Cleaver

[1] In contrast to other kitchen knives, the cleaver has an especially tough edge meant to withstand repeated blows directly into thick meat, dense cartilage, bone, and the cutting board below.

In use, it is swung like a meat tenderizer or hammer – the knife's design relies on sheer momentum to cut efficiently; to chop straight through rather than slicing in a sawing motion.

Cleavers can also be used in preparation of hard vegetables and other foods, such as squash, where a thin slicing blade runs the risk of shattering.

[5] The Chinese chef's knife is frequently incorrectly referred to as a "cleaver", due its similar rectangular shape.

However Chinese chef’s knives are much thinner in cross-section and are intended more as general-purpose kitchen knives, and mostly used to slice boneless meats, chop, slice, dice, or mince vegetables, and to flatten garlic bulbs or ginger; while also serving as a scraper to carry prepared ingredients to the bowls or the wok.

In Japanese cutlery, the main cleaver used is the light-duty deba bōchō, primarily for cutting the head off fish.