Any combination of cheap, forged, and heavy. The Chinese cleavers you can find in most any Asian market are a steal, the ones with the 2"wide blade are to die for, spend your money on a good water stone, the steel can take a nice edge. They rust like crazy but that's what grease is for. In terms of more mainstream ones, my 6" mundial mini chefs knife is the workhorse, and my 6" calphalon katana series sashimi knife is the high maintenance pain in the ass that chips, rusts, and is generally antisocial, but I love the balance. It's such a nice knife for the $15 I paid for it lol. I've got a full suite of mismatched but nice blades mostly from the tjmaxx clearance rack after the holidays... go for full tang and a grip that suits your style. I ground the spine of my full size chefs knives to not give me a blister due to my more Asian knife grip with first finger and thumb both curled around the blade. Yeah I learned to prep cook in a Tappan restaurant and then got some side eye at the burrito bar for it!
