I barbecued some ribs yesterday. I was using a heavy cleaver to chop
them apart, and ran into the same issue that has been bedeviling me for
years: if I try to just hammer down, I usually don't hit the same place
twice, and I end up with bone splinters and mushed up meat. A better
approach has been to put the cleaver in the right spot, and pound on it
with my hand. The problem with this is that hitting it hard enough with
my hand can be painful. The next step was to use my head, but the SO
suggested that this might hurt too...

So, I went out tonight and bought a rubber mallet. I'll use it to pound
on the cleaver, and hopefully all of my problems will be solved.