This Chinese Cleaver is my go to knife. I have a drawer full of kitchen knives but this one is used most in the cutting of meats and slicing of vegetables. I bought this one, made in Japan, for only $18.35 delivered! I use the back of the blade to bash frozen vegetable packages.
http://cgi.ebay.com/MEAT-CLEAVER-BK...ash=item518befce93&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262
The Chinese Cleaver is also used as a scoop, carrying your sliced meats and vegetables to the pot. This really cuts preparation time.
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I did buy a block of Cold Steel kitchen knives. In my experience their non serrated knives (like the Chef knife) take a better edge and hold it longer than equivalent priced brands. Cold Steel knives are made from 420, they are not so hard that they are hard to sharpen, but they are not as soft as the competition.
This is something that folks do not address. The typical housewife does not need a Rockwell 60 knife. She won't be able to sharpen the thing.
While I like the serrated victorinox 3” paring knife, my plain bladed victorinox knives don’t hold an edge for long. When the serrated paring knife gets dull, it goes in the trash can. I have ground dull ones to a plain edge, and I was not impressed with the edge holding ability.
I use the K4 nonserrated Cold Steel kitchen knife a lot.
I purchased one ceramic paring knife. Must have cost $70.00. I was not impressed with the edge. A diamond hone will sharpen the thing, but I was not able to get as fine an edge as a steel knife. The edge breaks when it gets too thin.