The Best Cleavers

Our top choice is a stellar performer, though at just 6.25 inches, its blade is a touch shorter than we prefer. Still, its well-balanced weight and very sharp, tall blade made it a pleasure to use, and it sustained relatively little wear and tear during testing. Most testers liked the steel handle, finding it comfortable and surprisingly grippy, though a few testers found it a bit too narrow and one took issue with the ergonomic bumps on its underside.

This cleaver was great at cutting through thick bones and dense squash, thanks to its long, slightly curved, well-honed blade. Although the blade’s spine is relatively thick, the sharpness of the blade’s edge ensured that cuts were clean and thorough—the blade never wedged into the food and got stuck halfway through, as with other models with thick blades. The cleaver’s wood handle was long and easy for hands of all sizes to grip. Our main complaint? This cleaver is on the heavy side; while that weight provides extra power with every stroke, the knife can be a bit harder to wield for long periods as a result.

This cleaver is one of the heaviest we’ve tested, conferring a fair amount of power with every stroke of its blade, though also proving a bit more fatiguing to lift and maneuver for longer stints. Its long blade spans larger pieces of food easily and is sharp enough that it is able to cut cleanly through food without wedging in, despite its thick spine. We liked its long wood handle, which had a grippy texture that made it easy to grab even when our hands were wet.

Made by the Japanese company Tojiro, this inexpensive Chinese-style cleaver had a long, extremely sharp, very slightly curved blade that cut through bone and squash easily. Our complaints were relatively small It’s lighter-weight than we prefer, so we had to use a little more muscle to power through food. And its handle is quite short, so larger hands sometimes felt cramped. Because its blade is on the thinner side, it’s also a bit more prone to chipping. Still, this knife offers excellent value for its price, making it a great entry-level option for those in the market.

This cleaver’s very long, very tall, fairly thin blade made it a breeze to maneuver through large butternut squashes and to halve whole ducks, though it sometimes felt a little too big for smaller chicken parts. Because the blade was so thin, its edge felt razor-sharp, but it was also vulnerable to blunting and chipping. And its wooden handle rattled when we chopped, further calling into question its durability. Still, it was generally great at chopping, and we didn’t notice any real decline in sharpness at the end of testing.

This American-made cleaver recently had some changes made to its construction, with a blade now made from a slightly different steel alloy than when we previously reviewed it. They’ve also improved the build on its wood handle, which no longer has the durability issues we noted previously (the handle once rattled on its rivets). Unfortunately, the company also must have also changed how they sharpen and finish its blade, which now arrives in an extremely dull state, making it particularly hard to use. (We checked two different copies.) Otherwise, this would have been a promising option, with a long blade that handles bigger pieces of food easily and moderate weight for a good balance of power and maneuverability.

We had high hopes for this meat cleaver, made by Kai, the same manufacturer as a former winner. For the most part, we liked its handle, which was a good size and shape for most hands, though it was a tad slippery, especially when wet. Its blade was long, tall, and sharp, so it performed serviceably, cleaving chicken parts well. But that same blade also had an incredibly thick spine, wedging into butternut squash instead of cutting through it cleanly. And it was on the heavy side, so it was hard to wield for long stints without our arms and wrists aching.

Built like a battle ax, this cleaver was the heaviest in our testing, with the bulk of its weight in its blade. As a result, it was sometimes hard to aim consistently and to use for long periods of time. Its thick (if relatively sharp) blade was fine for cutting chicken but tended to crack butternut squash and maul delicate roast duck. The handle, while grippy, was too thick for many hands and had a large finger guard that limited its affordance. But this cleaver seemed superdurable—meant to last.

One of the largest models in our testing, this traditional-looking, blade-heavy cleaver was too big and unwieldy to use comfortably or accurately, wedging (not cutting) through squash and making uneven slices of roast duck. Its blade was relatively sharp but didn’t always feel that way, thanks to its thicker spine. And while we liked the grippiness of its handle, its ergonomic bumps and large bolster limited our grip options. Testers and butchers agreed: Unless you break down whole animals in your spare time, this knife is overkill.

This cleaver had a relatively thin, sharp blade and a comfortable (if slightly narrow) handle. If only we could have supersized it! At just 5.75 inches long and weighing just 11 ounces, it felt better suited to butchering quail than chicken. As a result, we struggled a bit to summon the requisite coverage and leverage when breaking down butternut squash or duck. And while sharp, that thin blade was somewhat vulnerable to chipping.

This inexpensive cleaver did a decent job of chopping chicken parts. But at 6 inches long and 2.7 inches high, the thin, chip-prone blade felt undersized—too small to take on butternut squash or a whole roast duck. Its blade was honed to a 22-degree angle, which meant that it didn’t always feel sharp in action even when it was. Finally, its handle was a little narrow, which cramped larger hands, and a little too slick.

This meat cleaver put grace and beauty into the most barbarous tasks. Its perfectly distributed weight and long, tall, gently curved, razor-sharp blade made for truly effortless chopping. And its long, straight pakkawood handle gave us plenty of grip options, although at times its smooth surface got a little slick. Yes, this cleaver is expensive—but you’ll never need another. Strong and durable, it breezed through testing with minimal wear.

We loved this well-made, durable, ultra-keen Japanese-made meat cleaver, which effortlessly hewed through everything we put in front of it. Its grippy wood handle was comfortable for hands of all sizes to hold, even when dealing with raw, slippery chicken parts. Two tiny quibbles: Its blade is a touch shorter in height than we prefer, so it isn’t quite as easy to direct through food. And its weight falls toward the tip of the blade.

This cleaver won over testers with its sharp, clean cuts and long, sturdy, comfortable (if slightly narrow) handle. Lightweight, it was easy to lift, but it required a little extra force to drive through bigger bones. A few testers wished its machete-like blade were a bit taller—it was trickier to direct through a big butternut squash and a whole duck, and we couldn’t scoop as much food up with it. Because the blade was thin, it chipped a little, but this knife still felt keen and capable at the end of testing.

The handle on this cleaver was great—long and grippy. But the thin blade was shaped like a machete’s and was slightly weighted toward the tip, throwing off the cleaver’s balance. It wasn’t very tall, so it was harder to direct downward through butternut squash. Worse, it was inexplicably blunt and became blunter over the course of testing. This cleaver was the lightest one we tested, which meant we had to use more force to drive it home. Still, it did a decent job of chopping through chicken parts.

Testers were divided on this European-style cleaver. Some loved the power and durability afforded by its weighty construction, but others found it awkward and blade-heavy, in part because of an unusually long bolster, which threw off the balance. The blade itself was very sharp, but because it was also very thick and had a large edge angle, it sometimes wedged itself inside butternut squash instead of slicing through cleanly. Some testers also wished the blade were just a bit taller and longer.