Simple Slicing

Slicing with a cleaver occurs mainly on two planes: horizontal and vertical. The Chinese character for “slice” (pien 片), itself images the idea. One special style of vertical slicing is diagonal slicing.

For horizontal slicing, when you are holding the knife parallel to the board, the technique required for greatest safety and control is one that I’ve dubbed “flying fingers.” In this posture, your cutting hand holds the cleaver parallel to the cutting surface in the close-chopping hold, with the fingers carefully guiding the blade. Your free hand anchors the food to the board, pinning it down with the midsection of your closely-joined middle three fingers while your palm, thumb, pinkie, and the tips of the middle fingers all arch upwards and “fly” out of reach of the advancing blade. If every part of the hand except for the small portion required to anchor the food to the board is “flying,” there is no way you can be cut by the blade. When extra control is needed to pin down a particularly small or slippery piece of food, simply rock the pinning fingers forward.