A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is largely used as a kitchen or butcher knife and is mostly intended for splitting up large pieces of soft bones and through thick pieces of meat. The knife's broad side can also be used for crushing in food preparation (such as garlic) and can also be used to scoop up chopped items. Custom-made chef cleaver. We used wood for the handle. The handle length is 5 and the blade length is 6 inches. This is a custom-made chef cleaver.