CCK Chinese cleaver question

[werewolf]

I have the CCK Chinese "kichen slicer" cleaver, thin blade, big slicing knife - it's great! My question is: Is it worthwhile buying the heavier weight CCK "kitchen chopper" cleaver, or does the $7-10 Asian market cheapo special (which I now have) do that job just about the same?

http://www.chanchikee.com/ChineseKnives.html

[JoeC]

Do you know exactly which CCK you have? I own several brands of cleavers one of which is a CCK 1103. The CCK are vary good cleavers for the money. I have a cheap OK Brand cleaver that I paid about $10. It has a smaller blade about 178mm x 89mm x 4mm that I use to cut bone. It works as good as my F. Dick standard meat cleaver though not as heavy. I've had the OK brand now for over 30 years so it has also stood up well.

[werewolf]

I have the one that's shown on the linked chart in the upper left hand corner, the kitchen slicer. I'm not sure which of the three it is - I just got it and I haven't measured it - it's stamped "3" so maybe it's the #3 model, though it looks very big to me. I'm visiting southern California right now and I found a place that's selling CCK's. I can't ordinarily find them - so I'm trying to decide if it's worthwhile buying the heavier CCK chopper too while I'm here - but I'm thinking that for crude chopping the cheapo might be just as good, and maybe, being softer metal, might not even chip as readily as the harder CCK.

[JoeC]

If yours is stamped #3 then you have the same one I have 1103. It is a little smaller than the other 2 slicers shown, but not by much. If you can get a heaver CCK I would. If you are looking for something to handle bone chopping I would go with the 1601 or 1602.

I just got my hands on a CCK for the first time. I've been looking for a long time too, they are just hard to find in my area. I doubt a cheaper cleaver will be much softer metal if at all than the CCK is.