• Tiubh Cleaver 190mm 'Fathachspás' ApexUltra
  • Tiubh Cleaver 190mm 'Fathachspás' ApexUltra – detail view
  • Tiubh Cleaver 190mm 'Fathachspás' ApexUltra – side profile
  • Tiubh Cleaver 190mm 'Fathachspás' ApexUltra – handle detail
  • Tiubh Cleaver 190mm 'Fathachspás' ApexUltra – blade close-up
  • Tiubh Cleaver 190mm 'Fathachspás' ApexUltra – view 6
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Tiubh Chinese Cleaver 190mm "Fathachspás" ApexUltra

Tiubh Chinese Cleaver 190mm "Fathachspás" ApexUltra

By Erik Gullikson

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Erik Gullikson

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The "Fathachspás" is a 190mm cleaver forged by Erik Gullikson, featuring his bold and iconic "Tiubh" design with sweeping lines along the spine and angular, versatile profile. Its name "Fathachspás", meaning "space giant" in Irish, reflects its bold dimensions and functional, high performance design. Crafted from ApexUltra steel, known for its exceptional toughness and edge retention, the cleaver easily handles heavy workloads. The blade’s broad profile and weight make it ideal for cutting large root vegetables, while its sharp edge ensures precise, clean slices.

The blade features an "S grind," a specialized compound geometry that offers superior cutting efficiency and reduces friction during slicing. With an overall length of 295mm and an edge length of 190mm, it excels in handling demanding cutting tasks.

The handle of the Fathachspás is a hidden tang construction made from lightweight aluminum, complemented by an heirloom-fit geometrical bolster crafted from darkened zirconium. The aluminum handle mirrors the blade's crater-like texture, giving the cleaver a cohesive, otherworldly aesthetic that lives up to its name. Designed for ambidextrous use, the handle provides a comfortable grip for both left and right-handed users.

A masterful design by Irish craftsman Erik Gullikson, this cleaver not only delivers exceptional performance and user satisfaction in the kitchen but also stands out as a striking statement piece, blending functionality with aesthetic appeal.

Product Specification
  • Blade Type:
  • Overall Length: 295mm
  • Edge Length: 190mm
  • Spine Heel: 3.52mm
  • Spine Mid: 2.55mm
  • Spine Tip (20mm before): 1.69mm
  • Blade Height: 110mm
  • Weight: 376g
  • Cutting Edge Steel:
  • Steel class: Carbon
  • HRC: 66
  • Blade Construction:
  • Blade Finish: Textured, Matte Polish
  • Grind:
  • Handle Construction:
  • Handle Materials: Aluminium, Zirconium
  • Handedness: Ambidextrous

Blade type

Chinese Cleaver

A tall, thin-bladed all-purpose knife — not a bone chopper, despite the silhouette. The broad rectangular blade is ground thin and razor-sharp, built for slicing, push cutting and fine vegetable work, while the tall face doubles as a scoop for carrying prep from board to pan. In practised hands it covers most of what a kitchen asks of a knife.

The trade-off lives in the shape. Because it shares its outline with the Western butcher's cleaver, it is often mistaken for a heavy chopper — but the edge is fine, hard and thin, and bones or frozen food will damage it. Driven from the shoulder in a controlled push cut rather than swung from the wrist, it is one of the most versatile and satisfying knives on the board.

View full knife type guide →

Cutting edge steel

Apex Ultra

Low-alloy fine-grain carbon tool steel

Typical HRC
64–68
Corrosion class
Carbon
Production
Conventional
Origin
Austria (ApexUltra project — developed by Larrin Thomas, Marco Guldimann and Tobias Hangler; FFG-funded, associated with Messerschmiede Hangler)

Apex Ultra is one of the most carefully engineered non-stainless kitchen knife steels in modern circulation — a steel designed from the ground up specifically for handmade knives, rather than borrowed from another industry. It was developed by metallurgist Larrin Thomas together with smiths Marco Guldimann and Tobias Hangler. It is a low-alloy carbon steel — roughly 1.25 percent carbon, 2.6 percent tungsten, 1.5 percent chromium and a 0.4 percent vanadium addition, with manganese and silicon kept low. That composition is tuned for high purity and a fine, evenly distributed mix of chromium-enriched iron carbides, tungsten carbides and vanadium carbides — the structure that lets it hold a very hard edge without the coarse carbides or plate martensite that sap toughness in other high-hardness carbon steels.

What this means for a cook is unusual permission. Apex Ultra carries very high toughness in the 66+ HRC range — the highest of any knife steel its developers have tested at that hardness — so you can ask a maker to grind it thin and run the heat treatment hard, and the edge will hold far longer than the carbon steels smiths usually forge, without microchipping. It forges and forge-welds much like 52100 or 1.2562, sharpens cleanly on natural and synthetic stones without needing diamond plates, and its modest chromium slows patina a little — though it is not stainless and should be cared for as a carbon steel.

Apex Ultra has become a signature steel of the European maker community, and the Modern Cooking catalogue carries an unusually deep bench of smiths working in it. Tobias Hangler himself heads that group, alongside Marco Guldimann, Benjamin Kamon, Martin Huber, Jonas Johnsson, Karol Karyś, Birch & Bevel, and MCx. It is genuinely a step forward — one of the relatively few cases where the marketing claims and the underlying metallurgical data are saying the same thing.

View full steel guide →

Blade construction

Mono Steel

A knife forged from a single piece of steel — no laminations, no clad layers. The simplest and most direct construction. The entire blade is the cutting steel, with no softer outer jacket to protect or contrast it. Most contemporary Western kitchen knives in carbon and stainless steel are mono-steel constructions, as are honyaki and most European bladesmith work.

The trade-off is straightforward: mono-steel knives are easier to forge, sharpen, and reason about, but the entire blade carries the cutting steel's properties — including its reactivity if it's a clean carbon. There is no soft jacket to protect a more brittle core from impact, so the heat treatment and geometry have to do all the work.

View full construction guide →

Grind

Compound Grind

A category covering blades ground with more than one geometry stacked into a single cross-section — typically a convex (or flat) primary bevel at the very edge, with one or more hollows ground higher up the blade face to relieve material behind it. The aim is food release and reduced wedging: the hollow opens an air gap so dense produce breaks away from the blade instead of clinging to it, while the convex steel at the edge keeps the apex strong and the knife driving through the cut.

The named variations in the Modern Cooking catalogue differ in where the hollows sit, how many there are, and whether the two faces are ground alike:

S-Grind — a convex primary bevel at the edge with a hollow ground into both faces just above it. The symmetrical "S"-shaped cross-section is the classic food-release grind: relief above the edge, strength at the edge.

C-Grind — an asymmetric S-grind. Both faces keep the convex primary bevel, but only one face carries the hollow above it. The single-sided relief biases food release to one side, and is simpler to grind and to maintain than a full S.

B-Grind — a stacked twin-hollow grind: a tight, narrow hollow immediately above the edge, with a second, broader and wider hollow above that. The staged relief gives especially strong food release across the height of the blade.

S-Hook Grind — also called a hook, harpoon, or J grind. An S-grind taken to an extreme, with the hollow placed very close to the cutting edge. The aggressive near-edge relief gives outstanding food release, at the price of being the most maintenance-sensitive of the family.

Asymmetrical-B Grind — a B-grind in which the twin-hollow structure is carried on one face while the other is ground differently (or left without the upper hollow), off-setting the edge. It combines the staged food release of a B-grind with the handed, steering character of an asymmetric grind.

In every case the gain is food release and reduced drag, and the shared cost is sharpening: as the edge is thinned over the knife's life, maintenance eventually reaches the hollowed steel, which cannot be flattened on a stone the way a convex or flat bevel can. How soon that happens depends on how deeply the hollows are cut and how close to the edge they sit — exactly what separates a gentle S-grind from an aggressive S-hook. These are high-craft geometries, prized by makers and experienced users for their cutting feel, and best appreciated by a cook who maintains their own edges.

View full grind guide →

Handle construction

Hidden Tang

A construction in which the tang runs into the handle but stays concealed inside it, rather than showing between two scales. A narrower tang — a full-length stick or a shorter projection — is set into a drilled or burned channel in a one-piece handle and secured with adhesive, a friction fit, or a threaded fitting drawn up against the blade. This is the traditional construction of Japanese wa-handles and many European hidden-tang knives.

The design puts the handle material in charge of the look and feel: a single piece of wood, horn, or composite — often with a ferrule or spacers at the front — is shaped into any cross-section the maker wants, from the classic octagonal and D-shaped wa profiles to fully rounded Western forms. With no steel showing along the grip, the handle can be slim and light, and is frequently made to be removed and replaced, with the balance sitting toward the blade.

View full construction guide →

Shipping & Returns

Shipping

We process orders 5 days a week (Monday - Friday) and ship from our shop in Sydney, Australia. We ship with FedEx, UPS and DHL.

We are happy to offer free international shipping on a variety of orders depending on location and order value.

Free Shipping Regions and Minimum Order Values

For Australia and New Zealand the minimum is $500AUD. For the rest of the world it is approximately €1000EUR. The discount is applied automatically when you reach the minimum cart value at checkout.

Returns

If you're not entirely happy with your purchase, you can return it within 14 days of delivery for a refund. The item must be in its original condition with all original packaging.

  • Returns are accepted for 14 days
  • The customer is responsible for return shipping costs
  • A 15% restocking fee may be applied to change-of-mind returns
  • We do not accept returns on second-hand items for change of mind

Faulty or Damaged Items

You must notify us within 5 business days of receiving your order. Photographic evidence of damage is required. Once approved, Modern Cooking will cover return shipping costs.

Product Care

Cleaning: Clean by hand with warm water. Avoid wetting the handle when possible.

Sharpening: We advise using whetstones to sharpen your knives and a honing rod or steel to maintain the burr between sharpening sessions.

Reactive Steels: Reactive steels like Aogami Super, Apex Ultra or premium reactive German and Swedish steels are susceptible to rust if not properly cared for. Keep the knife dry between uses and when storing for longer periods, wiping the blade with Tsubaki oil or another food-safe oil is a wise choice. A patina can be a beautiful personal feature on your knife and helps to stop rust forming.

Handle Care: For non-stabilised wooden handles, apply Tsubaki oil or another food-safe oil from time to time. Food-safe wax can be applied to both stabilised and non-stabilised wooden handles. Never apply hot wax or oil as you risk warping or damaging the handle.

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