Milk Street Cleaver

Every cook needs a big, burly knife for the tough stuff. A big chuck roast to turn into stew meat? A soccer-ball sized cabbage to shred for coleslaw? Chicken legs need splitting? Tasks like these make most knives feel puny and insignificant.

Sometimes, you just need a big knife for kitchen tasks, but they often feel heavy, clumsy and downright unsafe in the hand. Often, the blades are ultra-thick—for only brutish, heavy-duty tasks—or are designed with unique blade shapes, which require a learning curve to master. Or, they have stubby handles barely long enough to grip.

Enter the Milk Street Cleaver, an all-purpose knife designed to work equally well for vegetables and butchering big cuts of meat. At 7 inches long, 3 inches tall and less than half a pound, this tool is an inch shorter than the average cleaver for a lighter, more nimble experience. However, it maintains full height for shielding fingers during chopping and using as a bench scraper to scoop up and transfer prepped foods to the pot. And, at only 2 millimeters thick at the spine, this cleaver is as thin as possible to maintain stiffness, yet slices with little force.

Unlike most cleavers that feature a basic rectangular blade design, the Milk Street Cleaver boasts some distinctive design points. The blade arcs inward at the heel to allow for multiple grips, while keeping your fingers guarded and preserving the length of the blade. To feel and function like a smaller knife, the cutaway heel lets you choke up close and tight on the blade. Or slide your hand back on the handle for more clearance, leverage and power.

The blade’s edge differs as well. Compared to the typical cleaver’s perfectly straight blade edges, the Milk Street Cleaver gently curves tip to heel for a natural slicing and chopping motion. It’ll feel the same in use as your chef’s knife—but safer while requiring less effort!

The blade’s unique embossed file pattern creates a nonstick surface—air gets trapped between the food being cut and the blade, preventing foods from clinging. Food falls right off. And a full-sized, ergonomic handle, far longer than the stubby handles on most traditional Chinese-style cleavers, helps creates a neutral midpoint balance that feels more natural than the forward-leaning heft of most cleavers.