The 6-1/2-inch high carbon stainless steel blade of the G-12 Meat Cleaver has a thinner edge and a harder temper than most butcher's cleavers. That gives the cleaver a sharper and faster-cutting edge but does reduce the impact strength. Global recommends cutting through small bones only, by placing the edge on the bone and pressing straight down with one hand on the spine of the blade. Cleaving cuts in poultry and fish carcasses are more practical for this knife than smashing through the harder bones of pork or beef.

Global lists the weight of this cleaver at 15.5 ounces, which is light for a chopping cleaver, but it's a weight that most people will find easy to handle and accurate to use. The 15-degree sharpening angle makes the G-12 cut much more efficiently than most cleavers. Thicker steel makes the G-12 stronger than vegetable cleavers but better at cutting through skin, tendons, and gristle than at the delicate work of slicing vegetables. As refined as the G-12 is, it's still a butcher's tool.

Clean the Global G-12 by hand in mild detergent immediately after using, and wipe the knife dry before storing it away. Leaving food or even clean water to dry on the blade could discolor the steel.

See the Victorinox Restaurant Meat Cleaver if you need a cleaver for the really hard jobs.

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Global 6 1 2 inch Meat Cleaver NEW US $169.95   Auction Ends: 20d 4h 28m

In this cleaver, the tang connects through the hardwood grip to a solid stainless steel end cap. The front end of the grip gets reinforcement from a stainless steel ferrule, and the steel tang has such thickness that there's no need to worry that the knife can't take a beating. It's able to handle the chopping chores of the average kitchen without any problems. Comparable to German steel in quality, this Brazilian cleaver is tempered tough and won't chip if used on hard bones. The edge will deform if abused, and with a blade this thick, sharpening is a job for the whetstone, not the honing steel.

The Olivier Anquier pattern uses ironwood grips sculpted in a comfortable shape with a corrugated belly that adds to the non-slip feel. Ironwood, a tree from the acacia family, is native to South America and, like many tropical hardwoods, has enough density to rival modern composites in durability. You get the beauty of natural wood without having to worry you've just contributed to the demise of the rain forest. Acacia grows quickly and abundantly and qualifies as a renewable resource. Hand washing and drying is the only special care the cleaver needs.

For a light vegetable cleaver made for slicing rather than chopping, see the Victorinox Chinese Cleaver.

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The vegetable cleaver differs in several ways from the heavy European butcher's tool. Thinner high carbon stainless steel for blade and tang makes the knife an excellent slicing tool and easy to handle. Instead of the wide bevel of a meat cleaver, the edge is taper-ground like a cook's knife. The slightly convex cutting edge is amazingly efficient for mincing and dicing. Rock it over fresh herbs like a mezzaluna knife, and it will seem twice as fast as a chef's knife once you get the hang of it.

The wide blade keeps guiding fingers and knuckles well above the cutting board and makes working with larger vegetables easy. Some skilled Asian cooks use this knife more often than any other. Many modern versions are made with rat tail tangs and ferrule-reinforced handles, but Wusthof uses their more reliable riveted slab handle build. The strong blade needs no bolster, and the simple polymer slab grip provides plenty of grip and control.

Maintaining any plain edged Gourmet knife is easy. The steel is hardened to provide a tough cutting edge that restores quickly with a honing steel and can be reworked at home with flat whetstones. Keep the polish intact by washing the knife by hand, not in a machine.

For a more refined version of the Asian cleaver, see the Wusthof Japanese-Style Nakiri Bocho.

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New WUSTHOF Grand Prix ll 6 CLEAVER Knife model 4675 US $99.00   Auction Ends: 2d 18h 32m

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It's a safe bet that this is a much better knife than the cheaper hardware store versions you'll find overseas, priced for the low-income household. Wusthof makes this knife of high quality forged Solingen stainless steel, accurately tempered and ice-hardened for extra toughness and long-lasting cutting edge. This style of cleaver really is handy in the kitchen but is used mostly for cutting vegetables and fruits. In many applications, chefs use it like a cook's knife for mincing, chopping, and slicing. Unlike some high-end Asian cutlery, the Wusthof nakiri is tempered for toughness and easy sharpening. If you cross the line into slicing meat with this nakiri and happen to chop through a bone, don't worry. The edge will hold up to it.

Though the nakiri isn't a common style in American kitchens, it's a fast crossover because it's very efficient and easy to use. Not many will miss the pointed blade of a chef's knife, since few use the larger cook's knives for detailed piercing and gouging. This knife puts all the cutting edge close to the cutting board and has enough blade width for very controlled work. Wusthof also makes this knife in a santoku style with a granton hollow grind for an even more efficient cut.

The Wusthof Classic series features polymer-slab handles fastened securely to full tangs with stainless steel rivets. Always wash these fine knives by hand to protect the finish and the cutting edge.

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Smaller than you'd expect a cleaver to be (if you're a westerner yourself), this lighter chopping and slicing knife has a strong blade eight inches long and three inches wide. Thinner steel blade stock makes the Chinese Cleaver a better slicer than the western types, but this knife is not made for chopping through bone. Use it like a santoku for slicing vegetables, or rock it over fresh herbs on a cutting board for rapid mincing. The convex edge allows an action similar to a mezzaluna and more balanced than a cook's knife.

In an expert's hands, the limits of this knife are few -- but if you've not used one before, it will take some practice. To truly get the idea it's best to watch someone who knows -- which could literally be anyone who grew up around a Chinese kitchen. This is one of the most common and most valued knives in Asian food prep.

Construction of the R.H. Forschner Victorinox Chinese Cleaver is less bulletproof than the usual Victorinox style. A narrow rat tail tang inserted through a metal ferrule joins the turned walnut handle to the blade. This isn't a dishwasher-proof knife, and even a long immersion in dishwater could cause the wood handle to first swell and then loosen. Wash the knife by hand in mild detergent.

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Hunters will also be interested in this good knife, because field dressing larger game only accounts for part of the work. The precision work happens at home with specialized butcher knives. The Wusthof Gourmet Cleaver is the traditional answer to a butcher's chores, with a thick laser-cut blade and a strong cutting edge that splits even the heaviest bones. Use it to open up soup bones for simmering beef stock or to quickly quarter whole poultry.

Many cleavers are still forged in old patterns with heavy bolsters. The Gourmet from Wusthof uses a simpler and lighter design but doesn't skimp on strength. The knife blank is cut from steel stock four millimeters thick with a full tang handle. Slabs of black composite triple-riveted to the tang create a durable and comfortable grip without adding much more weight to an already hefty knife. While built for the heaviest jobs, this cleaver will come in handy for many common chores like tenderizing meat or dividing blocks of still frozen food. It's a good backup blade for the precision cutlery of today that can't withstand the roughest work.

Wusthof's no-stain high carbon steel requires only ordinary care. Hand washing and drying will preserve the flawless high polish of this fine knife.

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With a blade only 2-1/2 inches wide and 7 inches long and a black Fibrox grip, the Restaurant Cleaver is small for a butcher's cleaver but still weighs a full pound. Extra stock thickness accounts for the weight, allowing the Victorinox Cleaver to hold up to the toughest chopping jobs. The slightly smaller size makes the cleaver much easier to handle than full sized butcher's cleavers.

As top quality cutlery evolves towards more fragile steel, the rough jobs in the kitchen often seem to be left behind. This type of cleaver fills the gap, able to handle anything the modern steel skips. Chop through joints of meat and even heavy soup bones; divide blocks of frozen food and smash ice. I use the back of a cleaver for opening coconuts -- the edge would hold up, but the spine is more efficient. Sometimes you need an axe, and sometimes you need something blunt. This is both.

Don't confuse the butcher's cleaver with the very common Chinese vegetable cleaver -- the Asian version slices like a European chef's knife. The Victorinox cleaver is for making smaller pieces from big pieces, not for slicing thin.

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Cleavers intended for dividing carcasses during butchering aren't always a common tool in today's kitchen. Even though most of us don't do the roughest part of that work, this blade still comes in handy. If you like to make your own soup stock, this Henckels cleaver will chop through the heaviest soup bones to the marrow and the real flavor. If you barbecue for large groups of people Hawaiian-style, the Henckels will divide a whole hog into parts you can easily handle.

The full tang and polypropylene handle slabs combine with the six-inch-long cleaver blade to make a knife that's actually more axe than cutting tool. Laser cutting allows the blade to be shaped from a single blank without heating and distortion that could alter the characteristics of the high carbon stainless steel. Though this isn't a forged design and doesn't have the forged bolster of higher priced versions, the steel itself is so thick that this doesn't lower the performance of the cleaver at all.

Sharpening of any cleaver can be a problem -- expect to spend time with whetstones rather than honing steels.

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Henckels Four Star 6 Meat Cleaver US $99.95   Auction Ends: 4d 1h 6m

A slicing knife rather than a chopping blade, the vegetable cleaver shows the rippled low friction surface of Shun's unique Damascus style layering. Thirty-two thin layers of tough high tensile stainless steel sandwich a central core layer of hard VG-10 steel. This inner core gives the blade the ability to hold a thin edge, in the same way the best of the old Damascus steel samurai swords were made.

This hard edge may chip if used on bones or frozen food, and should only be used on wooden or plastic cutting boards. For slicing work, this is one of the best, deserving of that extra care. The rippled blade breaks up the surface contact with slices of food in the same way that the hollow grind of a santoku does, but makes this knife stronger.

The D-shaped PakkaWood handle is durable and easy to grip, and the knife cleans up with a quick hand wash and dry -- it should not be run through the dishwasher. Flat stones rather than sharpening steels are recommended for maintaining the edge.

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SHUN KNIFE DM 0712 CLASSIC 775 INCH VEGGIE CLEAVER NIB US $175.00   Auction Ends: 27d 19h 23m

Strong enough to chop small bones and sharp enough to efficiently and quickly slice fish and other delicate meat, with proper care this stout knife should be a welcome addition to your cutlery collection. With this type of construction--a rat tail tang force fitted into a wooden handle through a metal ferrule--washing in a dishwasher is out of the question. In fact, you should be careful to keep that handle from picking up moisture at all. If the wood swells, the handle will loosen.

Less expensive knives may still sometimes be forged from carbon steel, not stainless. That doesn't mean they are bad knives, but if you get a bargain that's plain old carbon steel you'll need to rub it down with a drop or two of vegetable oil before storing it away. You can also expect blemishes that don't affect its utility.

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