 10, 2013
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Hello folks I'm designing a vegetable cleaver for a client the blade is approximately 7 in Long by 4 in high by 0.94" thick 1095 and I'm going to try to go for a ridiculous hamon. Can some of you guys give me some criticism here before I go and cut it out? I do all of my cooking with a paring knife so I don't know what the heck I'm doing!IMG_20210812_130834380~2.jpg
 
Hi, Eric.

Were you given any parameters to follow from the client, or was the design left entirely up to you?

Perhaps you just didn't draw the line for the edge, but I like a bit of curve on mine. That way, if you're cutting/chopping on a surface that isn't perfectly flat, you can still get all the way through the work, as opposed to leaving a thin, uncut segment. Think chopping a green onion...

I'm not a fan of the "hunchback" look that a lot of the veggie cleavers seem to come with these days. My own favorite, both for looks and function, is a slightly modified Old Hickory cleaver, whose edge I've slimmed down, so that carrot pieces don't become airborne.

I'm assuming that the 0.94" thickness that you wrote was a slight typo, perhaps 0.094"...?

The hole in the blade, to my eye, is a bit too dominant. Smaller would be better, or even left out. Most people don't tend to hang them that way.

What were you thinking for handle material?

Certainly a workable design, with most of my comments (except for the edge curve) being personal preference.

I would be interested in seeing the finished product.

Regards,
Joe
 
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I made a mistake in my description. Here they are, retyped for what I hope to be a better explanation.

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

And someone, anyone, ... please teach me how to directly insert image into a post.
Here is the error message I get when I try to insert an image:

The Icon for Inserting Image
The URL of the image I tried to insert
And the error message when I try
Are you posting from a phone or computer? Computer is easy. Right click on pic, copy image address. Using the pic icon, paste the URL and insert into reply.

UO8C2ev.png
 
Are you posting from a phone or computer? Computer is easy. Right click on pic, copy image address. Using the pic icon, paste the URL and insert into reply.
I post from an iMac desktop. And I finally figured out the problem. The reason why I kept receiving the error message, "The image cannot be inserted from the passed link." was because instead of right-clicking on the image itself to copy the URL address, I clicked on the "Copy link" button on Imgur webpage.

If I right-click on an image to copy its image address, I get the proper URL with an image extension *.png at the end.
If I left-click on the "Copy link" button on the Imgur webpage, then I get the same URL as above, but without the file extention.

If I try to insert an image via the 2nd option, it generates the error.

S sheep herder
Thank you for helping me troubleshoot! Now I'll be able to insert pictures all day long!
 
Thank you,-Kiku- ! I wish you could critique all of my knife designs in such a manner! I would buy your book!
My pleasure! But I feel that I should warn you, I am not a knifemaker. I've never forged a knife in my entire life. I don't even possess knife sharpening skills. If I need them sharpened, I have to ship them out to professional sharpeners to be serviced on traditional whetstones. And machirology is a new hobby of mine that started a year ago. Would you really want a rookie like me critiquing your knife designs? :)
 
Kiku really provided excellent advice. As a user of Chinese cleavers, I agree that a thin blade is the way to go for a vegetable cleaver. Try dicing onions with a thick blade, it will be a mess.

I have this.

1KXWtjQ.jpg


The blade is 3.25 high, and 7 1/8" long. I just measured the back thickness, and it is 0.068", between 1.5 and 2.0 mm, and tapers near the edge. It might have been 2.0 mm and then polished down to reveal the pattern. As you can see, the edge has a slight arc. I have an early Gerber cleaver, thick blade, flat edge, and it is useless for most anything. Need that arc.

this is a classic 7" long cleaver, supposedly made from Chinese artillery shells fired at Taiwan. Slight curve to edge.

65a5NdH.jpg




Much more curve to the edge

HDzx066.jpg


a friend gave me this, it cost about $10.50 at the time. According to my friend, this is a "Japanese"Chinese cleaver. His Mom could read Japanese and said that was Japanese writing. The edge is seven inches, the height three inches. The steel is not tool steel hard, it is easy to restore an edge.

XC4J2cH.jpg


the back of the blade is slightly more than a tenth of an inch. So you can understand the need for the three bevels. The knife is quite flat till down to the bevels. I have used this a lot, and I bash frozen vegetables with the back of the knife. I like the hole as it allows me to hang the thing on a hook.

I like the blade height on these cleavers, and then I can use the knife to scoop up siliced or diced vegetables off the cutting board. I hardly ever chop with one, not anymore than a Chef's knife: I use them primarily as slicer's.
 
Hello again, Eric. Some of us are curious how your knife will turn out. Please keep us informed of your developments when you get a chance.
 
I refined the enhanced version of Eric's Vegetable Cleaver. Even in the Enhanced version, the cleaver still likely suffers from weight issues caused by the client's 7" blade length and 4" blade height. Not sure why his client needs/wants a vegetable knife that is so tall, but with those two constraints, I sought to reduce the weight further while maintaining the Center of Mass largely unchanged (at the center of the Akatsuki logo) by opting for lighter handle material.

Shown below is the refined version. Note the gray overlay to illustrate how much of the blade material was removed without sacrificing the blade length.
ivxNSI2.png

The refined version allows:

1. Considerably lighter cleaver while still maintaining sufficient chopping power (for cutting vegetables),
2. Slightly more pronounced tilt in the handle for better ergonomics than the Enhanced version,
3. Longer curve in the fore & aft edge of the blade for better utility,
4. Use of lighter material for the handle to maintain the same Center of Mass.
 
Okay -Kiku- I'm going to cut this thing out I really like your design input I think this is going to be fun! I hope you don't mind if I credit you with the design!
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Eric,


I'm glad you like my refined version of YOUR design.
Since the cleaver is primarily of YOUR design, you should go ahead and use your logo. It's okay, I don't mind.
I am just glad I was able to play a role, however slight, in influencing and improving the design of YOUR cleaver.

FYI, I am -NOT- a knifemaker. I have never actually forged a knife of my own, although I have made a couple of design modifications to already existing models, those were only on paper as I did with yours. At best, I am a rookie greenhorn neophyte machirologist. As such, you should take anything I say with a grain of salt unless you're on a low sodium diet.

Keep us informed of your progress. We look forward to it! :)


-Kiku-
 
Your handle is tilting up far too much, in my opinion.

In general, cleavers and other impact-style knives have either neutral tilt or downward-tilt.
You went the exact opposite route and gave yours a very pronounced upward-tilt...
Given the magnitude of the tilt, I am not sure if the knife can be salvaged at this point.
What steel is the blade made of? If it's inexpensive steel, you can just try again from another plate without making a mistake.
But you are the knifemaker. So it's ultimately your call.
 
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