Thread: Question re chip in blade.

I have a blade that would be highly sought after except that it has a chip in the blade as shown in the attached photos. It is an 8/8 Wade & Butcher 1/2 hollow ground meat cleaver which approximates grind V as shown in the attached Henckels diagram. The blade needs and would respond well to restoration, having staining and slight pitting in only one area. You can get a better idea of the size of the blade by noting that the paper I have it on is 1/4" quadrille.

The problem is this 1/16" chip. Due to the size and grind of the blade, I believe grinding the surface flush to the chip, and then reestablishing a hone would work well and produce a nice functional razor. I will eventually sell it, and of course would disclose what I'd done. I also planned to have it re-scaled.

So, does anyone have advise or an opinion on this? Should I leave it as is or fix and restore it? Would you have it ground by someone with a tangential grinder like Joe C. or could I do this myself with sandpaper?

Thanks,
John

You could do it with sandpaper but it would take a lot of time. Joe's regrinds are things of beauty. If you don't want to do your own re-scaling, you might as well ship it off to him.
Sandpaper would do the trick and I've done it so it's not like you can't do it, it's more about how much time you want to spend on this hobby.
Since you're planning on re-selling it, I'd say do it yourself. I don't think you'll be able to make a profit if you pay someone to do the work even though Joe's rates are more than reasonable.

Well, I did it, I messed up pretty good. I was working on restoring this meat cleaver while attending and running con calls. Fridays are death for me.

Anyway, to the point. I was able to take the chip out, but I put a small crack in the blade. I have circled it in the attached photos. I was planning to restore and have this blade rescaled to sell, keeping the other WB meat cleaver that I have for myself. So, now that I have the crack, I don't think I'd get much for it and will sell the other one. That said, I think it will still shave OK when I reestablish the edge. I also stopped on the restoration (i.e. further sanding) as I don't want to make the crack worse.

I am wondering if I should do anything about the crack (aside from getting rid of the blade). I was thinking I might use the smallest drill I can get to drill into the end of the crack for stress reduction, then fill it with liquid metal and resand. I am looking for ideas.

Thanks folks,
John

That will create a weak point in the edge. You could try drilling and then honing it down to the end of the crack, but it's a low percentage play.

If the crack's not wide you could still hone it up and *try* shaving - carefully. It might work

If your thinking of selling it, forget it unless you can repair the crack and not disclose it and get away with it. A crack in any blade is the kiss of death. If you want to keep it and use it it might still give good shaves.

If I did sell it, I would always disclose any issues. Not my style to mislead.

I have a feeling that it will in fact be a good shaver. The crack is small and hard to locate at the edge. So, it's not perfect, and I may still drill the stress relief, but I'll keep it as a daily razor.

- John