Thread: Its not a razor but it was only one dollar.

Nice buy! I really like the old heavy cleavers. I scored a small Ka-Bar cleaver for about $3 a year or two ago. It gets used pretty often.
An antique store not too far from me has some really cool cleavers, but they are expensive. One of them is HUGE. I think most of their money comes from renting props so they wouldn't have much reason to be competitive with their prices.

Looks like one of the cleavers wielded in the movie Gangs of New York.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Not long ago I cleaned a cleaver up for a friend. Just like yours someone had been hammering on the spine. I used a file to get it back decent. I also used a palm sander and started at 80 grit Wet&Dry and ended up at 600.

Also his had similar chips out of the edge. Now remember these are 'cleavers' not knives. So the edge is different. Again I used a file to take the chips out but I had the blade in a VICE and flattened the chips out (bread knifed) and then reformed the edge.

Here's what the stamp on my F. Dick cleaver shows as to how the edge should be formed.

Attachment 288649

I hope this is of some help.

Thanks for the tips. I used a file last night to take out that horrible ridge along the spine. It came out nicely. I was out of sanding discs for the orbital sander, so I will have to get that tonight. Its going to take a bunch of hone time on the Norton to get the little chips out of that edge. I am enjoying this though.

Check out some of the YouTube videos by Murray Carter of Carter Cutlery. He is a trained Japanese bladesmith, but some of his honing techniques are rather controversial in the SRP community.

Murray is known for shaving with pretty much anything made of metal: knives, axes, spoons, tin can lids, etc. I am sure he could turn your cleaver into a great shaver.

I gotta say this cleaver is a bunch of fun. Big norton jb6 stone and a random orbital sander are not useful for razors, but they are doing fine here.

Ridge is gone and edge chips are as well. Not sure if I want to grind all of the pits away.
And the other side.

Originally Posted by MrZ

I gotta say this cleaver is a bunch of fun. Big norton jb6 stone and a random orbital sander are not useful for razors, but they are doing fine here.

Different tools for different jobs/it's looking much better

As you said, it's not a razor for sure. It has a LOT of mass. If it were mine, I'd form the edge and then stick with the 80 grit until the pits were gone then work up to around 800 and then call it good. --------with that said a little higher grit and some metal polish and it would be close to new.

Don't forget to sand the spine where you used the file.

If I were going to use it for food, I would sand the pits away as best as possible. Display as an antique, leave it as-is.

Still working on it. Seems counter intuitive though. I keep thinking that I am going to far. So much metal to work with and so much to remove. All this 80 grit just seems like metal abuse.

Originally Posted by MrZ

Still working on it. Seems counter intuitive though. I keep thinking that I am going to far. So much metal to work with and so much to remove. All this 80 grit just seems like metal abuse.

Any chance of a picture update? Just wondering.