Description
A short, heavy cleaver with a walnut grip that sits high above the edge, so your knuckles clear the board on every stroke.
| Overall length | 11 inches |
| Blade length | 6 inches |
| Handle length | 5 inches |
| Steel | 1095 + 15N20 Damascus, 352 layers |
| Hardness | 58–60 HRC, oil tempered |
| Weight | 10.5 oz |
| Handle | Walnut wood handle with Damascus bolster |
| Pattern | Wind & Mix twist Fire pattern Damascus Blade, Extreme custom Brass File-work |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
Where it earns its keep: the messy middle of dinner prep. Squash, cabbage stems, a chicken broken down for stock, a pile of ginger flattened with the flat of the blade. A 6 inch edge and 10.5 ounces do the work that a thin chef knife makes you fight for.
Why the weight matters
Ten and a half ounces is a lot for eleven inches of knife, and that is deliberate. You are not pushing this blade through a hard squash. You lift it and let it fall, and the mass finishes the cut. Once you stop forcing it, your forearm stops aching after the third onion. The trade is honest: it is slower than a light knife on herbs and far better on anything dense.
Reading the pattern
The layering on this blade is the real thing, folded from two steels that etch to different depths. Look across the flat and you will see the bands swim and double back where the billet was twisted. That figure runs through the steel rather than sitting on it, so a sharpening stone exposes fresh pattern instead of scrubbing it away.
The walnut
Walnut is a dry, open-grained timber that darkens toward chocolate over a few years of handling. It will pick up the faint sheen that comes from hands, oil and use, and that sheen is the point. Keep it out of standing water and it stays dimensionally stable through a Memphis summer. The grain runs front to back along the scale, so the pins pass across the fibers where they hold best rather than with them, where they would split.
Care: the blade is high-carbon and unforgiving of standing water. Rinse, dry it immediately, and put a thin film of food-safe oil on the blade if it is going in a drawer for a week. A grey patina will form and that is protective, not damage. Hand wash only, never the dishwasher, and store it out of the sheath so the leather does not trap moisture against the steel. Our Damascus knife care guide covers the full routine.
FAQs
Will it go through bone? Poultry joints and cartilage, yes. Do not use it as a splitting cleaver on beef or pork leg bone — that chips any hardened edge.
How sharp does it arrive? Shaving sharp, hand-finished on stones before it ships. A honing rod between sharpenings will hold that for months.
Does it come with a sheath? Yes, a hand-stitched leather sheath. Store the knife outside it rather than in it.
Hammered, ground and assembled in our Memphis workshop. If you want this shape in a different size, we build a custom chef knife to order, and chef knife bevels explained covers grind angle.
Model: BMK-872
Jason B. (verified owner) –