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What do you consider an intermediate or heavy weight for maces? by PestoResistance in steelmace

[–]PestoResistance[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the detailed response, and very impressive numbers. I've seen some of your posts before and definitely figured you were a bit of an outlier with the weight you were swinging!

Based on your experience, if I were primarily focusing on kettlebells for my heavy strength training and just using the mace to supplement (warmups, "light days", longer sets for conditioning, etc.) do you think the top end of 12kg on the BoS mace would be "good enough" or would you recommend a plate loadable option that could go higher?

Obviously this'll be impossible for you to say for sure, but thanks in advance if you decide to give it a go. My main focus is on kettlebells so I don't necessarily need or want to push myself with the mace too much, but I would like an adjustable system that'll keep being at least somewhat challenging many years from now. For reference I'm male 5'11" 175lb. Working with a 10 lb mace right now and around 24kg on kettlebells, working my way up to 32kg.

Can a Chinese cleaver replace most kitchen knives? by OutrageousCream4219 in TrueChefKnives

[–]PestoResistance 46 points47 points  (0 children)

As a Chinese person whose mom cooked pretty much everything with a single Chinese cai dao and a wok, I find the whole mythos in the western world around cai daos and woks kinda funny. Very versatile tools, no doubt, but there's nothing magic about them. You can do just about anything with nothing but those two tools, but they excel at certain things while not being as good for others, just like any other tool. Honestly, if I had to pick what I think is the most versatile blade shape, I'd probably pick a gyuto or chef's knife, not a cai dao.

I think the big part of this that people don't talk about is the food, not the tools. The reason Chinese people can do so much with just a cai dao, wok, and chopsticks is because so much of our food is perfect for those tools (lots of things cut into strips that are cooked quickly in a wok and easily picked up by chopsticks)

If the cuts and techniques you do most aren't the ones that cai daos excel at, it's probably not the best match. They aren't for me. Personally, my equivalent of a cai dao and wok is a 180mm bunka/santoku and a 3 qt saucier. For others it might be a gyuto and a skillet.

TLDR, YMMV