• Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown
  • Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown – detail view
  • Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown – side profile
  • Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown – handle detail
  • Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown – blade close-up
  • Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown – view 6
  • Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown – view 7
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Chinese Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown

Chinese Cleaver 200mm/100mm AU Mono Yew & Antler Takedown

By Simon Krichbaum

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Simon Krichbaum

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Austrian blacksmith Simon Kirchbaum recently forged an exquisite Chinese cleaver as part of a competition with fellow smith Benjamin Kamon. The challenge was to craft the lightest cleaver that still met a set of stringent minimum specifications. The cleavers had to measuring at lease 200mm by 100mm, be forged from Apex Ultra steel, am excellent steel known for its edge retention and toughness, no special grinds were allowed, and the cleavers must feature a takedown handle.

The specifications of Kirchbaum's cleaver highlight his exceptional skill as craftsman. The blade is a traditional Chinese style or vegetable cleaver with an edge length of 200mm. The spine measurements are meticulously tapered, with the heel at 4.45mm, the mid at 1.17mm, and the tip (20mm before) at 0.83mm. The blade height stands at 101.26mm. Despite its robust build, the cleaver weighs a mere 310g, making it remarkably lightweight for its size. The cutting edge, forged from Apex Ultra steel, boasts a hardness rating of 66 HRC, ensuring a razor-sharp edge that can handle rigorous use.

Kirchbaum's attention to detail extends to the cleaver's aesthetic and functional design. The blade features a striking Brute de Forge finish combined with satin polished bevels, enhancing its visual appeal. The convex grind ensures superior cutting performance. The handle construction is equally impressive, utilizing a hidden tang, takedown design for easy maintenance and balance. Crafted from yew and deer antler, the handle not only offers a comfortable grip but also adds a touch of natural beauty. Simon made a custom tool to remove the handle, it’s an elegant design.

A signature aesthetic for Simon, this cleaver exemplifies the fusion of traditional craftsmanship with modern innovation.

Product Specification
  • Blade Type:
  • Edge Length: 200mm X 100mm
  • Spine Heel: 4.45mm
  • Spine Mid: 1.17mm
  • Spine Tip (20mm before): 0.83mm
  • Blade Height: 101.26mm
  • Weight: 310g
  • Cutting Edge Steel:
  • Steel class: Carbon
  • HRC: 66
  • Blade Construction:
  • Blade Finish: Brut de Forge, Satin Polish
  • Grind:
  • Handle Construction:
  • Handle Materials: Yew, Deer Antler
  • 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

Convex

A grind whose faces curve outward in a continuous arc rather than falling in a straight line. The practical consequence is that it has no shoulder — no abrupt step where a bevel meets the blade face. Food release improves for the same reason: a curved face touches the cut surface along a narrow band instead of a full flat plane, so slices break away rather than clinging. Drag behaves differently too. A convex blade carries more steel than a flat grind of the same spine thickness, so it is not the lowest-drag geometry available, but the resistance it does create builds smoothly through the cut instead of arriving all at once as the food meets a bevel transition. The feel is progressive rather than sudden.

The curve also supports the edge. Steel thickens quickly behind the apex, which raises edge stability at a given sharpening angle — the apex is less prone to rolling or chipping under lateral load. How much of that you get depends on where the convexity sits. A face can be curved the whole way from spine to edge, or the curve can be confined to the last millimetre or two as a convex "appleseed" edge on an otherwise flat blade. The first shapes how the knife moves through food; the second is felt almost entirely at the edge.

View full grind guide →

Handle construction

Takedown

A takedown is a hidden-tang construction built to come apart. The tang passes through the handle and is drawn up by a threaded fitting — a nut at the butt, or a pommel that screws down — so the handle can be dismantled and re-fitted rather than being permanently bonded in place. Everything else follows the hidden-tang pattern: a concealed tang inside a one-piece handle, with no steel showing along the grip.

The point of the design is serviceability. Because the handle is mechanical rather than glued, it can be taken off for thorough cleaning and drying, swapped for a different material or profile, or replaced entirely if it is ever damaged — all without destroying the original fittings. It is the construction to choose for a knife meant to be maintained and kept for the long term, and for owners who like the option of changing a handle later.

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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