The critical misunderstanding: the cai dao (2–4mm spine, 180–230mm) is NOT a bone-splitting cleaver. It is the Chinese all-purpose kitchen knife, analogous to a chef's knife, used for everything from vegetable cutting to protein slicing to crushing garlic. Using a cai dao on bone will chip it.
The complete family of three:
- Cai dao (菜刀, 200–230mm, 2–3mm spine): the vegetable all-purpose knife for dicing, slicing, mincing, and scooping. Northern Chinese style tends toward thicker, heavier cai dao; Cantonese and Southern Chinese style toward thinner, lighter blades.
- Gu dao (骨刀, 4–6mm spine, 300–600g): the Chinese bone-splitting knife, equivalent in purpose to the Western cleaver, used for poultry through bone and splitting pork ribs.
- Pian dao (片刀, 1.5–2mm spine, longer): the protein slicer for beef hot pot, pork stir-fry, and fish fillets, closer in profile to a sujihiki than a cai dao.
Ideal steel for cai dao: production mid-range stainless such as 7Cr17MoV and 9Cr18MoV; some higher-end versions in D2 or VG-10.