Knife review : Galaxy Cleaver

Knives :

This review consists of :

Introduction and Specifications

Basic specifications :

A few observations :

The initial sharpness was low to moderate :

The push cutting performance was moderate but the slicing aggression relatively high showing a lack of the common over buffing. However note the very high deviations in the sharpness some parts of the blade were significantly sharper than others, not uncommon in inexpensive knives.

Initial Carry

On foods which require decent sharpness to cut without crushing :

The cleaver works well. Compared to a blade with close to an optimal sharpness a light amount of draw is used on the dead (no cut) so it does require a little more work than a higher quality initial sharpness but this is easily above average in that regard, especially for its price point. Again though it does require some draw, it will not do push cuts on such foods without crushing.

Moving beyond sharpness and performing shallow cutting :

The thin blade works well but the edge angle is fairly high and the primary grind very shallow and thus it is on the low end of performance for inexpensive kitchen knives in terms of cutting ability. This is more like a cleaver which is intended for significant meat work than a pure vegetable knife.

On meat work the very slight belly under the tip is useful for work such as :

In general the lack of a smooth belly and instead to long flat sections of edge do make rocking cuts a bit awkward but for most meat cutting this isn't really that significant unless there was a lot of skill and the ability to feel very small differences in feedback. The edge also has the necessary durability for significant bone work :

Grip

Ergonomics : there are a number of issues with comfort in use :

However these are in general all minor issues aside from heavy pressure on the thin and rather squarish spine.

Security : the the large dropped blade there is no real concern about security even in fast work on slippery foods.

Durability : the synthetic grip is impervious to most conditions however during sharpening the blade flexes fairly heavily near the handle and is obviously a thin partial tang so heavy prying is likely to break the tang out of the handle.

Edge Retention

As the only knife used in the kitchen, it was brought into rotation on Jan. 27 / 2013 and lasted 6 weeks before it had to be sharpened.

In the Cardboard trial it had Class I edge retention on abrasive media :

Fine DMT
# runs Initial Sharpness 15% 10% 5%
cardboard cut (m)
3 38+ 1( 8) 1.0-0.0(0.1) 4.0+1.0(0.5) 20+ 2( 4)

Sharpening

The cleaver grinds very easily which would be expected as it would be very unusual to find a high carbide steel on an inexpensive knife. There is no need to use anything beyond the most basic stone to shape the blade and remove significant material. It can also be readily filed.

However the first sharpening session produced a fairly low sharpness and subsequent edge retention on cardboard. The second run however produced a much higher sharpness which showed that the initial poor performance was likely just due to some damaged steel on the edge.

With a few subsequent sharpening sessions all issues were removed and the steel very quickly showed itself to :

Steel

The steel is unlisted, however based on how easy it is to grind, the lack of any chipping, and the high corrosion resistance (no effect on the blade from prolonged exposure to fruit acids). It is likely a 3Cr13 class stainless steel.

Overview

Overview :

Comments and references

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    Last updated : 29/03/2013
    Originally written: 18/02/2013
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