Aranyik Gigantic Cleaver

Chinese Cleaver

Aranyik Gigantic Cleaver

This review consists of :

Introduction and Specifications

Basic specifications :

Initial impressions :

This has no distal taper unlike the thin cleavers commonly used for vegetable/fruit cutting. This is obviously an extremely heavy use meat/bone and hard use cleaver. The fit/finish is a bit low as to be expected and it isn't marketed otherwise :

Stock testing : main

The initial sharpness was non-existent, the edge was sharpened before any work was done with the cleaver. As noted in th picture at the right the edge was left at the shaping right which is quite coarse and very rough, sections of the edge have irregularities about 0.1 mm deep.

With the edge at the finish from a 1000 grit natural stone :

On carving wood compared to the #1260 Mora : making 1" points on on some 1x0.5" pine with very light force (10-20 lbs) :

Now to be frank this isn't an exactly direct comparison as it is very difficult to keep the force on the cleaver very light simply due to the fact that it is so heavy it takes a decent amount of force just to maneuver it and thus the performance is a bit higher than the edge angle ratio would predict.

Some heavy carving was attempted however it is really awkward and the main issue which comes up is just controlling the blade when 50-70 lbs is exerted as the very wide blade makes a very strong counter torque. It is also immediately obvious that it is far more effective to chop off thick shavings rather than attempt to carve for heavy roughing.

Food

This cleaver is obviously not meant as a fruit/vegetable knife and using it for was mainly done as an exercise in amusement however there were some surprising and some not so surprising results. On soft fruits and easy to cut vegetables :

there was no effort of course to cut very soft and small fruits like bananas which mainly require just a decent sharpness to get through the outer skin as they are too soft to exert any binding force on the blade.

On larger fruits and vegetables such as cabbage it only takes a couple of heel strikes on the spine to pop the cleaver through. It would in fact be easier just to chop through them but it would require a very decent cutting board and counter support.

On foods such as :

The cleaver easily makes rocking cuts as it has a very smooth and continuous belly which provides a strong shearing action. On the stiffer vegetables there is some splitting due to the very strong wedging action and you can see in the image on the right that the surface of the carrots are cracked due to the splitting. In regards to effort the force required is again minimal compared to just handling the cleaver. Again with a decent cutting board and some dexterity it is faster/easier to directly chop up the vegetables, especially for just a very coarse cut.

On thicker vegetables which are harder to cut such as :

It was a bit surprising that even the hardest of them to cut such as decent sized turnips still only required a couple of palm strikes. As the blade has a combination of very high thickness which tapers to a decent thin/acute edge (again for a cleaver not a paring knife) the cleaver goes in fairly easy and then breaks the food apart. It does not make a pretty cut, but if you are just making a stew then it is decently efficient.

Moving past uses which are clearly stretching the uses of the intended work of the cleaver into work done just for the sake of doing it how about peeling :

It is obvious that this cleaver isn't the knife for this work, but in the event it had to be done or an exercise for extreme dexterity was desired it isn't as difficult as might be assumed. It is actually easier as the food is bigger as the most efficient solution found is to just hold it with the off hand, rotating as necessary and then just slicing off scallops to peel. Again the shallow cutting ability is likely higher than expected as the apex edge angle is actually below for example most tactical folders.

Moving onto meat cutting :

The cleaver is really only made for the last one and in particular it does bone work like it isn't even there, the only real concern is not using enough force to damage regular cutting boards. On am amusing note, as the cleaver was freshly sharpened it actually carved a turkey much easier than an as-boxed wiltshire carving knife which did not come very sharp showing just how critical sharpness alone is to meat cutting.

Field

Now to be clear, cleavers are not in general designed for chopping and while they might at first appear to be decent, even strong choices for it :

and this one is definitely capable of chopping up some wood as it brings a lot of power into the cut. As it is so heavy and the impacts so forceful, it tends to work best with a :

vs the fast/snap rotation used on machetes. It is simply too difficult on the wrist to try to snap this blade around fast, and there are also issues with control in doing so. The lack of control is due to the very wide blade. There were also some issues with initial sharpness/edge retention, more on that below and the fatigue rate can be very high.

In Cook's book on axes, he discusses well, that as the head of an axe becomes longer (not the bit width the distance from the edge to the poll), then the precision of the axe goes down. This is because during a cut, any small deflection to the side, any rotation, will move the edge to the side proportional to that length. Thus for an axe to be very precise in the cut the bit should have a minimal length. As the cleaver has such a wide blade, the edge is very far in front of the handle and the same effect is seen on precision.

Now this might seem a bit of an odd thing to say because for example billhooks commonly have very wide blades, not as wide as this cleaver, but still very wide. However note in the picture on the right that the billhooks have the handle in the middle of the blade unlike the cleaver where the handle runs along the top of the blade. This means that the billhook edge is less than half the distance in front of the handle as compared to a cleaver of similar blade width and this makes billhooks more that twice as accurate. Of course cleavers are not designed for heavy wood work, the dropped blade is necessary for working in the kitchen.

In regards to the steel, as noted in the video, there were some issues with edge retention and durability when initially used, specifically the edge collapsed very quickly, almost immediately when it was first used in chopping. This kind of very early damage is not that uncommon as the edge is the thinnest part of the blade and thus it is the most sensitive part of the blade during the manufacturing to damage from over heating. However as with many blades, if the knife is just sharpened a few times then the damaged steel is removed and the knife will start to behave sensibly and this happened with the cleaver.

As for raw power and cutting ability, it is comparable to very decent and high performance cutting blades like the Exaclibur. It can easily chop through a spruce 2x2 in one hit for example. However it does so in a very heavy and massively forceful chop and thus in order to really work well it needs rigid targets and so it doesn't work very well if the wood is light/springy and free to move. This is why machetes are designed how they are to be able to swing vs fast.

However after some experimenting with technique, and remembering how natives in India used very heavy blades for long periods of time, an effective technique was found for chopping with the gigantic cleaver which was very simple :

In general, slower work always has a reduced rate of fatigue and it is necessary here because of the strain of all of that massive weight and inertia on the small muscle groups of the hand/wrist.

With the damaged steel removed and the cleaver both taking a decent initial sharpness and holding it well then using it for a variety of work showed that it did have some advantages in general over some other blades which generally work very well for wood/brush work :

The main advantage of the cleaver, or where it would be preferred was working on clearing bush which was set in rocky ground. The reason why the cleaver worked very well there as that brush gets cut close to the ground and the shorter blade on the cleaver makes doing that close in cutting with higher precision which limits damage to the edge from rock contacts.

The cleaver is also made from a simple steel which is easy to grind and the very short edge makes maintenance easy in regards to removing any damage from those rock contacts which also makes it a nice choice for such hard work. However it is such a big / heavy blade, it is more for fun/amusement than practicality as it brings far too much power into the cuts and effort actually has to be used to reduce impacts which generates a fairly high rate of fatigue.

Grip

Ergonomics : the pins are flush to the scales and in general the handle is well shaped and contoured. The working grip length is also quite large, just under 5" so as to be comfortable in hand in normal working grips :

There are a few issues however : A little sanding can take care of both and then some linseed oil to protect the raw wood and add a little security.

In regards to forward grips there are a few issues with ergonomics which could also be improved and will just take a little work :

These grips are used to reduce the heft in hand and do more precision work when the full weight/power of the knife isn't needed.

Security : the severe dropped blade obvious keeps the edge away from the hand and the sweep at the end of the handle also aids in security and keeps the hand from sliding to the rear. The handle does come with a clear varnish which does make it a little slice and it could benefit from sanding and application of tung oil.

Durability : the handle is made from Eucalyptus Camaldensis a very hard and dense wood aside from keeping it out of the dishwasher there is little likely to effect it. However while the handle is fairly easy to clean there are gaps between the tang and scales so some care needs to be taken when exposed to blood and other fluids.

Steel

The cleaver is made from a forged high carbon steel. Initially it had issues with durability and poor edge retention due to fracturing and deformation. However after sharpening a few times this went away and the cleaver started responding as would be expected from a decent high carbon, low alloy steel.

It grinds easily with minimal burr formation and is easily sharpened even natural hones. As there are no large alloy carbide the edge forms and takes a high polish extremely easily even with the softer natural abrasives. It has enough wear resistance that in use it tends to blunt mainly by deformation and the ease of grinding makes it efficient to repair.

The corrosion resistance is low as it isn't a stainless steel and it will readily rust if left wet and very quickly if exposed to acidic foods. However for heavy use on bones and such, the corrosion isn't an issue as it will tend to have to be sharpened to repair minor edge flattening rather than slow corrosion.

Overview

In short :

Comments and references

Comments can be emailed to Intro

  • Some kitchen use

    Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket album.

    Last updated :
    Originally written: 31/12/2012
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