CCK Kau Kong Cleaver – Carbon Steel / Forged Handle

The Kau Kong cleaver (狗公刀, gǒu gōng dāo) is the heavy general-purpose cleaver of the Cantonese kitchen, the same blade as our Kau Kong Cleaver, but with a one-piece forged carbon steel handle instead of a separate wooden one. Blade and handle are the same continuous piece of steel, with no joint to loosen. The handle needs no oiling.

The trade-off is feel: a steel handle is colder in the hand than mulberry wood and has less natural grip when wet. In return you get a knife with no joint that can ever loosen, no handle that can ever split, and a carbon steel blade that holds a sharper edge than stainless and develops a natural patina with use.

Use it the same way as the regular Kau Kong: chopping through poultry joints and small bones, and splitting hard vegetables (squash, pumpkin). Not for fine vegetable slicing; the blade is too heavy for comfortable repetitive cuts. For the carbon steel blade, drying after use and occasional oiling is recommended (see our carbon steel care guide); the handle needs no oiling.

Sizes

Which size? The 二號 No.2 (M) is what we recommend for most people: lighter and easier to control than the larger sizes, still capable of bone-chopping at a domestic scale. The 加大號 (XL) is the standard heavy Kau Kong, and the 超大號 (XXL) is the same shape scaled up for larger hands or busy commercial kitchens.