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Something as rare as a vintage Swedish chopper WIP, Finnished! Whoohoo!
- Thread starter peppen108
- Start date
The blade feels lovely and this rough finish really becomes it. I might work on it some more but i don't want to lose the raw look. The tapered tang is hand-forged and a bit bumpy. I will try to draw file it even. If i don't make it I have a trick up my sleeve.
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
- Messages
- 38,508
It appears to be a butcher knife with about 3" of the tip broken off. The age could be anywhere from 1860 to 1960.
The best way to restore it would be to clean it up minimally, install plain wooden handles ( hickory or walnut) and use cutlers rivets. You can use steel, brass, or copper...as all were used on these type knives.
Don't sand off all the patina and age. If it is to be used, sharpen it, but leave the flats as they are.
The best way to restore it would be to clean it up minimally, install plain wooden handles ( hickory or walnut) and use cutlers rivets. You can use steel, brass, or copper...as all were used on these type knives.
Don't sand off all the patina and age. If it is to be used, sharpen it, but leave the flats as they are.
Thanks for the input. 
Tip is not missing. Its a suger beet knife/chopper. Bought deep in suger beet country. A native told me that is for chopping the neck of the beets. This is apparently called crowning in English. Sorby & Hutton of Sheffield makes a similar but less sturdy knife H512 beet knife / stick chopper.
Otherwise I'm with you. I'm going whit brass small pins to fit the holes, walnut scales and some sort of black spacers. Finish will be close to what it is right now.
Tip is not missing. Its a suger beet knife/chopper. Bought deep in suger beet country. A native told me that is for chopping the neck of the beets. This is apparently called crowning in English. Sorby & Hutton of Sheffield makes a similar but less sturdy knife H512 beet knife / stick chopper. Otherwise I'm with you. I'm going whit brass small pins to fit the holes, walnut scales and some sort of black spacers. Finish will be close to what it is right now.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 5,060
Very cool to resurrect an old blade that awesome.
I need to do a prof of concept testing out the edge geometry and sharpening equipment. Hence the somewhat rough results.
The sharpening equipment consists of a file, three restored really old stones. The firs on is a sandstone, the next one is a fine clay-"stone" (probably of German origin), the third is a real jewel, it's a two sided stone probably for straight razors (the yellow side fells smother than my Japanese 8000 King brand stone). An last an old "home made"-looking strop. Shaving sharp.
[video=youtube;fn02_qvWIgU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn02_qvWIgU&feature=youtu.be[/video]
It chops effortless and the edge is unaffected chopping dry pine. So concept proven.
The sharpening equipment consists of a file, three restored really old stones. The firs on is a sandstone, the next one is a fine clay-"stone" (probably of German origin), the third is a real jewel, it's a two sided stone probably for straight razors (the yellow side fells smother than my Japanese 8000 King brand stone). An last an old "home made"-looking strop. Shaving sharp.
[video=youtube;fn02_qvWIgU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn02_qvWIgU&feature=youtu.be[/video]
It chops effortless and the edge is unaffected chopping dry pine. So concept proven.
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2009
- Messages
- 503
What type of handle material are you using?
If its dark you could colour your epoxy or add a black liner and use black epoxy.
Matt
If its dark you could colour your epoxy or add a black liner and use black epoxy.
Matt
I'm thinking something along those lines. I was going for walnut but there was a small crack in the end of one of the scales and this is a very large handle so I wont be able to work around it. I'm switching to a brown ebony and I'm going to mold spacers out of a black fleece blanket and epoxy to fill up the gaps.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2011
- Messages
- 141
Awesome vintage chopper :-o
Love the swedish blades, as well as their swedish axes ...
Cheers
Vincent
Love the swedish blades, as well as their swedish axes ...
Cheers
Vincent
Glade you like it!
I'm on thin ice here but here we go.
Scales brown ebony. I'm keeping the band-saw marks in them because flattering them would create a straight line which running parallel to the wobbly handle.
Everything is prepared and marked up. The fleece is on the top. The white piece on the bottom is a bit of plastic bag. The epoxy wont stick to the plastic bag. I will glue the black epoxy drenched fleece to the scales but have a layer of plastic bag between the tang and the fleece.
Making the black epoxy. A lot of epoxy since the fleece sucks up a lot.
This looks like a hot mess but the gluing was well prepared and I worked on it slowly. The bench and the clamps are protected by plastic bags.
I'm on thin ice here but here we go.
Scales brown ebony. I'm keeping the band-saw marks in them because flattering them would create a straight line which running parallel to the wobbly handle.
Everything is prepared and marked up. The fleece is on the top. The white piece on the bottom is a bit of plastic bag. The epoxy wont stick to the plastic bag. I will glue the black epoxy drenched fleece to the scales but have a layer of plastic bag between the tang and the fleece.
Making the black epoxy. A lot of epoxy since the fleece sucks up a lot.
This looks like a hot mess but the gluing was well prepared and I worked on it slowly. The bench and the clamps are protected by plastic bags.
Thanks!
The epoxy is now 50% sett. The plastic bags just peel of like magic. I'm super happy about figuring out this trick. Everything seems to be in place. But with the amount of excess epoxy and the ebony its going to be one tough brick to break in to.
The epoxy is now 50% sett. The plastic bags just peel of like magic. I'm super happy about figuring out this trick. Everything seems to be in place.
But with the amount of excess epoxy and the ebony its going to be one tough brick to break in to.Unwrapped
Opened
I opened it up to make sure that the the bag went all the way to the edges so I would not have to pry the blade out. I Switched it out to a larger bag an closed it again. Given that I manged to get everything back in to place this looks like a success.
Opened
I opened it up to make sure that the the bag went all the way to the edges so I would not have to pry the blade out. I Switched it out to a larger bag an closed it again. Given that I manged to get everything back in to place this looks like a success.
