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A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a square-bladed hatchet. It is used mostly for cutting through bones as a kitchen utensil.
The Chinese cleaver, also known as a Chinese chef knife, is mostly used to slice boneless meats, chop, slice, or mince vegetables, and to flatten garlic bulbs or ginger, while also serving as a spatula to carry prepared ingredients to the wok. Although the Chinese cleaver looks much like the butcher cleavers familiar in butcher shops in Europe and North America, most Chinese chef knives are much thinner in cross-section and are intended more as general-purpose kitchen knives. For butchering tasks and to prepare boned meats, the Chinese have long produced a heavier series of 'bone' cleavers designed to take care of tasks similar to the Western meat cleaver.
In contrast to other kitchen knives, the cleaver has an especially strong edge meant to withstand repeated blows against meat and bone. The edge does not need to be particularly sharp, because the knife's design, like a hatchet or axe, relies on its weight to cut efficiently. In fact, a "razor-edge" on a cleaver can be counterproductive as it will rapidly degrade with use.
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