The 5 Best Butcher Cleaver Knives for Cutting Bone

Walk into any commercial kitchen, and you’ll find a vast assortment of tools to help chefs make scrumptious meals for waiting diners. They include a paring knife, chef’s knife, fillet knife, and a butcher cleaver. These tools are skillfully wielded to dice, slice, and get rid of unwanted innards, all in preparation for the cooking stage.

There’s immense finesse in using their kitchen tools which stands at odds with the standard cleaver. When you need to cut through a meaty chunk of goodness, a butcher cleaver is a go-to option. It gets the job done in a jiffy, with minimal effort required. Without further ado, let’s explore the top 5 meat cleavers that will give you value for your money. Read on!

1. Zwilling Pro

Are you looking for an advanced blade with the perfect strength and geometry to hack through small to medium joints, bones, and cartilage with minimal elbow grease?

Then the 6-inch Zwilling Pro butcher cleaver wraps up your search. Forged from one billet of high-carbon stainless steel, which is then tempered to 57HRC, this handy tool delivers peak performance without chipping or buckling.

The wedge-shaped blade features a hand-sharpened cutting edge with laser-controlled technology and ground to a 15-degree angle on each side.

It ushers in accuracy and the most ideal angle for severing dense material while retaining a sharp, durable edge. The cutting edge has a slight belly coupled with a robust spine for effortlessly cracking open hollow bones.

A curved, smooth transition from the blade to the bolster delivers superb control, easy maintenance, unmatched safety, and a precision grip. For a secure, comfortable grip, the thermoplastic POM handle is fastened in place with three stainless steel rivets. The sturdy full tang runs the full length of the handle for better balance.

The blade profile has a slight upward sweep and a hole punched in the corner to allow hanging from a hook or rack for batoning. Made in Germany, Zwilling Pro is backed by a lifetime warranty. Deft, reliable, and solid, this butcher cleaver is reliable for lightweight tasks.

Pros

• Advanced blade design
• Perfect strength and geometry
• Retains a durable, sharp edge
• Robust spine for cracking open hollow bones
• Precision grip and excellent control
• Comfortable, three-riveted handle

Cons

• The blade is unsuitable for preparing large, dense foods

2. Dalstrong Ravager

For medium to heavy-duty tasks, the versatile Dalstrong Ravager is a worthwhile butcher cleaver. As part of the brand’s Gladiator series, it features a 9-inch blade engineered with a pointed tip to aid in skin removal and access deep, tight spots.

Fabricated from high-carbon German steel with 55 HRC, the blade delivers optimal durability and premium toughness. For excellent stain resistance and diminished drag, the top-grade steel is hand-polished to a satin finish.

The cutting edge is hand-ground to anywhere between 16 and 18 degrees per side, delivering efficient, clean cuts with minimal elbow grease. It makes re-sharpening and honing a walk in the park. The Dalstrong Ravager comes with a lifetime warranty and a 120-day money-back guarantee against defective craftsmanship.

The unique bolster ushers in a secure purchase when using a pinch grip, transitioning into a full tang for uniformly distributed weight and satisfying heft. For a comfortable, powerful grip, an eye-catching black pakkawood handle is firmly attached to the tang with three stainless steel rivets.

Laminated and polished, it provides a sanitary surface. For unrivaled protection of the cutting edge, searching fingers, and tip, the Dalstrong Ravager comes with a BPA-free polymer sheath. It ensures safe drawer storage.

Pros

• Quickly breaks down large cuts of poultry and other meats
• Hand-ground to 16-18 degrees per side
• Efficient cuts with minimal effort
• Made of durable and sturdy high-carbon steel
• Quick and easy re-sharpening
• Chic, satin finish for minimal drag

Cons

• Only suitable for hacking through bone

3. Henckels International Classic

If you’re looking for a lightweight butcher cleaver that is easy-to-handle and agile, then the Henckels International Classic is your best bet. Forged from one billet of top-grade German stainless steel, it features a polished satin finish that minimizes drag and resistance.

For efficient, clean cuts and long-lasting sharpness, the blade boasts a precision cutting edge ground to a 15-degree angle per side. It also has a nice curve to the belly for rocking as need be and transitions into a full tang for added accuracy, stability, and heft.

The Henckels International Classic has a hole that ushers in convenient storage on a hook or peg and an ergonomic thermoplastic POM handle that delivers a non-slip, comfortable grip.

The handle is securely attached to the tang with three stainless steel rivets for increased safety and longevity. Made in Spain, the butcher cleaver is backed by a lifetime warranty against the manufacturer’s defects and material. It’s best suited for small joints and bones and is easy to maneuver without undue fatigue or strain.

Pros

• Fatigue-free use
• Easy maintenance with a mild detergent
• Effortless maneuverability due to its lightweight nature
• Lifetime warranty against the manufacturer’s defects and materials
• Continuous use without undue strain
• Long-lasting sharpness

Cons

• Tendency to stain

4. Zelite Infinity

With a 7-inch blade that is forged from premium high-carbon X50 CRMOV5 German stainless steel, it’s no surprise that Zelite Infinity is the go-to for most folks.

Despite being a newcomer, it delivers peak performance with unmatched resistance to corrosion and discoloration.

The stainless steel blade is hand-polished with a chic satin finish to minimize cutting resistance and drag for the smooth, efficient cutting action. Engineered with a blade-heavy balance, this butcher cleaver affords an excellent chopping motion for precision and power.

With a 56 HRC rating, the blade is sturdy and has been honed with a conventional 3-stage process to deliver long-lasting sharpness and a keen cutting edge.

Sharpened to an 18-degree angle per side, the cutting edge provides durability and precise, tidy cuts with a slight curve for rocking as need be. It also features uniquely tapered bolstering that naturally promotes a professional pinch grip while delivering a sanitary surface to prevent food from getting trapped.

The ergonomic G10 handle made of reinforced epoxy resin ushers in impressive strength, stability, and comfort. Made in China, Zelite Infinity comes with a 15-year warranty. Although it’s perfect for heavy-duty performance, the cleaver is lightweight for deft handling and optimum control.

Pros

• Full tang handle for enhanced balance
• Well-distributed balance
• 15-year warranty
• Great value for the demands of discerning cooks
• Heavy-duty performance
• Comfortable, ergonomic handle for extreme stability and strength
• Resistant to stains and rust

Cons

• Requires frequent sharpening
• Bends easily with vigorous use

5. Dexter-Russell

Suited to heavy-duty tasks, the 8-inch Dexter-Russell butcher cleaver has impressive heft and build to whack through dense connective tissue and thicker bones. The tang and blade are designed with Dexter’s high-carbon proprietary stainless steel blend that ranks at 54 to 56 degrees on the Rockwell Hardness scale for resilient performance.

Although it’s easy to sharpen, the blade is sturdy enough for repeated contact with hard materials without breaking, chipping, or bending. It’s honed and ground at a 15-degree angle on each side for a durable and sharp cutting edge. The wedge-like geometry guarantees a long blade life and powerful chop.

For rocking flexibility, the Dexter-Russell has a slight curve along the cutting edge, and the thick spin has sufficient robustness to effortlessly crack large bones. The three-riveted wooden handle with full tang is made of polished rosewood for a firm and comfortable grip. To accommodate hanging from a peg or rack, the blade profile has a small hole at the top corner.

Pros

• Lifetime warranty included
• Easily chops through larger bones, turkey, and chicken
• Full tang for more balance
• Easy to sharpen
• Doesn’t bend or break easily
• 15-degree roll grind on each side
• Wedge-like geometry for a powerful, precise chop

Cons

• The heft can quickly trigger forearm, wrist, and hand fatigue
• Bulkier and heavier than other knives

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Best Butcher Cleaver

Before hastily selecting the first meat cleaver that catches your eye, we’ve rounded up a few buying factors to consider that will permit an informed decision.

Blade Profile

It comes in different shapes, ranging from thinner, tapered blades that closely resemble Chinese vegetable cleavers to thicker, wedge-like shapes of generic Western blades. Western designs are thick from the spine down to the cutting edge with a13 to 25-degree range. These hatchet-like blades are unarguably the most durable with significant striking force. With the bulk of the blade sitting behind the cutting edge, the damage is minimal, allowing it to power through most foods. However, this is at the expense of clean-cutting action and control.

A wedge-shaped blade typically feels dull when chopping, resulting in torn and smashed rather than smoothly-sliced foods. At the opposite end of the spectrum are meat cleavers that resemble a Chinese chef’s knife but with cutting edges ground to tighter angles and thinner blades. Although these knives cut cleaner, are more agile, and provide superior control, they wear out prematurely due to their thinner construction, with nicks forming along the cutting edge.

We recommend a combination of both extremes; a butcher cleaver with a thick blade coupled with a more acute cutting edge of 15 to 17 degrees per side. This blend ushers in optimum durability in addition to thorough, clean, and smooth cuts.

The Spine

A thick, hefty spine with dimensions of ¼-inch to 3/16 inches is perfect for tenderizing tough meat cuts and cracking soup bones with a good wallop.  On some blades, you’ll notice the top forward edge swooping up to form a rounded peak.

It ushers in batoning, a common practice in commercial kitchens that entails smacking the peak with a metal rod to sunder big joints and thick bones. For home cooks, a bone saw is more practical. However, batoning is a more accurate way of chopping through small bones and comes in handy if you lack the strength to swing a heavy cleaver.

Blade Size

The blade’s height and length are crucial as they impact the overall efficacy and dexterity of a knife. For cleaving larger foods, the blade length is essential. Adequate height is required to keep the butcher cleaver on a straight plane and ensure optimum knuckle clearance.

Ideal measurements range from 7 to 7.75 inches in length and at least 3.25 inches in height. A too-short blade gets stuck in large foods, whereas an overly long option becomes unwieldy, causing a clumsy feel and significant loss of accuracy.

Weight Range

The weight of a butcher cleaver usually corresponds to the blade length, so the taller and longer it is, the more it weighs. For instance, an 8-inch blade can weigh up to 2.5lbs. Although it’s a no-brainer that weighty knives can hew through anything, they trigger hand or wrist fatigue and a loss of accuracy that makes for shoddy work.

Models with a 6-inch blade are lighter, weighing up to 10 ounces. They usher in easier maneuverability but require immense elbow grease to cut through the smallest bones, which is exhausting. We recommend selecting a butcher cleaver that weighs around 1 lb as it delivers the power you need for clean, one-swing cuts with manageable fatigue and unwieldiness.

Blade-Heavy Balance

Most butcher cleavers are constructed so that the majority of their weight lies in the big blade area, causing them to naturally lean forward. However, the blade’s excessive weight can cause awkward swings with poor control, resulting in only the forward section making contact with the meat. Due to the steep angle at impact, users experience loss of power.

It’s advisable to select a knife with some weight distributed to the handle for enhanced control and aim, ushering in easier, cleaner chopping. To that end, a full tang helps with proper control and balance, a requirement for knife longevity and strength.

Handle Design

It plays a crucial role in the efficiency and enjoyment of a butcher cleaver. While some people gravitate towards handles with ergonomic contours, others the straight counterparts. Like most of your favorite kitchen tools, this knife is a bit of a Goldilocks scenario. The handles are overly thick or short, restricting your grip, whereas others are too long, causing clumsiness.

As a result of the thumping that these knives usually withstand, the handle’s material must have resilience. Steer clear of wooden or plastic handles that are susceptible to cracking or working loose at the rivets. Epoxy and rubber resins are excellent handle designs as they provide a non-slip, firm, and comfortable grip. They are also a breeze to clean with warm, soapy water.

The Swing

Most cleavers get the job done with three different cutting actions; the hammer swing, power pinch grip, and batoning. The power pinch grip entails aligning the cutting edge in position, for instance, on the breastbone of a turkey. Then, use your free hand to apply pressure, drive the blade straight down, and make your cut. You can accomplish this by tapping the spine with your fist or a steady push. It ushers in impressive accuracy but is solely effective on light bones.

Batoning revolves around positioning the cutting edge and striking the spine with a dead-end hammer or rubber mallet to drive the blade straight down. It’s perfect for accuracy and is best suited for large vegetables, medium or light bones, and thick joints.

Although the hammer swing technique isn’t as accurate as the power pinch and batoning, it delivers the much-needed momentum to chop through dense foods and thicker bones. It involves aiming the butcher cleaver then drawing it up and back to the chest height. As you release it, keep your forearm and wrist straight.

The swing doesn’t call for much elbow grease as the momentum and weight do the heavy lifting. For safety, avoid swinging or raising the knife with an overhead movement or above your chest. If the hammer swing proves futile, switch to a bone saw.

Sturdiness

If you intend to chop up hard foods, it’s a no-brainer that the butcher cleaver you choose must be sturdy enough to get the job done. When it comes to top-grade metal, Japanese or German steel is your best bet. Blades made from this premium material rank anywhere between 54 and 64 degrees on the Rockwell Hardness scale.

Rockwell testing is a surefire way of gauging the sturdiness of polymer and metallic blade materials to ensure they have unrivaled resistance to rust, discoloration, chipping, bending, and breaking. The scale encompasses the indentation hardness of the material.

Price

As with everything else in life, you get what you pay for. Although you can get a butcher cleaver for as low as $12, there’s a high likelihood that it won’t get the job done due to its low-quality materials. However, the premium options are made of durable materials, deliver clean, efficient cuts with minimal elbow grease, and cost anywhere between $30 and $100.

The Bottom Line

Whether you’re an avid cook or need a sturdy knife to handle large veggies, a butcher cleaver is a worthwhile investment. Suitable for heavy, light, and medium kitchen tasks, you’ll find the best option for you from our top 5 picks.

Best Butcher Cleaver Knives for Cutting Bones Comparison

Product Image	Product Name	Dimensions	Price
	Zwilling Pro	16.5 x 2.75 x 1.5 inches	$139.99
	Dalstrong Ravager	14.45 x 0.16 x 3.94 inches	$79.99
	Henckels International Classic	8.8 x 5.2 x 15.2 inches	$59.95
	Zelite Infinity	11.81 x 0.98 x 3.35 inches	$45.97
	Dexter-Russell	14 x 5 x 1.5 inches	$53.53