Thwack, Thwack! I Tested 9 Meat Cleavers—4 Cut Through Bones With Ease

Meat cleavers occupy a strange space in the world of knives. Most of us picture a butcher wielding a massive cleaver, but the reality is most contemporary butchers use boning knives to hew meat and heavy-duty electric saws to slice through thick bones. Cleavers aren’t entirely practical for large-scale butchery (and they can’t really cut through large, heavy bones), but they do offer versatility to home cooks.

Probably the best use of a meat cleaver is to break down smaller, thinner bones, like those in chickens. They’re also good for removing meat from larger bone-in pieces (like a pork shoulder), cutting up barbecue ribs for serving, cleaving lobster tails in twain, “grinding” meat (read: mincing it), and even using the heavy flat side of the blade to crush aromatics like garlic, lemongrass, or ginger. 

With their at-home functionality in mind, I ran nine cleavers through the wringer, testing their initial sharpness before using them to cut bone-in chicken breast and butternut squash, as well as to chop and mince pork shoulder.

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Overall Meat Cleaver

Victorinox 7 Inch Blade Restaurant Cleaver with Walnut Handle

$74 at Amazon View on Webstaurant Store View on Katom.com

With a super-sharp and durable blade, this budget-friendly cleaver aced all of our tests. I still use it nearly two years later, and it hasn't dulled a bit.

Another Fantastic Cleaver

Global 6.5-Inch Meat Cleaver

$180 at Amazon $180 at Williams Sonoma $180 at Sur La Table

This heavy-duty cleaver was surprisingly sharp and nimble; it easily cut through slippery chicken skin and meat and cleaved cleanly through chicken bones.

A Great, Precise Cleaver

Lamson Meat Cleaver

$90 at Amazon View on Lamsonproducts.com

Almost identical to the Victorinox, this cleaver was similarly sharp and agile, while still being powerful enough to cut through chicken breast bones.

The Best Heavy-Duty Cleaver

Messermeister Four Seasons Pro Series 6-Inch Heavy Meat Cleaver

$60 at Amazon $83 at Kohls.com View on Messermeister.com

This hefty cleaver’s straight-edged blade hacked and hewed through bone and muscle easily. And even though it was thick and weighty, it was still surprisingly nimble and sharp. 

The Tests

• Pre-and-Post-Testing Sharpness Measuring Test: Prior to and post-testing, I measured each blade’s sharpness with a sharpness measurer three times, averaging the results; the lower the number, the sharper the blade.
• Cut Bone-In Chicken Breast Test: Since breaking down chickens is a cleaver’s bread and butter, I used each knife to cut bone-in chicken breasts, slicing them into three pieces. I also used the blades to remove the rib section. 
• Cut Butternut Squash Test (Winners-Only): I used each of our winning cleavers to cut hardy butternut squash into large pieces. This was an excellent test of the cleaver's agility and power, since slicing through the thick squash is a tough task.
• Cleave and Mince Pork Shoulder Test (Winners-Only): Using each of our favorite cleavers, I sliced off and minced pieces of pork from a bone-in pork shoulder.
• Cleaning and Usability Tests: Throughout testing, I examined how easy each cleaver was to maneuver and use, and if they were easy to clean. 
  

What We Learned 

What Is a Meat Cleaver, and What’s It Used For?

Not to be confused with a rectangular-bladed nakiri knife or Chinese cleaver, which are primarily used for chopping up vegetables and boneless proteins, a meat cleaver is a large, hefty knife that can cut through sinew, meat, and some bones. That said, most meat cleavers won’t be able to chop through thicker bones (like English short ribs); you’ll need a professional butcher’s saw to do that. Instead, they shine at tasks like breaking down chickens or turkey (or lobster, shrimp, or crabs) or cutting pieces of meat into chunks (think slicing up ribs for serving). Their weighty blades also make them adept at hand-grinding meat. They’re also useful for cutting up hardy vegetables, like winter squash or even celeriac, and the flat side of their blade can be used to crush ginger, lemongrass, and garlic. 

What Are the Different Types of Cleavers?

As mentioned, meat cleavers are very different than other cleaver-like blades. The other most prominent cleaver is the Chinese cleaver. This blade is more of an all-purpose knife than a knife for thwacking through bones, with a thin edge and middling weight. Unlike a meat cleaver, which you wouldn't use to thinly slice vegetables, an agile Chinese cleaver excels at this. Best practice for using it entails cutting with a pushing motion, rather than the rocking style employed when using a Western-style knife.

The other knife that might come to mind when you think of a cleaver is the nakiri. However, this Japanese blade isn't actually a cleaver: It's a vegetable knife. The rectangular shape, paired with a sharp, thin blade, makes for an adept dicer and slicer. Like a Chinese cleaver, it's meant to be used with a push-cut slicing motion.

Sharper Blades Cleaved Cleanly

While you might not be using a cleaver to mince garlic or chop onions, the blade still needs to be sharp to cut through flesh and bone. I found that less sharp blades, like the Wusthof (which had a 410 sharpness average, which is usually when edges need maintenance) and Dexter Russell (which had a 308 sharpness average, which is technically high-end new cutlery level sharp, but it didn’t seem like it), slipped and slid over chicken skin and wriggled through the meat instead of cleanly slicing through it. And while they eventually cut through bone, it took a good amount of effort (and leveraging my body weight over the blades) to finish the job.

Conversely, super sharp blades, like the Victorinox (147 sharpness average, which is double edge razor blade sharp) and Global (202, which is utility razor blade sharp), not only cleaved bone easily and cleanly, but also sliced through skin and meat without a hitch. And while the Messermeister didn’t have a super sharp blade on paper, I found it actually was so hefty that it cut through flesh and bone easily. 

Bigger (and Heftier) Wasn’t Necessarily Better

You want a weighty cleaver—the heft helps carry the blade downward through tough-to-break bones. That said, you don’t want Thor’s hammer. Some cleavers were just way too heavy and large. For example, the Dexter Russell, which was the heaviest of the lineup at 1.7 pounds and had a 7.25-inch long blade, was tiring to wield (my poor wrist!). I also had trouble controlling its motion; it jumped around and slid on chicken skin. Instead, I preferred weighty but well-balanced cleavers.

A prime example was the Global which, at 15.5 ounces, brought the heft but balanced it with a Goldilocks blade length of 6.25 inches. It got the job done without feeling like I was thwacking around uncontrollably. 

A Slightly Curved Blade Was Preferred

While not a dealbreaker, cleavers that had slightly curved blades made it a little easier to leverage the weight of the cleaver over bones, cutting them cleanly. Curved blades, like the ones on the Victorinox and Lamson, also helped with tasks like mincing meat for ground applications, since I could rock the blade forward and backward, really pummeling the meat. Straight-edged blades, like that of the Messermeister, were harder to mince with and required a more up-down chopping motion. 

A Solid Handle Made a Difference

While I initially liked the Winco cleaver—it was quite sharp—the blade was too long (a whopping eight inches, the longest of the bunch), and, even worse, the handle was wobbly; it felt like the metal tang wasn’t securely attached to the wood. And when you’re wielding a heavy blade such as a cleaver, you want a sturdy, secure handle, or else using it feels ineffective and dangerous.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Meat Cleaver

A good meat cleaver should be sharp and have enough heft to cut through chicken bones. It should also have a sturdy handle, and feel well-balanced. If it’s too heavy, it will be unwieldy and hard to control. I liked curved blades, which helped me get leverage when cutting through bone or mincing meat.

Our Favorite Meat Cleavers

The Best Meat Cleaver

Victorinox 7 Inch Blade Restaurant Cleaver with Walnut Handle

$74 at Amazon View on Webstaurant Store View on Katom.com

What we liked: This was one of the more affordable options in my lineup, but, as I've learned throughout years of testing, you can’t necessarily judge a knife by its price tag. Eerily similar in shape and size to the Lamson (but nearly half the price), the Victorinox featured a curved, tall blade that I could lever nicely to get enough pressure to cut through bones. It cut through the first bone-in chicken breast so easily, I couldn’t believe it and had to chop another one up just to make sure—and it breezed through that one, too. In addition to being sharp, sturdy, and powerful, the wooden handle had a nice grip to it, and the blade felt nimble and nicely weighted. It's held up over time too—and I use it frequently to cut the backbone from chickens.

What we didn’t like: A quibble I had was that the wooden handle, while comfy to hold, came a little dinged up.

Key Specs 

• Out-of-box sharpness average: 147 (utility razor blade sharp)
• Blade thickness: 3 mm
• Length of blade: 7 inches
• Length of handle: 5.5 inches
• Weight: 14.5 ounces
• Materials: Stainless steel, wood
• Care: Hand-wash

Another Fantastic Cleaver

Global 6.5-Inch Meat Cleaver

$180 at Amazon $180 at Williams Sonoma $180 at Sur La Table

What we liked: This cleaver impressed me from the get-go: It cleanly and efficiently chopped hefty bone-in chicken breasts and butternut squash, and minced pork into a fine grind. The blade, which was 6.25 inches long and three centimeters thick, was hefty but controllable and well-balanced. 

What we didn’t like: My one qualm about this cleaver was the metal handle, which was a little bit slippery, though it was speckled with divots to add grip. It's also quite pricey.

Key Specs 

• Out-of-box sharpness average: 202 (new high-end cutlery edge)
• Blade thickness: 4 mm
• Length of blade: 6 1/4 inches
• Length of handle: 5 inches
• Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Materials: Stainless steel 
• Care: Hand-wash

A Great, Precise Cleaver

Lamson Meat Cleaver

$90 at Amazon View on Lamsonproducts.com

What we liked: Sporting a large, swooping blade, this cleaver chopped through bone and butternut squash with ease. It was very sharp, nimble, and easy to maneuver around bone when breaking down a pork shoulder. 

What we didn’t like: This cleaver was ever so slightly less sharp than the Victorinox, and though both cleavers looked near-identical, the Lamson was almost twice the price.

Key Specs 

• Out-of-box sharpness average: 257 (new high-end cutlery edge)
• Blade thickness: 3 mm
• Length of blade: 7 1/8 inches
• Length of handle: 5 1/2 inches
• Weight: 14.5 ounces
• Materials: Stainless steel, wood
• Care: Hand-wash

The Best Heavy-Duty Cleaver

Messermeister Four Seasons Pro Series 6-Inch Heavy Meat Cleaver

$60 at Amazon $83 at Kohls.com View on Messermeister.com

What we liked: This weighty blade—while not the sharpest—was surprisingly adept at cutting through everything we set it against. The thick, 4-centimeter blade had a heft that wedged into foods, splicing them with shear force—though it did a surprisingly clean job of it. We also liked the grippy, plastic handle. 

What we didn’t like: At 15.1 ounces, this was a weightier blade, which can be harder to handle.

Key Specs 

• Out-of-box sharpness average: 692 (moderately rolled edge)
• Width of blade: 4 mm
• Length of blade: 6 1/8 inches
• Length of handle: 5 3/4 inches
• Weight: 15.1 ounces
• Materials: Stainless carbon alloy, polypropylene
• Care: Hand-wash

The Competition 

• Dexter-Russell Traditional Series Cleaver: While this cleaver certainly had heft (it was the heaviest of the lineup at 1.72 pounds), it was almost too large and heavy to use comfortably. Plus, it wasn’t all that sharp, skidding across chicken skin and wriggling through meat, and I really had to leverage my weight over it to cut through bone. 
• Winco 8" Heavy Duty Chinese Cleaver with Wooden Handle: While this may be called a Chinese cleaver, it’s actually a meat cleaver—and a sharp one at that. However, the blade was quite long, making it hard to maneuver, and the tang wasn’t securely attached to the handle. 
• WÜSTHOF Classic 6" Cleaver Knife: This cleaver struggled to cut through thin chicken ribs and slipped on the surrounding skin, sinew, and meat. It also had a tough time breaking through the breast bones, and I had to leverage my body weight over the cutting board and blade to get it to cut through. Overall, it felt a bit too small and light to be effective. 
• HENCKELS Classic Razor-Sharp 6-inch Meat Cleaver: While this wasn’t a terrible cleaver (it cut fairly cleanly and easily), it still struggled a bit to cut through bone. 
• Zwilling Gourmet 6-Inch, Cleaver: This cleaver gave a middling performance. It cut semi-cleanly through chicken skin and smaller bones, but larger chicken bones were a struggle (cutting through them required a good amount of leverage and effort).

FAQs

What is a meat cleaver good for?

A meat cleaver is great for cutting through tough cuts of meat and small bones, like in a chicken. They are also great for mincing meat for hand-ground applications, and their flat, wide side can also be used to crush garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. These knives are more heavy-duty and less precise than a chef’s knife or Chinese-style cleaver. 

How do you sharpen a meat cleaver?

As with any knife, we recommend using a whetstone to sharpen a meat cleaver; you can read more about how to go about this here. A meat cleaver can also benefit from honing to keep the blade edge aligned. 

Do you need a meat cleaver? 

While a meat cleaver isn’t essential, if you cook a lot of meat or buy and break down whole chickens on the regular, it could be a useful addition to your knife arsenal. Meat cleavers are also great for splicing up barbecued ribs for serving, cutting tough winter squashes, and mincing meat, too.

What's the best way to clean a meat cleaver?

As with any knife or sharp blade, we recommend hand-washing a meat cleaver; this is gentler on the metal edge and keeps it keen for longer. Conversely, throwing it in the dishwasher will dull the blade faster—and if the cleaver has a wooden handle, the high heat can distort it.

Why We're the Experts

• Grace Kelly is an editor at Serious Eats. She previously tested gear for America's Test Kitchen.
• She's worked as a cook and bartender for restaurants in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Grace previously tested Chinese cleavers and petty knives, which informed her testing for this piece. She has also written a piece on the difference between Japanese and Western knives.