Description
A cleaver this small is a deliberate choice. You get cleaver geometry — a tall, flat blade that scoops as well as it chops — in a knife 5.5 inches from tip to butt.
| Overall length | 5.5 inches |
| Blade length | 2.5 inches |
| Handle length | 3 inches |
| Steel | 1095 + 15N20 Damascus, 352 layers |
| Hardness | 58–60 HRC, oil tempered |
| Weight | 8 oz |
| Handle | wood handle with beautiful resin |
| Pattern | Wind & Mix twist Fire pattern Damascus Blade, Extreme custom Brass File-work |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
Where it earns its keep: camp kitchens, bar prep, and the small board jobs a big cleaver makes clumsy. Shallots, garlic, a chicken thigh off the bone. The tall blade gives you a face to press herbs flat and a spine wide enough to lean on.
Why the blade is only 2.5 inches
Chopping force comes from mass and edge angle, not from length. At 8 oz across 5.5 inches, almost all of the weight sits forward of your fingers, so the blade does the work on the drop and you only have to steer it. A longer cleaver would swing wider than most travel boards allow.
The handle stack
The handle is wood set against colored resin, so each one comes out of the shop with a different figure in the grain and a different break line between the two materials. Three inches of handle is a full grip for most hands and a three-finger grip for large ones, which is normal on a knife built to ride in a sheath.
What the file-work is doing
The brass file-work along the spine is cut by hand after the blade is forged. It is decorative, but it also gives your thumb a textured place to sit when you choke up for fine cuts. A hand-stitched leather sheath is included, which matters on a blade with no folding mechanism.
Carrying it
A knife this short rides on a belt without pulling at it, which is why the leather sheath matters more here than the dimensions suggest. Most owners keep this one in a knife roll or a pack rather than a kitchen block.
Care: this is high-carbon pattern-welded steel, so it will spot if you leave it wet. Dry it as soon as you finish, put a thin film of mineral oil on it once a month, and keep it out of the leather between uses — tanned leather holds moisture against a blade. Our 352-layer Damascus explainer covers what the layer count does and does not tell you.
FAQs
Is it big enough to be a real cleaver? For a home or camp board, yes. For breaking bone or heavy butchery, step up to a full-size Damascus cleaver with a 9 inch blade.
Will the pattern wear off? No. The pattern is the structure of the steel, not a coating, so it goes all the way through. Sharpening exposes fresh layers rather than removing the figure.
How should I store it? Out of the leather, dry, with the edge protected. Why a cleaver profile at all is covered in our blade shapes guide.
Model: BMK-164
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