Cleaver (knife)

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A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a square-bladed hatchet. It is used mostly for cutting through bones as a kitchen utensil.

The so-called Chinese cleaver, also known as a Chinese Chef Knife, is mostly used to slice boneless meats, chop, slice, or mince vegetables, and to flatten garlic bulbs or ginger, while also serving as a spatula to carry prepared ingredients to the wok. Although the Chinese cleaver looks much like the butcher cleavers familiar in butcher shops in Europe and North America, most Chinese chef knives are much thinner in cross-section, and are intended more as general-purpose kitchen knives. For butchering tasks and to prepare boned meats, the Chinese have long produced a heavier series of 'bone' cleavers designed to take care of tasks similar to the Western meat cleaver.

The name cleaver originates from the word "cleave," and means "to split apart."

Cleaver has also been used to refer to certain large blades as an alternative to the word broadsword.

[edit] See also

• How to Sharpen a Cleaver With a Sharpening Steel Step-by-Step Photos
• Mother Attacks Son With Meat Cleaver