Mercer Culinary Asian Collection Chinese Chef's Knife with Santoprene Handle

This knife is very sharp and so far stays sharp. I am not a chef and I do not cook often, so I do not have a lot of experience with kitchen knives. I use it mostly to prepare salads: chop lettuce, vegetables, fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken, etc. It is just the right size. The handle is comfortable, albeit a bit basic. Overall I think it's a very good value for the money.

I'm just a home cook, not a professional or anything but I gotta say this is my most used knife I own because of it's versatility.Chopping garlic is my favorite job for this knife since the blade design is so tall throughout, it's easy to use your finger knuckle as a guide for the blade. This makes doing those super quick rhythmic chops so simple, kind of like how the pro chefs chop garlic fast.After the garlic is chopped, I put some coarse salt on it, then use the flat top of the blade to scrape the garlic into a paste. A lot faster and cleaner than using a garlic press for paste consistency. After that you can just scrape the paste onto the blade and use it kind of like a flat spatula to scoop it into whatever pot you're cooking with.It also holds an edge well and cleans easier than a carbon steel blade.

I have had this vegetable cleaver for a little over 2 years and have recently purchased the CCK 1303 as well. They are both very similar in profile and are both extremely sharp. In all honesty, I cannot tell where the $70 cost difference come from as my CCK was $100. My Mercer is just as sharp weighing almost similar. My CCK just slightly longer and wider than my Mercer and have a tapering spine while Mercer was even thoughout. CCK might also have a very slight advantage on holding its edge but the Mercer’s handle feels better and the blade is more forgiving from moisture as my CCK being carbon steel will easily rust if left wet. You can’t go wrong with either cleaver and if price is an issue, definitely get the Mercer and don’t ever feel you are missing out. The 5 star reviews are correct. !!!!

Love using this vegetable cleaver. I prefer it to all my other knives, even the more expensive traditional knives. I use it for everything. If you want to try a different style knife to the chef knife this is a great inexpensive option.

I have had one of these (and now a spare in case I drop it) since 2018. It is my most commonly used knife, although I have a nice little collection of Chinese chef knives (mostly CCK).Objectively, the CCK knives are better, with thinner blades and distal taper, but the ease of cleaning and care for the Mercer has me reaching for it.The blade keeps an edge a lot longer than I expected and is very easy to sharpen.Every year, I use mine to break down the products of 30 tomato plants and 45 or so pepper plants, among others.It has held up great.Amazon sells a lot more of the Shibazi Chinese chef knives. I like mine, but it is much thicker (by design). The steel is not as good. It is less enjoyable to sharpen than the Mercer.It was also the knife that I had to do the most to bring up to snuff in terms of fit and finish. All of the square edges needed to be rounded with 400 grit sandpaper.The Shibazi is a much more attractive knife. The Mercer handle is a rubber version of some sort of plant material or something...who knows.Where it counts, however, I reach for the Mercer much, much more often. It is easily the better knife.

Very nice. Thin and light. If you like MAC knives that are really thin and keep their edges well, you are getting almost the same thing here, just not the crazy blade edge angle like MAC's.

i don't normally write reviews but i am so impressed with this knife i had to write it. i've always wanted a chinese chef's knife due to its versatility and practicality. when i did my initial research my top choice was the dexter chinese cleaver, which was very popular. in the end, i opted to try the mercer primarily because of the rubber handle.i was very happy with the knife. over time i got more interested in knives, german vs japanese steel, and i decided to "upgrade" to the ZHEN VG-10 Damascus Cleaver. the steel was noticeably sharper when you touch it, and the damascus pattern was beautiful. however, when it came time to actually cut, the mercer was actually better. the secret here is that the mercer has a convex grind, while the zhen was a more conventional V-grind. this meant that vegetables did not stick to the blade nearly as much. with the mercer, i can half a cucumber, and slice into thin slices by draw cutting through the cucumber. i could not with the zhen -- the cucumber would stick to the other side of the blade.next up, i tried the Wusthof Chinese Cleaver. i disliked it immediately -- it was very heavy. in fairness, heavy is in the title, but i didn't expect it to make that big of a difference. the fit and finish also wasn't as good; the spine was not smooth, and neither was heel...which meant holding the knife properly by choking up to the heel was uncomfortable. the mercer's spine and heel of the blade are smoothed. and speaking of weight, this is when i realized that the mercer is 8.8 ounces, which is super light. it's also only 2mm thick at the spine.still wanting to find "the best" knife, i tried the other german brand, Zwilling. this one was slightly heavier than the mercer, slightly thicker, but the balance was off. i prefer the 7 inch size of the zwilling more, but the size of the handle relative to the blade was awkward and made for weird balance. if you're holding a chinese chef's knife properly, you're pinching the blade, so in the zwilling half of the handle is sticking out the back of my hand. and this was when i realized that i really, really like the non-slip rubber handle of the mercer.next up, was the Messermeister Asian Precision Chinese Knife, 8-Inch. i don't know why i didn't try this one first before the others, since this is the knife that celebrity chef Martin Yan uses. it was the only knife that was competitive vs the mercer. it is a little bit heavier, which makes certain cutting tasks easier as the weight of the knife helps, but not so overwhelming like the wusthof. it's thicker at the spine, but it actually gets even thinner than the mercer (which you can see in the picture, is already very thin). it's full-tang, 3 rivet, with a nice "ping" when you tap on the blade vs a "thud" of the mercer, so it definitely feels like quality in your hand if you're into that kind of thing. i still liked the rubber handle of the mercer more, so i eventually ended up wrapping the messermeister handle with rubber splicing tape.5 chinese chef's knives later, the mercer and messermeister are my favorites. for the mercer, the only downsides i can think of are not really downsides at all, but personal preference. the tip is a bit more rounded than the others, not a 90 degree angle. this makes rocking and draw-cuts easier because it doesn't dig into the cutting board as much, at the expense sacrificing ease of delicate tip work. it's also 8 inches instead of 7, but i've gotten used to it.if you're looking for a thin and light vegetable cleaver, this is incredible value at this price point.

I usually use a 6 or 10 inch chefs knife and this works very good and also scooping up minced or dicing tothrow in a pot or pan. Would buy another but I don't think I will need to unless someone steals it