Hatsukokoro Sentan White 2 Stainless Clad Kurouchi Chinese Cleaver 195mm

Sentan White 2 Stainless Clad series is the sister line of the Blue 2 cleavers under the same brand, it has the low maintenance stainless Sanmai structure, with the reactive core steel wrapped in a rough, organic-looking protective clad. Featuring two different sizes, this is a line that can easily fulfil your need for Chinese cleavers whether you want something big and choppy or small and nimble.

There is an existing blank in the market of Chinese cleavers. From what we can see, Japanese makers rarely forge this type of knife and they tend to create a blade that has a different sectional profile compared to Chinese ones. This leads to different cutting behaviour and often heavier weight. On the other hand a reputable maker like CCK would forge their knife down to the thickness of a leaf with excellent cutting performance and balance, but the lower edge retention and high maintenance can often put off many potential users.

This is a line that is designed in house by Knives and Stones to fulfil this blank, our aim was to create a series of authentic Chinese cleavers, while incorporating the characteristics and performances you would find on a fine Japanese knife. We chose the classic Hitachi White 2 carbon steel for its high carbon content, then a layer of stainless cladding was forged on each side to create a low maintenance blade. As a result, we get an aggressive cutting  edge made with a pretty hard carbon steel that is only exposed on the very edge of the blade, most of the blade would be free from rusting or patina and even if the exposed carbon steel rusts, they can be removed easily by sharpening.

The blade is forged into shape before the final bevel is put on, and by looking at the front of the knife, you can see there is a “S” shape contour on each side of the blade. The spine starts thick, giving the knife the stiffness it needs when doing precise cut, it then tapers down to reduce the weight of the blade so it is not tiring to cut for an extensive amount of time. The blade then thickens up again at the beginning of the bevel, this allows it to have some volume so it can build the geometry that we desire.

We chose a rather strong convex grind as the primary bevel geometry, it emphasises on food release rather than low thickness behind the edge. When slicing with these knives, there will be a very positive release, the slice of food will curl sideways and fall off the blade easily without much chance of sticking to the side of the knife. The wedging issue can be mitigated by the cutting method, as the common way of cutting with Chinese cleaver is a strong push cut, the momentum of the blade can usually push through the food without getting stuck halfway.

This line offers two different sizes in the standard rectangular cleaver form, sized at 175mm and 195mm respectively. The 195mm is very much the standard size for Chinese chefs, it has that reassuring weight you would expect from a knife of this size, the broad blade is very fun when chopping dense produce, smashing ingredients and transferring food that’s already been cut. However, weighting at 354g means this is not a knife that most people can easily get used to, so we offer a smaller 175mm size that is less than ⅔ of the weight of the lager version, designed specifically for people who want to get their hands on this type of knife.

This White 2 line is our answer to the demand of a great workhorse chinese cleaver, it combines many features we believe are useful and it also offers many different profiles to fit the needs of different users. I have to mention they are not the most beautiful knives you can find because at the end of the day, they are still hand forged products. We opt for performance and value instead of beauty, so you can get these very organic looking, great performing knives at a very reasonable price.