Restoring a meat cleaver

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

peppen108

Joined
Apr 14, 2012
Messages
663
You know the deal by now. Found it for close to nothing. Beaten up, extremely tough black almost solid 1mm thick rust cakes. I think that some one as epxy coated the blade. :( On of the pins has rusted of the other two had com loose. Feel free to ask questions. :)

20130301_180321.jpg


20130301_180314.jpg


20130301_180340.jpg


20130301_180324.jpg


20130301_180345.jpg


20130301_180410.jpg
 
20130301_183018.jpg


20130301_184543.jpg


Acid bath 3x4h. Coffee machine cleaning liquid ph2 diluted 1:4. Gives black oily oxide and eats rust. The 6h clean up is almost finished.

20130302_080657.jpg


20130302_080707.jpg


20130302_0807170.jpg
 
So cool! Sure wish I could fine some heavy cleavers for cheap.

Nothing in my neck of the woods!
 
Holy crap, that is a thick piece of steel!! Not sure I've ever seen a knife that thick. I love cleavers; I've always been drawn to them. Can wait to see your final results.
 
What I like to do with those old tools is clean them up like you have, and then hand sand them just a bit to take off the worst of the age, but leave in all the character. I put a new edge on and carry a clean convex grind up about 10-20mm. This makes the tool fully functional, but very old looking. Sometimes I put on new handles that match the style and date ( hickory, walnut, rosewood) and sometimes I re-use the original scales and just sand them down. I fill any cracks with thin CA glue.

That cleaver looks like a beet knife or some sort of heavy use vegetable knife.
 
Looking good! I did a similar project as a Christmas gift for a friend. The cleaver I found is a Meridan Cutlery cleaver that, according to a little research, dates back to the 20s-30s. I picked it up for $5.00 on eBay, the seller had it listed with the wrong name so there were no bids.

This is the cleaver as it arrived, decent shape but still needed love.
MeridenCleaver.jpg


And this is the aftermath. I cleaned the blade and reapplied a vinegar patina; cleaned, sanded and refinished the scales, they are original...some kind of rosewood; and built the leather edge guard for it.
IMAG0192.jpg

IMAG0191.jpg

IMAG0190.jpg
 
GrizzlyBear said:
Looking good! I did a similar project as a Christmas gift for a friend. The cleaver I found is a Meridan Cutlery cleaver that, according to a little research, dates back to the 20s-30s. I picked it up for $5.00 on eBay, the seller had it listed with the wrong name so there were no bids.

This is the cleaver as it arrived, decent shape but still needed love.
MeridenCleaver.jpg


And this is the aftermath. I cleaned the blade and reapplied a vinegar patina; cleaned, sanded and refinished the scales, they are original...some kind of rosewood; and built the leather edge guard for it.
IMAG0192.jpg

IMAG0191.jpg

IMAG0190.jpg
Click to expand...
peppen108 said:
So nice! Those bras rivets are to die for.
Click to expand...
Do you know where to buy rivets that size? I'm restoring an old cleaver and I would like to use rivets that size.
 
Sigh ...
Welcome to Bladeforums.
You failed to look and see that you pulled up a five year old thread. It is preferred to make a new thread if you have questions. You can link the old thread if it had something in it you wanted to ask about.

Most all of the knife supply companies sell cutlers rivets and Corby bolts.

Thread closed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top