Chen Kenichi's large chinese cleaver grip

[Andy777]

Last night about 2 am I was going over a bunch of Chen battles kind of like a football coach going over the competitors films. I had always seen how he held his cleaver but it never really clicked until now. He does a special grip with his pinky and ring fingers around the handle and his pointer and middle fingers in a rabbit ear position straight out on the blade with his thumb pinching the other side. Since I'm such a natural at graphic design [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I drew a picture here.

I was so excited at this epiphany that I ran to the kitchen to try it out on my Watanabe cleaver. While my two small fingers wore out really quickly (because they never get used) I found that I had a lot more control over the blade and It felt a lot more limber. The blade actually balaced in a sense, if I held it with the cleaver on top of my hand with the same finger position as when I was gripping it but with my two small finger and thumb away it balanced on my hand. (I hope that made sense). With a cleaver I usually use the technique where the blade stays horizontal and you move it forward and down in a slice chop motions (some have called this the Usaba cut) This grip works perfectly for that.

So if you have a large chinese cleaver that you feel overwhelmed by the size or the weight give this a try.

BTW, I just found out that Fred and I got the last two thin pattern Watanabe cleavers, they are no longer on the site. I talked with Shinichi a while ago and he said that this cleaver was a special edition of sorts. I'm sure he can make a custom one but I don't know if he'll have them generally available in the future. If you must absolutely have one [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] they may still be available through his U.S. dealer here.

Andy

[Scott]

Andy,

I always look forward to your artistic masterpieces! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Scott

[esvoboda]

That's really cool. As soon as I read this I ran into the kitchen to "play". What do you know, the cleaver almost balances [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] but more importantly, I think there's better control. I'll have to use this for a while to see if there's a downside. Thanks so much Andy for posting this.

Oh yeah, don't anyone try this with a chef's knife. I tried it with a wide 10-in. Wusthof chef's knife and my small hands, and my middle finger is just about touching the edge of the blade. Too bad.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

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As soon as I read this I ran into the kitchen to "play"

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I know what you mean I was giddily chopping veggies at 2:30 am while my wife snoozed away downstairs. My wife wondered what the hell happened when she got up in the morning and saw cutting boards covered with chopped veggies. Of course I didn't clean up my mess (except for the ceremonial cleaning of the knife [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

[Grouch]

When I first started using a cleaver, I naturally held it this way. Then, after using chefs knives, I started using the standard pinch grip. Now, I vary depending on the weight distribution of the cleaver.

[Grouch]

I forgot to say that for rapid-fire (and probably less tiring) use of the cleaver, the non-balanced pinch grip is most likely superior. When they show Chinese IC competitors at their work in the introductions, almost all use their cleavers this way. It permits using the cleaver's mass to drive through the food;just lift the edge by straightening your wrist and then drop the blade through the food by relaxing your wrist.

[Fred]

For the fun of it I decided to make another French onion soup today so I could test the Watanabe cleaver on the same project that started the Tojiro test and review. I discovered that I used the "Kenichi" grip intuitively. I also discovered that this is a heavy knife and it requires finger muscles to use that aren't used with a gyuto. The cleaver did a nice job on the onions but my hand was a little sore after the job was done. We'll see how it goes.
I'm not sure what an unbalanced pinch grip is.

[Andy777]

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I'm not sure what an unbalanced pinch grip is.

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I think he just means a "normal" chef knife index finger/thumb pinch grip as opposed to the "rabbit ear" grip using the two fingers which somewhat balances the cleaver.

Andy

[Grouch]

Yep.