Update International KCL-7HD Stainless Steel Cleaver, 7-Inch

Folks this is serious business. If you signed up to participate on a TV survival show - take this with you. It can hack, whack, whittle and crack. And it can certainly separate the body parts of whatever you might catch in the wild from snakes to wild boar. I bought this for my civilized kitchen. Within about 18 seconds it got relegated to my BOB (Bug Out Bag) for just that ... survival purposes. I have zero use for this monster in my kitchen but it would be worth its weight in gold (no joke) in a survival situation. As others have already stated this product is a heavy duty tool - not for the faint hearted and not for delicately slicing tomatoes. Paul Bunyan (Google that if not familiar) might have liked something like this to chop down trees. Seriously this is a butcher's tool - not for veggies (IMHO). Note that I did not return this (in spite of its zero application in the kitchen) and that I gave it a total of the 5 stars. Rationale:?: First it is stainless steel, it has a nice edge that can be honed further if you like, it has a full tang as shown in the pictures ... i.e. the intrinsic strength of the tool is fully conveyed to the handle, it is thick/heavy steel and in my opinion, one of the best quality cutting tool since the KA-Bar Knife (which I also own). The cleaver I keep in my kitchen is a Farberware lightweight I bought at a local bigmart store. Oh ... one more thing: the cutting edge is FLAT or straight i.e. not curved such that if you placed it on a flat surface (cutting edge down) no daylight would pass under the blade at any point. This is a rare feature on cleavers. I liked that characteristic as it means everything under the cutting edge get cut (regardless how thin or where it might be along the edge. Thin lettuce gets a clean cut as readily as a 2" thick steak - outstanding product but just to robust for my kitchen.

I didn't need this cleaver. I cook a lot but never find myself needing to chop bones. I have an Update International (KCC-8) 8" Chinese Chef's Knife and really use it. It's a kitchen workhorse, one of my two primary chef knives and chief veggie slayer. Update uses better steel than other Chinese manufacturers. Check out their line of forged kitchen knives. Pretty impressive for the price, far better than knives 3 times as costly. Far better. I have a block of Henckels 4 Stars, about 5 times the price of the Updates and sure they're better, but not 5 times better. Even Update's stamped kitchen knives use the X50CrMoV15 German steel found in plenty of high end cutlery. Support this company for proving made in China can be great quality and great price. So what of this great quality beast of a cleaver I nabbed for $12.99? I know the price went up but it's still a bargain. Honestly it's such a freakish piece of honed steel I was a little afraid to use it until I realized the removal of a couple non-load bearing walls would really open up my floorplan. After that I took it up on the roof and opened up a couple holes for some skylights. I hang it on the wall in my garage with some other heavy duty tools. It took awhile to find another appropriate job for it. It's a great zombie splitter, but let's face it, contrary to recent reports, zombies are really rare. Then my ex-wife asked me if I'd save her some money and do her brakes for her. Sometimes I think she forgets what ex means, and she's really nuts to trust 'me' with 'her' brakes. But what the heck, I installed her new pads correctly despite the opportunity. The cleaver didn't help me with the brake job, but I did find another use for it. I turned her new Mazda into a convertible. I hope she likes it.

This is a BIG cleaver. Good heft and maybe a little bit too much. But I needed a heavy cleaver to dress chicken and sometime lamb. This does the job perfectly. And for a good price. The build quality is great. No wobbling at the handle. though not razor sharp, it does it work. You can sharpen it easily before the job.

I got this especially for Thanksgiving because I knew none of my existing knives or scissors would be able to safely or easily allow me to spatchcock the ~25 pound turkey we ended up with this year. The cleaver arrived plenty sharp and ready to go. It was extremely easy to take out the backbone with this and then hack up bones later for stock. Comfortable handle. It was also plenty sharp enough to clean up some fat and otherwise trim up the turkey before roasting. One blow to the breastbone made cracking it and flattening the bird easy when it's usually a chore, even with a smaller turkey. I did purchase a heavy, cheap cutting board just to use with this cleaver based on what other people reported it doing to their cutting boards and/or counters. And it did make some serious cuts and gouges in it while hacking up bones. Heavy enough for the hacking, but easily handled for some trimming, it was exactly what I needed and great for this sort of task. Probably a little heavy for routine, everyday use. I carefully cut the plastic packaging so I can slip it in and out for safe storage since my butcher block doesn't have a spot for a cleaver.

I was looking for a cleaver to do some of the heavier work around the kitchen and despite being a little intimidated by them (always terrified of dropping it and losing a couple toes) I thought I'd get a cheapie one to try it out. The blade and handle are nothing special but it feels nicely sturdy in your hand. The handle is not as slippery as I'd worried about but it is heavy so still warrants some caution. For my first task I chopped up some chicken legs on a chopping mat on a wooden block. This just went through bone and all with little effort, beautiful sharp cuts. I have continued to use it in place of my chef's knife for large vegetables and bone-in meats and in a month of use I haven't even had to sharpen it yet. It still cuts bone-in chicken into small pieces like a razor. Now that I've had a chance to get used to it I am using it more and more and don't think I'll buy a "better" model for more money, this one is perfect for what I need.