4 Best Meat Cleavers, According to Experts

The Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances Lab has tested hundreds of knives over the past five years.

For each knife, our testers begin by assessing its sharpness by slicing through paper, an effective indicator of sharpness. We then test the knives on common ingredients like carrots, celery, onions, garlic, herbs, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, evaluating performance on hard, delicate, soft and sticky foods while experimenting with various cutting motions.

Testers also assess the knife's feel, weight and balance. After washing and drying, they check for rusting or staining. To gather long-term feedback, the Lab team sends knives home with other staffers for additional testing and long-term feedback.

✔ Weight and balance: A meat cleaver should feel comfortable in your hand and easy to lift, but it should also be heavier than a chef’s knife. The extra weight provides the momentum needed to chop through larger cuts of meat with ease.

✔ Handle: The handle should feel comfortable in your hand, offering a firm grip for repetitive chopping motions without being so long that it disrupts arm movement or affects the knife’s balance. Since you'll often be working with raw meats, it's important to ensure the handle doesn’t crack, as this can trap bacteria. Textured metal, plastic, or resin handles are ideal, as they’re durable and easy to clean.

✔ Blade style: Some cleavers have a rounded top with a slight curve on the blade, while others are more rectangular. Thicker, rounded cleavers are ideal for chopping through small bones and ligaments. Rectangular blades, especially thicker ones, can also handle this task. However, many thinner rectangular cleavers, often referred to as Chinese cleavers, are designed for finer work and function more like a Western chef’s knife. They’re also great for scooping and transferring sliced ingredients.

✔ Blade material: Quality cleavers typically feature either stainless steel or carbon steel blades. Carbon steel is exceptionally hard and holds an edge well, but it can develop splotches or rust if not properly maintained. Stainless steel, while slightly softer and more prone to dulling than carbon steel, is easier to clean and maintain.

A butcher knife is typically long with a curved tip. It’s designed to cut through large pieces of meat and around bone. It’s a useful tool for slicing large cuts of meat like brisket. A cleaver is typically smaller with a shorter, wider blade. It’s designed for chopping smaller pieces of meat and some types of bone.

Some cleavers are specifically designed to cut through bone, which should be indicated on the packaging or website. However, Sarah Gregory, one of our deputy editors and product testers, notes that even these types of cleavers may experience wear and tear — or even chipping — if used on particularly large bones. Thinner, smaller Chinese cleavers are meant for finer tasks like slicing vegetables and herbs and should not be used on bones.

Depending on the cleaver’s size and blade style, you might be able to use a knife sharpener, but you can’t go wrong with using a whetstone or sending it off to a professional sharpener. A meat cleaver can also benefit from honing before each use to keep the blade edge aligned.

Perry Santanachote is a contributing writer for Good Housekeeping and has been testing and reviewing kitchen appliances and cookware for over a decade. She brings even more experience from the food industry, having worked as a recipe developer, food stylist and cook.

Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, where she oversees all kitchen gear testing. She recently led our side-by-side tests of knife sets, as well as the most recent evaluations of chef’s knives, serrated knives and butcher knives.