Shibazi All Purpose Fish Cleaver 180mm

Shibazi is a Chinese company based in the Yangjiang Province in China where many knife brands outsource their manufacturing to. If your kitchen knife is made in China, it likely came out of a factory in Yangjiang.

The brand was established in 1983 and is known globally for their different chinese cleavers. They are popular among home cooks as well as favored by many Cantonese chefs.

This specific cleaver, the F214-2 model, is officially named a ”万用刀“ which translates to an "all purpose knife". It is suitable for most kitchen tasks and can go through cartilage, soft bones or thinner fish bones. But do take caution and avoid thicker and harder bones that could damage the blade. 

Most knives produced in Yangjiang are quite unremarkable. However, this cleaver is an exception due to this one feature: A Sabre Grind

Pretty much all blades start out thicker at the spine and thin out at the edge (otherwise it wouldn't be a knife). The gradual thinning from spine to edge is known as the a taper or grind. For most blades made in China, the taper is fully flat. You can test this by placing the face of the blade on a flat surface and observing any gaps between the blade and the surface. A flat taper is bad news for food sticking as the slices of food can easily travel up the face of the blade uninterrupted. Most Japanese blades have either a convex taper or a sabre grind (you can test this yourself!), which greatly aids in food release as the slices of food have a harder time sticking to a surface that is not fully flat.

The end result? Slices of food fall off this cleaver when they reach about halfway up the blade. This helps with the uninterrupted flow of chopping as you prep your meals!

Blade Type: Chinese Cleaver
Core: 80Cr13 Stainless Steel
Cladding: 10Cr17 Stainless Steel
Handle: Rosewood Handle
Spine Thickness at Heel: 3mm
HRC: 58
Weight: 233g
Blade Length: 180mm 
Overall Length: 280mm