Restoration of an old rusty antique cleaver.
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I got this meat cleaver for under $20 at a local antique shop. I did not know how special this piece was until I began to restore it. It turns out this rusty cleaver was made in Greenfield Massachusetts somewhere between 1890 and 1950. The steel was incredibly hard, I was impressed with the quality.
I began to restore the tool by removing the old wood handle and pins. The handle was brittle and easy to remove, but the pins were quite seized. I cut them flush using a Dremel cut-off wheel, then beat them out with a Starrett punch. Once the cleaver's handle was removed, I needed to clean the blade and remove the rust.
I started with a simple wash with dish soap and a gentle brass brush, then soaked it in evaporust rust removing solution. After a few days, most of the rust had dissolved, and and the antique cleaver was ready to be restored.
From there, a decided to smooth out all of the sharp edges, and mirror polish the entire perimeter. This requires a ton of sanding and alot of elbow grease. This was the hardest steel I have ever attempted to polish. After several hours of work prepping the blade, it was time to move on to restoring the handle.
I chose maple wood, as it is closed grain and well-suited for knife handles and kitchen items that are exposed to food and bacteria. I cut the handle scales by hand, then used a belt and disk sander to help shape the pieces of wood. I replaced the original steel pins with brass tubing. Instead of peening the pins like the originals, I knew I was going to use epoxy to fasten the handle so tubing was sufficient I then fastened the handle to the blade using two part epoxy. Tung oil was used to finish the handle as it produces a beautiful finish, and is also food safe.
The final step was to sharpen the blade. A 25-30 degree angle is sufficient for sharpening a cleaver blade as it is intended for rough work and not paper-thin cuts. I used a shapton 320 and 1000 grit whetstone.
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00:00 Restoration begins
01:16 cleaning
01:52 rust removal
02:32 grinding and sanding edges
05:22 mirror polishing
07:21 cold bluing
8:31 starting the handle
10:17 making new pins
11:10 drilling
11:32 mixing two part epoxy
12:57 shaping handle
14:00 final sanding by hand
14:20 finishing with tung oil
14:46 sharpening blade with stone