This Iconic EDC Knife Maker’s Surprising New Release Will Reshape How You Think About Kitchen Cutlery

With its massive cutting capacity, Buck’s new vegetable cleaver could be just what you need for Turkey Day.

Published November 19, 2024

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While a lot of holidays seem to hit us before we’re quite ready, this year Thanksgiving has cut us some slack, coming as it does at the very end of the month.

The huge amount of clearance between the bottom of the handle and the edge of the blade means you can chop fast and furiously without ever worrying about your knuckles smacking the cutting board.

That means you’ve still got more than a week to prep. If you are stressed about the sheer mass of food you may be preparing — or know that your hosts will be — allow us to present a somewhat surprising new release that could seriously ease the burden.

Say hello to November’s Buck of the Month, the 948 Vegetable Cleaver, a formidable, impressively engineered interpretation of an underrated kitchen tool.

buck knives vegetable cleaver full — No, it’s not MagnaCut, but the 948’s 12C27Mod Sandvik steel should serve you well for decades to come.

Leave it to cleaver

Look, we get it, not exactly the most glamorous release. Heck, the last Buck release we covered was the 60th anniversary edition of the 110 Folding Hunter, complete with MagnaCut steel. But give us a moment to make a case for the cleaver.

Buck has more kitchen bona fides than you might expect, offering more than two dozen kitchen cutlery products including the sold-out 946 meat cleaver, basically the 948’s older but smaller brother.

And this new knife, built by Buck’s skilled craftsmen in Post Falls, Idaho, brings some impressive ingredients and specs to the proverbial table. The 7-inch full-tang blade is made of 12C27Mod Sandvik, which offers a compelling combo of edge retention, sharpening ease and stain resistance. Ergonomic ebony handle scales and steel rivets keep it firmly in place.

While it may look similar to the 946, its significantly lighter weight (10 ounces versus 19 ounces) and thinner blade (.09-inch width versus .2 inches) are very much optimized for veggies, not meat (and the accompanying bones).

buck knives vegetable cleaver beauty. — The anvil logo cutout is a striking additional detail that speaks to Buck’s steel crafting prowess.

That means it should make short work of tough veggies like potatoes, carrots and squash, and it offers a couple of big advantages over a more traditional knife, especially when tackling large-scale tasks.

First off, the huge amount of clearance between the bottom of the handle and the edge of the blade means you can chop fast and furiously without ever worrying about your knuckles smacking the cutting board.

Second, the blade overall boasts a massive amount of surface area. That makes it easy to slice up a big mound of chopped veggies and with one simple sweep of the blade move them onto a plate or into a pan or wherever they need to go. If you’re looking at a full house this Turkey Day, that could save you a lot of trouble.

Bonus: No matter how things go with your relatives, no one’s gonna mess with the person wielding the giant cleaver.

Availability and pricing

The Buck 948 Vegetable Cleaver is available now for $174.99. Don’t sleep on it, though. From a limited run of 400 units, Buck says fewer than 50 remain.