Guy Fieri ER36 Midnight Cleaver, 6-1/2-Inch

I do the cooking at my house and I think of my kitchen tools like I do my workshop tools, you get what you pay for. I saw how to make Philly cheese steak on America's test kitchen by putting the skirt steak in the freezer until it was firm then slicing thin strips about 1/8" thick before starting to pound with a butcher knife. My butcher knife took forever and even my hatchet (yes I did) didn't work well because the blade was curved. So when I started looking for a meat cleaver I did the research which said good steel, heavy blade, handle that was attached well. Naturally when I saw the price I was skeptical but decided to try it anyway. When I took it out of the package it looked and felt pretty good. The blade was really sharp. When I started to slice the meat I decided to try the cleaver to see how it preformed even though I was expecting to use it as a sledge hammer type tool, not a precision knife. But it sliced through the meat like butter. Then when I started pounding across the grain I actually had fun cutting up the meat. When I finished I carefully washed and sharpened the blade before sliding on the plastic cover it came with. I have never written a review before but this was just too good not to comment.

The spine is about 3.5 mm thick, the cutting edge measures 16.5 cm, the cleaver is 7 cm wide and the cutting edge is a convex grind that is 3 cm in length (the 3.5 mm spine is a full 4 cm in width). It's heavy but not brutish. It will be very easy to sharpen when the need arises and I would have no reservations about using it in situations where I don't want to dull my chef's knife. A good hard use kitchen cleaver, not a camp axe! The cleaver came sharp enough to slice cherry tomatoes and has no trouble chopping though chicken bones. I saw it on sale for less than half of MSRP and couldn't resist... no regrets here.

As expected

I bought this as a christmas gift and it is nice. It is heavy, feels good in your hand, styled and balanced well and is decently sharp out of the box. I like the thick blade. This will have no problems solving and clever issues in our kitchen.

Bought this for my father for his birthday, he has been talking about a meat cleaver for some time now. I was quite impressed by the weight of the knife, nice and heave knife. Sturdy, beautifully crafted, and I am currently looking to buy more GUY products. You will not be disappointed.

A great knife. I have large hands and it is often difficult to find tools that fit well. This has a great balance and weight to it. I got the steak knives from the same collection and they are great!

Very impressive cleaver. I prefer this to my Global cleaver for heavy duty chopping. Feels good and heavy but well balanced. Comes nice and sharp out of the box, and I think it will hold its edge fine.

Wow, this really works! Easy to handle good weight and chops great. Do not use on the very thin new cutting sheets...this will cut right through them.

I bought this as a gift for my mother-in-law.It is a little heavy for her hands.For cutting the meat or chopping the whole chicken .that would be great.For everyday use,I prefer the veggie cleaver.The knife is well packed and with good quality.

Not sure how and why, but both times (returned the first and then also returned the replacement) the black handle had 4-5 hairline cracks in the handle. Looks like a great knife except for that. Glad Amazon is so great with returns!