Cleavers?

A

Alberta Ed

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Jun 29, 1999
Messages
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A month ago, my wife, the serial knife abuser (we'll be married 47 years this June), snapped off the tip of our 20-year-old Henckels French Chef's knife while trying to chip off a wedge from a block of frozen feta cheese. I'm grateful she didn't slip and hurt herself; she should have just used the edge. Anyway, I can grind the tip back, sort of. Or maybe I'll just use it pointless for cutting pizza. Anyway, I was thinking that I should get her a good sturdy cleaver for her birthday later this month. Any suggestions from the cleaver cognoscenti out there?
 
It's just a cheap one, but I have been using a Chicago Cutlery cleaver for years, maybe a decade or so. But ever since I moved a BK 5 into my kitchen, it might as well not exist. If I ever got around to stripping the BK 10, that would be far more cleaver-ish, yet still scratch my need to be eccentric. The wife likes Henkels though, so it might be best to just pony up and get the Henckels 6" and call it a day. I know that if my wife ever lost/broke her Henckels Chef knife, she would send me out in the dark of night uphill in a blizzard for a new one.
 
There can a big difference between vegetable cleavers and meat cleavers. Veggie cleavers are typically more thinly (flat) ground, while meat cleavers are much thick and typically have a deep convex grind at the edge (meat cleavers also usually have a hole in the front top corner, making them easy to identify).

Here's what we have in our kitchen:

Veggie cleaver: Shun Classic Chinese #DM-0712 ($200-$230)
Meat cleaver: Victorinox Forschner #40093 ($100-$150)

Both are excellent, and the only cleavers we will likely ever need.
 
link2derek said:
There can a big difference between vegetable cleavers and meat cleavers. Veggie cleavers are typically more thinly (flat) ground, while meat cleavers are much thick and typically have a deep convex grind at the edge (meat cleavers also usually have a hole in the front top corner, making them easy to identify).

Here's what we have in our kitchen:

Veggie cleaver: Shun Classic Chinese #DM-0712 ($200-$230)
Meat cleaver: Victorinox Forschner #40093 ($100-$150)

Both are excellent, and the only cleavers we will likely ever need.
Click to expand...

Yep, I have both. I have one friend who REALLY likes the vegetable cleaver, but I keep having to remind him it's NOT a general chef's knife. He was trying to split toffee with it the other day, I look over and he has the vegetable knife! I tell him, that's not the right knife for the job. He's quizzical, and says but it's so sharp. I then have him get my old hickory general purpose, and explain to him about axes and chipping, and then have him answer some questions to show he understands.

I like having diverse knives in the kitchen, but unfortunately many chefs refuse to learn to use the right tool for the job. See if you wife would be willing to use 2-3 knives for work in the kitchen, otherwise it's a human problem, not a hardware problem.

Zero
 
Sounds like you're looking for a household cleaver, which is lighter and thinner than a pro-grade one made for bone chopping duties. If you want it stainless and inexpensive then Mundial has a few options.
 
Forschner is what the chefs buy at the cutlery store I frequent.
 
link2derek nailed it. There are vegetable cleavers and there are meat cleavers. The latter is much thicker and should have no problem chopping ribs and whole chickens. I use a cheap $25 master chef meat cleaver which seems to work fine.
 
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