I take good care of my knives, and I'm reluctant to regularly chop something as hard as some chocolate can be with my chef's knife. Maybe I'm too cautious, but I'm still expecting many decades of use out of my 30+ year old German knives. When I want to "chop" chocolate, I simply use a cheap grater with the biggest holes I can find.

Netarc,

Use a bread (serrated) knife, and it doesn't even have to be terribly sharp. In fact, when I bought a new bread knife, the old one became my "oficial chocolate knife" :).

I use a cleaver. Chopping dark chocolate is a bear, so I like the extra weight and height of the cleaver which gives added stability and lets me use two hands (one on the back of the blade).

I have a chocolate chipper.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chocolate Chipper

Netarc: You are going to absolutely love your new Shun.
I just chopped, actually shaved, chocolate using my Shun Santoku. I sliver or slice small pieces. It cuts it beautifully. I use the part of the knife closest to the handle. I wouldn't use it like a cleaver, though.

I recently read somewhere, I can't remember where, that these knives don't need sharpening like many of the other brands. Just use a steel on it each time you use it.

Hi all, I'm just breezing through and saw this thread, hope you don't mind my butting in. I was just reading through one of my magazines yesterday where someone recomended using a basic chisel from the hardware store. It has a sturdy handle and the "blade" has the perfect angle for breaking apart chocolate or frozen liquids. And there cheap! Just a thought!

Danielle :o)

Danielle, Good catch. I like repurposed tools.

I think the problem with the chisel method is that if you tap it with a hammer, the force will make the chocolate fly apart. Plus the chisel is a rather small tool, so it would take a while to chop a pound of chocolate into tiny bits. With a knife or cleaver the force is more controlled, and you can chop chocolate along the entire length of the blade, say 6", versus the 1" length of a typical chisel.

Are we talking a wood chisel or a masorary chisel here? Chisels can be 4" wide so they are not necessarily "small" tools. Wood chisels are much sharper and would, it seems, be the better choice. Perhaps the ideal combination would be to use a wood chisel to knock a large block of chocolate into 1/2" bits then cut the more managable pieces with a knife/cleaver. Like Twinkledome I generally shave chocolate using a small chefs knife. Works fine and chocolate is not going to damage a knife but if you need more oomph a chisel should surely give it to you. Me, I bench press 350# and have more than enough oomph to cut chocolate.

Ken

I used a small cheese cleaver to chop over a pound of bittersweet chocolate this morning. It worked fine, but I'd love to find something similar and just a bit larger if I were chopping lots of chocolate frequently - which I don't do.

I had this problem lately...I just used my man hands to break it up.

It was an 17.5oz of Valor.

My daughter uses our Shun santuko to chop chocolate. It works quite well for that purpose.

BTW, the Cannoli Cake in the Good Housekeeping dessert cookbook, with chopped Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate mixed into the cannoli, is to die for! :-D

I would suggest using a Chinese cleaver or a 10" German style chef's knife for chocolate. Your Shun santoku has 15 degree bevels and even though it has very hard steel (about RC-60) cutting hard chocolate is not good for the edge. I think it is easier to control a heavier knife with about a 20 degree bevel angle when cutting chocolate. I picked up a Chinese cleaver for cheap about 20 years ago and it works great.