It's Not a Cleaver

When making this knife I drew heavily on a Japanese style of knife known as the Nakiri.  Traditionally used as a vegetable prep knife, it is typically a thin and lightweight, with a straight spine.  This straight spine allows you to use it to scoop up whatever it is you've been cutting.

While influenced by this traditional style, I like to make adaptations for performance and stylistic reasons.  In this case a full tang handle construction and thicker spine both contribute to its robust strength.   Still extremely thin at the edge it makes an excellent slicing and chopping knife that can handle a wide range of tasks.  The forward swept nose adds a little contemporary style and helps improve cutting power out towards the tip.

The handle is made from Ipe (pronouced ee-pay), with red liners and a mosaic brass pin and two smaller brass pins.  Ipe is an extremely water resistant material which always feels warm to the touch.  The handle is "D" shaped, meaning that it is flatter on the left side and more rounded on the right.  This does serve to bias the handle for right handers, but can be built oppositely for left handed chefs.