F. Dick 9-inch 3-Pound Meat Cleaver

Large, dense bones call for weight, and this 9-inch F. Dick cleaver uses the mass of its blade to go through them. It disjoints larger bones and cuts the smaller ones in beef, pork and lamb, at a butcher shop or in a restaurant kitchen that buys whole primals.

The blade is heavier toward the front than on the smaller F. Dick models, so the cleaver drives through bone with less effort from the arm. For a cleaver, the edge comes quite sharp, with a wide bevel on both sides that makes later resharpening easy. F. Dick tapers and balances each one at the factory.

Its 5-inch blade height also keeps knuckles well clear of the block on every stroke.

If the work is mostly chops and ribs, the 7-inch 2-pound cleaver is less tiring. For the thickest beef bones, the 10-inch 4-pound cleaver adds another pound, and the two-handed 14-inch beef and pork splitter takes on carcass work.