Cleaver - wikipedia Cleaver For other uses, see Cleaver ( disambiguation ). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( April 2010 ) A modern wood - handled cleaver Chinese chef 's knife ( top ) and old North American cleaver ( bottom ) A cleaver in use A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular - bladed hatchet. It is largely used as a kitchen or butcher knife intended for hacking through bone. The knife 's broad side can also be used for crushing in food preparation ( such as garlic ). Contents 1 Design 2 Use 2.1 Cultural references 3 East Asia 3.1 Chinese `` cleaver '' 3.2 Japan 4 See also 5 References Design In contrast to other kitchen knives, the cleaver has an especially tough edge meant to withstand repeated blows directly into thick meat, dense cartilage, bone - and the cutting board below. This resilience is accomplished by using a softer, tougher steel and a thicker blade, because a harder steel or thinner blade might fracture or buckle under hard use. In use, it is swung like a meat tenderizer or hammer - the knife 's design relies on sheer momentum to cut efficiently ; to chop straight through rather than slicing in a sawing motion. Part of the momentum derives from how hard the user swings the cleaver, and the other part from how heavy the cleaver is. Because of this, the edge of a meat cleaver does not need to be particularly sharp, in fact a knife - sharp edge on a cleaver is undesirable. The grind for a meat cleaver, at approximately 25 °, is much blunter than for other kitchen knives The tough metal and thick blade of a cleaver also make it a suitable tool for crushing with the side of the blade - whereas some hard, thin slicing knives could crack under such repeated stress. Use Cleavers are primarily used for cutting through thin or soft bones and sinew. With a chicken, for example, it can be used to chop through the bird 's thin bones or to separate ribs. Cleavers can also be used in preparation of hard vegetables and other foods, such as squash, where a thin slicing blade runs the risk of shattering. Cleavers are not used for cutting through solid, thick and hard bones -- instead a bone saw, either manual or powered, is used. Cultural references Cleavers occur with some frequency in traditional Chinese thought. An old Daoist story on the proper use of a cleaver tells of a butcher who effortlessly cut ox carcasses apart, without ever needing to sharpen his cleaver. When asked how he did so, he replied that he did not cut through the bones, but rather in the space between the bones. In explaining his ideal of junzi, Kǒng Fūzǐ remarked `` Why use an ox - cleaver to carve a chicken ? '' on the futility of the common people seeking to emulate noblemen. East asia Chinese `` cleaver '' The Chinese chef 's knife is frequently incorrectly referred to as a `` cleaver '', due its similar rectangular shape. However Chinese chef knives are much thinner in cross-section and are intended more as general - purpose kitchen knives, and mostly used to slice boneless meats, chop, slice, dice, or mince vegetables, and to flatten garlic bulbs or ginger ; while also serving as a spatula to carry prepared ingredients to the wok. For butchering tasks and to prepare boned meats, there is a heavier Chinese `` cleaver '', used in similar fashion to the Western one. Japan Deba bocho of different sizes In Japanese cutlery, the main cleaver used is the light - duty deba bocho, primarily for cutting the head off fish ( fish is the main meat in traditional Japanese cuisine ). See also Side knife, a woodworking tool resembling a cleaver. References Jump up ^ Eastern Asian kitchen knives have a grind of 15 -- 18 degrees, while most Western kitchen knives have 20 -- 22 ° Jump up ^ Lum, Selina. `` Man jailed 14 years for fatal chopper attack on colleague ''. Straits Times. Retrieved 1 December 2015. Jump up ^ The complete idiot 's guide to Zen living, by Gary R. McClain, Eve Adamson, p. 227 Jump up ^ Erica Brindley ( 2009 ). `` '' Why Use an Ox - Cleaver to Carve a Chicken ? '' The Sociology of the Junzi Ideal in the Lunyu ``. Philosophy East and West. 59 : 47 -- 70. doi : 10.1353 / pew. 0.0033. Look up cleaver in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 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Moran Ken Onion Ralph Osterhout Bo Randall Chris Reeve Jody Samson William Scagel Mike Snody Robert Terzuola Michael Walker Buster Warenski Daniel Winkler Book : Knives and daggers Category : Knives / Daggers Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cleaver&oldid=811610460 '' Categories : Kitchen knives Chinese food preparation utensils Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from April 2010 All articles needing additional references Talk Contents About Wikipedia Aragonés Avañe'ẽ Čeština Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Lumbaart Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Sicilianu Suomi 粵語 Žemaitėška 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 22 November 2017, at 19 : 31. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: what do you use a cleaver knife for
Answer: hacking through bone