Cao Yuehai, the founder of Cao Zhengxing kitchen knife, is from Dacaowan, Haojiamiao, Huangpi County. In the first month of the 20th year of Daoguang reign in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1840), a kitchen knife of Han Dynasty was forged, which was named "Cao Zhengxing". Tongzhi for six years (AD 1867) was managed by Cao Shi II. The following year, Cao Zhengxing opened a knife shop in Zhang Meizhi Lane, Hankou, winning customers' trust with "pure steel, genuine goods, guaranteed replacement". The business was extremely prosperous. In the early years of the Republic of China, it spread to the third generation in Cao Shi, changed its business model, bought a large number of knife blanks, engraved with Cao Zhengxing's brand after stereotypes and quenching, and sold them at a price 30% ~ 50% higher than that of its peers. Net profit of 60 silver dollars in the peak season. Later, due to the profligacy of Cao Shi's descendants, business declined. On the eve of the liberation of Wuhan, the fourth generation of Cao raised funds to resume his business, and finally he was forced to support his family because of the shortage of funds. ?
In the 1955 cooperative movement, Cao Zhengxing, Cao, Cao Zhengxing and Tang Daxing formed the fourth tool production cooperative. In May of the same year, it was renamed as "Wuhan Caozhengxing Tool Production Cooperative", with 39 employees and 6 red stoves. 1959, the quality of kitchen knives ranked among the national advanced ranks, won the title of Red Flag Unit in Hubei Province, and participated in the national talent gathering activities. 196 1 year, mechanical production is combined with traditional technology, from blanking, forging to cold working, and flow production is gradually formed; Composite flat steel is also used as the material, and the production process of red furnace clamping steel is changed from manual forging to red rolling air hammer forging. The following year, the Municipal Handicraft Industry Bureau appraised the quality of Cao Zhengxing's kitchen knife: sharp edge, good steel fire, smooth surface, firm handle and many varieties, and it was rated as a brand-name product. The products are sold to Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Guangxi and other places, and also exported to Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Mauritius and other countries and regions, with an annual production capacity of10.2 million units. From 196 1 for five consecutive years, it won the first place in previous competitions in the same industry in the province and was listed as a national high-quality kitchen knife. ?
When Cao Zhengxing started his business, according to the living customs of Hubei people who like to stew pig bones and cow bones, he developed a cone-shaped plate kitchen knife with a thin front and a thick back, and a front cut and a rear cut. Its materials are exquisite, and American Baojian brand steel (about 50 # carbon bonded steel) is selected. The steel is good and the hardness is moderate. Forged kitchen knives are both rigid and flexible, and the blade is sharp and not easy to crack or curl. ? During the operation, the knife plate was hammered on both sides, forming a technical operation method of "walking steadily, clamping steel tightly, sticking flat, uniform blade and clear green steel and white iron", and summing up a set of "three steels (trial steel, forged steel and clamping steel)" and "four ports" (shovel mouth and lifting mouth)
, straight mouth, grinding mouth) and "one quenching" (flat burning knife back after mud coating and then water quenching). ?
After the establishment of the cooperative, there were five knife shops in Hankou, including Cao Zhengxing, Laoer and Sanfang, Cao who was famous for his kitchen knives, Cao who was good at his kitchen knives and Cao who was good at his calligraphy knives. And brought together Tang, Lei, Cao Xinghan, Hu, Dai, and other famous craftsmen in Wuhan knife and scissors industry to give full play to their technical advantages? However, since 1970s, the development of Cao Zhengxing Knife Factory has been slow. Lack of funds, small factory buildings and outdated equipment. By the end of 1985, Cao Zhengxing Knife Factory had 134 employees, with a building area of 1 800 square meters. There are 42 sets of special and general equipment, 50% of which run with diseases, and the only self-made gear shearing machine has been used for more than 20 years. Civil kitchen knives, restaurant kitchen knives, miscellaneous knives, slaughter knives, industrial knives and various special-shaped knives have more than 300 specifications, with an annual production capacity of 310.5 million.
The combined kitchen knife invented by Wuhan Cao Zhengxing Knife Factory, located in Jianghan North Road, Hankou, Hubei Province, was successfully patented in 1988. The combined kitchen knife is an improvement of the kitchen knife, but the existing integral kitchen knife is complex and backward, and the old kitchen knife can not meet various requirements of cutting and digging. The new combined kitchen knife is to make the blade and handle into an assembled structure, which is completed through the assembly hole on the blade and the fixing pin on the handle body. This kind of blade has simple process and is convenient for large-scale mechanized production. The combined kitchen knife with different blades can meet different use requirements.