Fischer Bargoin Straight Back Cleaver

First off, here are the actual blade dimensions for the 10-inch version: blade length: 260mm (about 10 inches). Blade width: 110mm (about 4.5 inches). Blade thickness: 3mm. The whole thing weighs exactly 1.125 lbs according to my kitchen scale. It's a heavy, solid cleaver.

The handle (I want to call it a hilt, because this thing feels like a sword) is 6 inches long (15cm), and is mostly round with a slight palmswell and flat sections on the sides to make it fit your hand better. It's 1 and 1/8 inches (26mm) thick at the flat part. It's made of a high-density polymer and capped on the ends with steel. It's long enough that you have plenty of extra handle on either side of your hand for a secure grip for serious chopping, and the big, rounded pommel would even let you give it a rap with your palm to drive the tip into a joint or something if need be.

The steel seems good quality, though there's no way to be sure how good unless I test it to failure. It's certainly not brittle. The finish is excellent, with a nice polish on the flats of the blade, and even more telling, the same near-mirror polish on the bevels. The actual cutting edges are a little irregular, but I didn't need to touch them up like I do most kitchen knives. The only nitpick I have is that the corners--the very tip and the corner near the hilt--were ground a little more than necessary when sharpened.

Most "cleavers" sold for home use are flimsy, light, and useless for actual cleaving. The only home cleaver I've ever handled that I'd say could do a real job of hacking through joints and such was the Cutco cleaver, back when I used to sell them. It is therefore the standard I hold all cleavers to. It costs around $150 and weighs 1 lb with a 7-inch blade. This one is bigger and works better for a fraction of the price. The rounded tip makes it more useful, too. For example, it makes this thing the best pizza cutter ever.

I wasn't kidding when I said this cleaver feels like a sword. I has serious heft and length. I cannot imagine that you'd need the 11-inch version, the 10-inch one will do pretty much anything you're likely to need a cleaver for, and a longer one would be rather unwieldy.

It comes with a clear plastic sleeve that can work as a sheath. It's a little loose, but by stapling the edges near the hilt end, I keep the hilt from slipping down into the sleeve, allowing me to stand the cleaver up between my knife blocks with the sleeve on the counter and the hilt facing up, so the blade doesn't touch anything but the sleeve. This is useful because it's much too big to fit in any knife block I've ever seen, or in a knife drawer without taking up half the drawer.

Overall, having handled both, I'd take this over a Cutco cleaver even if they were the same price. Given that this is more than $100 less, it's a steal.

Wow is all I could say when it arrived.. No disappointment.. Its huge and hefty with a sharp edge, but I fine honed it even sharper, then I thin sliced a tomato with it easily.. Kinda like driving a huge bus all alone since you are getting there no problem, but you could handle so much more.. It would be great for a scary movie, LOL.. It looks great on my wall magnet and takes up a lot of space there, but is sure to be a conversation item too. Love it!!!

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