tell me about cleavers

[Anonymous]

I am considering whether it would be worth it to buy a cleaver (for example, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BK2RSMR/?coliid=IHKITUAF1ANSA&colid=3SR1ZUDZEJU43&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it) and wondering if it would be worth the purchase and space. I cook daily, but my go-to knife for 20 years has been a 6-inch chef's knife. It serves all my needs just fine except for cutting raw meat or fish. It doesn't handle that as well - it catches. It's fine for slicing a chicken breast in half but feels like it takes longer than it should to dice the same chicken breast, and I really can't dice tuna with it well at all.

Was thinking a cleaver might solve this issue as it's more of a chopping knife? Or is it really just in how you use it and it's my technique that's faulty?

I should add that I have small hands which is one reason I've always preferred the 6-inch chef knife to the 8-inch that I see a lot of people use. Cleaver might be too big for me?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I love using a cleaver.! Very useful, very easy to control.

Do NOT order it online! Go to Sur la Table or Williams Sonoma or someplace and test them out. It is very important it feel right in your hand.

[Anonymous]

I cook daily and I love my larger vegetable-style knives. Probably b/c I am most used to them

I have a large cleaver and a smaller cleaver - I got the large one to quickly chop through large pieces of bone-in meat (which I feed to the dog) I use the cleaver like an axe. Will chop through anything.
I never use the smaller one.
The shapes of cleavers are so different- heavy and no rocking action- that I have never taken the time to get used to them.

If I need to cut through bone - like for a spatchcock style - I might use a cleaver but mostly no.

Good luck!