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

I was at an antique fair saturday, and found a few things. A nice Eliot razor and a C-Mon pocket hone were both pretty good but my favorite buy was a giant meat cleaver. Thing was black and red with rust but the price was right at ONE dollar. I could not resist as thats a big bunch of old steel for the price. I will post a pic from my phone. Didnt take a before pic but this is after a handful of hours sanding by hand and a brief soak in apple cider vinegar.

It is cleaning up.

It's not a razor, but with proper honing it can be

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.



I hope this is of some help.

I think it is utterly brilliant to put that directly on the cleaver.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I think it is utterly brilliant to put that directly on the cleaver.

I thought so too.

That's why I just shake my head when I see some dufus using a grinder to 'restore' the edge on a cleaver at YouTube.

I wondered why someone would hammer the back of a cleaver. This poor thing must have been a meat cleaver/ wood chopper/ you name it. I can’t make out the manufacturers mark but it is there. The handle is pretty distinctive though, so I was looking on eBay to find one like it.

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.



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.