- Joined
- May 5, 2019
- Messages
- 4
Hello I'm brand new to the forums. I just picked up a really nice old cleaver at a consignment shop and its proving to be a bit of an enigma. Was wondering if anyone might be able to help me identify it.
The blade is 10" Long and approx 3/8" thick though I didn't have anything handy to measure with. The whole thing is in beautiful shape. The blade is covered in a beautiful coat of black oxide. The spine seems to have been beaten to hell but it almost looks intentional because every hammer stroke is clearly visible and its coated in umarred black oxide as well. I'm not really sure what the purpose of that would be though.
The handle is pristine and riveted to the tang with 3 brass rivets. The wood is so clean that I wonder if someone may have replaced it at some point. Its full tang at the socket but tapers towards the butt of the handle. The grain of the steel on the tang suggests that it was cut into shape rather than manufactured.
There is a very worn makers mark on the left side. Its too faint to make out much of the text. Its something like top: ----- hite center: (&?) bottom: (I or T?)Bur (or Hur?) ------
Dashes represent text i can't read. Its in a pointed oval shape mark with text (Im assuming its the makers name) One over the other.
There is a badly worn 10" mark right above the makers mark.
On the other side there is a stamp that says (North?) Western B(B or R?)S Co on top and
San Francisco Cal below. Im guessing that is an import mark of some kind.
There are some interesting "tick marks" cut into each of the four "corners" of the socket. Kind of odd and might be unique to that maker.
If i were to take a wild guess Id say it was hand forged or drop forged by one of the english edge tool makers sometime in the mid 1800s - early 1900s.
One picture shows it next to my circa 1840-1880s Gilpins Billlhook for comparison purposes. Both blades are forged in an incredibly similar manner. Both are coated with black oxide with edges ground out after the fact. The gilpins is already made of beefcake and attitude at 2 1/2 pounds and the cleaver dwarfs it at around 3-4 pounds.
Ive got some pictures below. If anyone can give me a clue as to who made this cleaver and how old it might be id really appreciate it. Its been driving me nuts since i got it.
https://i.ibb.co/H49WD01/20190504-032410-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/bNBrn3V/20190504-032441-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/D95bPpG/20190504-032523-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/zfC2bj0/20190504-032554-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/yqg34rJ/20190504-032612-1.jpg
EDIT** Sry guys i cant figure out how to get rid of the stupid broken image links so i put URLs in instead. I suck at this sorta thing so sry for the fugly post lol
The blade is 10" Long and approx 3/8" thick though I didn't have anything handy to measure with. The whole thing is in beautiful shape. The blade is covered in a beautiful coat of black oxide. The spine seems to have been beaten to hell but it almost looks intentional because every hammer stroke is clearly visible and its coated in umarred black oxide as well. I'm not really sure what the purpose of that would be though.
The handle is pristine and riveted to the tang with 3 brass rivets. The wood is so clean that I wonder if someone may have replaced it at some point. Its full tang at the socket but tapers towards the butt of the handle. The grain of the steel on the tang suggests that it was cut into shape rather than manufactured.
There is a very worn makers mark on the left side. Its too faint to make out much of the text. Its something like top: ----- hite center: (&?) bottom: (I or T?)Bur (or Hur?) ------
Dashes represent text i can't read. Its in a pointed oval shape mark with text (Im assuming its the makers name) One over the other.
There is a badly worn 10" mark right above the makers mark.
On the other side there is a stamp that says (North?) Western B(B or R?)S Co on top and
San Francisco Cal below. Im guessing that is an import mark of some kind.
There are some interesting "tick marks" cut into each of the four "corners" of the socket. Kind of odd and might be unique to that maker.
If i were to take a wild guess Id say it was hand forged or drop forged by one of the english edge tool makers sometime in the mid 1800s - early 1900s.
One picture shows it next to my circa 1840-1880s Gilpins Billlhook for comparison purposes. Both blades are forged in an incredibly similar manner. Both are coated with black oxide with edges ground out after the fact. The gilpins is already made of beefcake and attitude at 2 1/2 pounds and the cleaver dwarfs it at around 3-4 pounds.
Ive got some pictures below. If anyone can give me a clue as to who made this cleaver and how old it might be id really appreciate it. Its been driving me nuts since i got it.
https://i.ibb.co/H49WD01/20190504-032410-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/bNBrn3V/20190504-032441-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/D95bPpG/20190504-032523-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/zfC2bj0/20190504-032554-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/yqg34rJ/20190504-032612-1.jpg
EDIT** Sry guys i cant figure out how to get rid of the stupid broken image links so i put URLs in instead. I suck at this sorta thing so sry for the fugly post lol
