Dexter-Russell 8" Stainless Heavy Duty Cleaver, S5288, Traditional Series, Silver

>.. I make dog food for my two standard poodles. They require a fair amount of bones in their diet. Some I grind up into their food, but they need "recreational bones" as well, both to clean their teeth and to balance out the calcium needed.>.. I had been using a light weight oriental cleaver from earlier years, but it was not really up to the task. I needed to chop the thin part of turkey necks from the fat part. I need to separate the ribs from the spine, not just for poultry, but larger bones like pork and beef necks, and medium to light ruminant bones. I doubt that the heavier bones in the legs that support all that weight can only be cut with any thing but a saw.>.. I wanted a heavy duty cleaver to do the jobs that I needed done. I am 5 foot 10 inches tall and have fairly normal hands for my size. This cleaver weighs more than 2.5 pounds, for a knife, that is VERY HEAVY. The grip was a bit TOO LARGE for my hands, but only just. I felt that to control the knife with one hand, I needed to trim the handle just a little, so I used a sander to reduce the outer edges of the wooden handles by about 1/4 inch. That DID THE TRICK. I am now CONFIDENT that I can control the knife while it is in motion as it descends into the bony joints.>.. The blade is about 1/4 inch thick at the top, and that thickness extends all the way through the handle, as seen in the picture. The knife arrived sharp enough to cut computer paper, but that is not it's job. It does an exemplary job of separating joints, in cutting and portioning the choppable bones I encounter. It also cuts meat away from the bone for the gross cuts, a boning knife does the rest.>.. From the limited use I have put this through, I should expect this to last for several generations, provided that no one abuses the blade edge. It can hang from the hole in the blade, or you can make a cover out of any heavy-duty cloth (overly torn jeans?) and duct tape. Once formed a second layer could be added to both sides, and if you have a sewing machine it could be sewn together. Or if you are a quick and dirty tool user, like me, just use the duct tape on the canvas. and replace as needed.>.. I mentioned weight. I do not think that I could wield this a full day, or likely even a half-day. I am not a professional butcher, nor do I want to be. But for those with age-atrophied muscles like mine, there is a solution. For accurate separations, I do what I saw a person do on YouTube. I bought a one-foot length of nylon rod, Mine is just on the edge of too big, at 2 inches thick. for others with smaller hands a 1+3/4 or 1+1/2 inch thick rod would suffice. The rod is used like a baton (not the musical kind, the bushcraft kind - used to assist the knife in splitting a big stick, even a log into smaller pieces). Thus the knife is positioned where one wants the cut, with the blade touching the meat or bone. Then the rod is raised up high and forcefully slammed down to strike the back of the blade, forcing it down, into, and likely through the bone. The rod is heavy enough, and strong enough to do the job, but soft enough not to injure the blade. The rod does take dents this way, but the dents do not interfere with the intended use, nor do they actually touch the meat or bone. The nylon can be sanitized in any way that suites you, except perhaps in steam autoclave, likely would melt and deform the rod.>.. For those that need a real butcher's cleaver, this is the one for home use. I don't know if this would be suitable for a professional, but I suspect that when in training, student butchers would be pointed at the right tools for their trade. Some would quibble bout the money needed to purchase this knife. Be sure you are getting what you want, I did.

I bought this cleaver to chop up birds and meat-store cuts of beef to go in the grinder for dog food. I was surprised by how heavy it is, which makes the job fast and easy. The blade so far has never needed sharpening. I use it practically every weekend when I prepare ground meat to go in the freezer for the dogs' meals that week. I like the hole in the top of the blade for hanging on the hooks over my stove so I don't have to worry about keeping it in a storage container where it might rust if I don't get it 100% dry. I strongly recommend hand-washing since it's made of high carbon steel. The handle so far has been very sturdy and seems well constructed - I doubt the rivets will come out of this one (as long as it's not run through the dishwasher). (Note: This cleaver will NOT work on thin non-wood cutting boards, it carries too much heft. You need a sturdy wood chopping block for this cleaver. Don't forget to wear an apron!)

I used to work as a meat cutter in a meat and seafood dept. I have been looking all over for a proper meat cleaver on Amazon. There are hundreds that call themselves "meat cleavers" but they are all, thin, light weight, and cheaply made in China (many 2-3 times the price of this). I've ordered several and then returned them. Most are only suitable for vegetables and could not even handle small, thing lamb rib chops and even or even thick ice. This is also MADE IN THE USA! This is heavy and mine came razor sharp.The only problem is Amazon just throws it in a box with some brown paper and ships it unprotected. The 1st one I got had cut its way out of the box the the knife was sticking out of the box by about 2 inches which chipped off the point of the blade and damaged the knife edge. That shows how heavy and sharp it is. I highly recommend this cleaver, BUT when you order it, call customer service and demand it be packaged properly. This could easily take a finger or toe off if it cuts its way out of the box unnoticed and you pick up the box when it is delivered. Packaging is a complete joke and dangerous.

Wow, this thing has some heft and seems to be very well made, mine weighed in at 2lbs 10 5/8 oz, more than 4 times the weight of my quality chefs knife, probably heavier than my hatchet.If you are looking for a chopping machine, look no further. This is a classic meat cleaver meat for chopping things like bone, melons, or large crustaceans. Don't plan on using this to thin slice kohlrabi, dice an onion or anything like that, it might be able to do it, but it would be tiring. It came very sharp but not sharp enough to shave arm hair (which it doesn't need to be) and there were a few small nicks along the blade. The blade is super thick and has a nice curve to it unlike the thin Asian cleavers which are more meant to be used as chefs knives.I cant wait to use this to halve some dungeness crabs or split a chicken bone in chicken breast.Edit 9/6/2016: I have since used this to chop some rock crabs in half and it worked like a charm. I also put it to the test by chopping the fins off of about 30 albacore tuna collars. These fins are very tough and you cannot slice though the spines in the fins with a knife. It sometimes took two swings but this cleaver was able to get the job done just fine. A lighter cleaver would have had a difficult time.

This is just what I needed to cut thru the partially frozen whole chicken leg quarters we give our dog as part of his raw diet. It's got the proper heft to keep you from having to swing too hard with your arm. The harder you have to swing the less precise you'll be. My use of it has been for relatively short time periods when chopping around 20 lbs of chicken which takes approximately 15 minutes. I could see that if you needed to use this for more than 30 minutes at a time, the shape of the handle could be a problem as it's not at all ergonomically designed. However it works fine for my purposes and the texture of the wood handle inspires confidence.