I remember seeing some local (Australian) "celebrity chef" explain how he never sharpened his cleavers. He'd buy $8 cleavers of a specific brand that're widely available in Asian grocers here, and replace them when they lost enough of their edge to be noticeable. I now buy em 3 at a time, and while I don't use a cleaver that often, $25 worth of cleavers last me easily a couple of years.
I have tried sharpening them, I have a Lansky knife sharpening kit/jig that I use for my other knives, and it works fine at least for the first or second time, but spending ~20 mins on an $8 knife instead of getting the spare out isn't something i choose to do.
(And now I've typed that out, I feel somewhat guilty and wasteful about it...)
