Meat Cleaver Suggestions Wanted

[Brandon Nelson]

I'm looking to add a meat cleaver to the collection for breaking down chicken bones at minimum. I'm ok spending up to $100 on a cleaver.

I've looked at the F-dick cleavers as well as a few other. There is little info out there about cleavers though so I figured I would ask.

 

[Spideyjg]

If you notice they start getting rated by weight. a 1 to 2 lb cleaver is all a home cook should ever need. I have a 3 lb and have rehabbed several similar and can't think of a thing I can buy at the store that needs that caliber.

Had a culinary instructor who taught whole hog butchering bought a rehabbed 3 lb and loved it but split their cutting board with it. Got to cut across the grain not with it.

The other folks that want 2 lb plus are those that do pit BBQ of whole animals. Pretty common thing in Hawaii and in Mexico.

Anything above 3 lb is more slaughterhouse tools

 

[Florida Jim]

For breaking down chickens or ribs and for other BBQ chores, a medium-sized cleaver should work fine (6-7" blade, less than 2 lbs.). For about half of your budget you can pick up a really nice and highly-rated Dexter-Russell, Zwilling, Sato, Dalstrong, or Henckels cleaver. Wustoff and Shun make really nice cleavers, but they're north of $100. Another option, and my personal choice, is to pick up a beautiful vintage cleaver or two off of eBay. You can get some great prices if you look around (I've never spent more than $25)- most will need a little cleaning up, but they are just as rugged and dependable as the day they were forged, and they make great conversation pieces in your kitchen. Just sayin'.

 

[Brandon Nelson]

I ended up buying a Nexus 7" High Carbon Stainless Steel Meat Cleaver as they were on "anniversary" sale somewhere for $30 bucks. I've never heard of them but the build quality looks OK after receiving the item. I'll see how it goes. 15.6 oz so a 1lber. I will look at the ebay options as wekk. I did look at Dalstrong as well and most of their cleavers aren't rated for use with bones. Their obliterator is and it's 3lbs but OOS. The F-Dick 2lber looks nice four around $80.