- Joined
- Dec 13, 2013
- Messages
- 2,394
Hey all,
I've been slowly tinkering with a long-term project of late; I was bequeathed a really neat turn of the century meat cleaver (this thing is huge) from my father-in law a while back; it was in bad shape when I received it, but it had been in his family for a long time, and for the last 33 years he has personally used it on a daily basis as a professional meat cutter.
I have pics forthcoming, but in the interim, I have been trying to identify its origin (knife has no makers marks, and was a "user" for probably about 50-100yrs); it appears to be stainless or highly stain resistant which was a relatively good thing, as the wood scales and brass corby bolts had all but rotted away. After removing said rotten scales, corby bolts, and giving her a thorough soak in barkeepers friend (followed by a trip to the scotchbrite wheel), I'm now officially down to bare metal on what equivocates out to be a >1/4" thick, 15" OAL full tang beast. Unfortunately, the project has been stagnating as of late due to life, work, etc... I'm pretty much just full of excuses, but after seeing the bog-oak kephart from this week's post, I had a half-cocked, fiddleback-driven epiphany that I was going to rebuild this meat cleaving monster from the ground up, looking to maintain 99% of its rustic, hard-use charm, but with a stabilized, ancient bog oak "fiddleback inspired" handle, nice brass corbys, and a ludicrously sharp edge :emot-yarr:!
As of this evening, I'm working to source my bog oak (Andy wasn't kidding; this stuff is EXPENSIVE) but it does come with a Russian certificate of authenticity
! I also spent some time trolling around jantz scoping out epoxies, corby bolts, liners, and a few other odds and ends. Furthermore, I've read Andy's tutorial on making handles (yes, one exists here: [url]http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/643123-Fiddleback-Handle-Tutorial?highlight=handle+tutorial[/URL])... Either this will be a completely awesome build out or an epic fail; only time will tell 
.
Anyways, if anyone else within our little community here tinkers with rebuilding / restoring knives, I'd appreciate your input / feedback. I'm quite handy and have some general crafty chops, but I've never really done anything like this before. My main concerns lie in sanding and shaping the handle; everything else I (think) I should be able to manage. I'll get some pics up in the next day or two... she's not much to look at right now, but its a WIP and might be a cool opportunity to get other member's feed back on my fiddleback inspired project.
Cheers,
Will
I've been slowly tinkering with a long-term project of late; I was bequeathed a really neat turn of the century meat cleaver (this thing is huge) from my father-in law a while back; it was in bad shape when I received it, but it had been in his family for a long time, and for the last 33 years he has personally used it on a daily basis as a professional meat cutter.
I have pics forthcoming, but in the interim, I have been trying to identify its origin (knife has no makers marks, and was a "user" for probably about 50-100yrs); it appears to be stainless or highly stain resistant which was a relatively good thing, as the wood scales and brass corby bolts had all but rotted away. After removing said rotten scales, corby bolts, and giving her a thorough soak in barkeepers friend (followed by a trip to the scotchbrite wheel), I'm now officially down to bare metal on what equivocates out to be a >1/4" thick, 15" OAL full tang beast. Unfortunately, the project has been stagnating as of late due to life, work, etc... I'm pretty much just full of excuses, but after seeing the bog-oak kephart from this week's post, I had a half-cocked, fiddleback-driven epiphany that I was going to rebuild this meat cleaving monster from the ground up, looking to maintain 99% of its rustic, hard-use charm, but with a stabilized, ancient bog oak "fiddleback inspired" handle, nice brass corbys, and a ludicrously sharp edge :emot-yarr:!
As of this evening, I'm working to source my bog oak (Andy wasn't kidding; this stuff is EXPENSIVE) but it does come with a Russian certificate of authenticity
! I also spent some time trolling around jantz scoping out epoxies, corby bolts, liners, and a few other odds and ends. Furthermore, I've read Andy's tutorial on making handles (yes, one exists here: [url]http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/643123-Fiddleback-Handle-Tutorial?highlight=handle+tutorial[/URL])... Either this will be a completely awesome build out or an epic fail; only time will tell .Anyways, if anyone else within our little community here tinkers with rebuilding / restoring knives, I'd appreciate your input / feedback. I'm quite handy and have some general crafty chops, but I've never really done anything like this before. My main concerns lie in sanding and shaping the handle; everything else I (think) I should be able to manage. I'll get some pics up in the next day or two... she's not much to look at right now, but its a WIP and might be a cool opportunity to get other member's feed back on my fiddleback inspired project.
Cheers,
Will
Last edited:
