Restoring an old cleaver and fitting a new handle made in my style.
I found this old beauty in a thrift store, it's 36cm (14inch) overall with 23cm (9inch) long blade 11cm (4.3inch) at his widest.
The steel is some kind of high carbon heat treated to an hardness between 50 and 55 on the Rockwell scale, appropriate for a cleaver.
The construction is very interesting with the tang forge welded and riveted to the blade.
I guess the extra part on the handle is some kind of guard and the protrusion on the spine is possibly there as a stop when pushing on the spine with the other hand. Not sure! Say something in the comments if you know better.

Guard is made of brass, pinned in place with two 3mm brass round pins. The thin dark wood strip is wenge and the rest is beech with a white vulcanized fiber liner.
Both wood are stabilized, process described in this video:
https://youtu.be/E-P3KWctkk0

I just started to list some of the stuff I use for my projects in this amazon storefront:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/blackbeardprojects
It's affiliate marketing, so if you order something from here you'll help the channel for free! Thank you!

Index of operation and materials:
1:18 Electrolysis: water and sodium carbonate solution, parts connected to negative side and steel sacrificial anodes to positive sice of a DC power supply (car battery charger). 2-3 hrs at 10amp.
2:20 Checking hardness with Rockwell files
2:50 Refining profiles and grinding bevels on the 2x72 belt grinder
3:44 Hand sanding the blade up to 400 grit
4:12 Grinding a flat spot for the scales on the tang
4:34 Drilling pin hols for the bolster
4:44 Cutting brass stock for the guard on metal cutting band saw
5:07 Marking and drilling holes on the tang
5:24 Grinding bolster shape
5:50 hand sanding and polishing the border of the guard
6:12 Etching the blade in ferric chloride
6:40 Peening the bolster in place
7:54 Gluing parts of the handle together with epoxy resin
8:44 Gluing handle together
9:15 Cleaning sequeezeout glue with nitro solvent
9:26 Rough profiling with rasps
9:56 Squaring everything up with 2x72
10:20 Drilling pin holes (glued in offcamera)
10:40 Hand sanding to finish
11:00 Buffing on cotton wheel with fine polishing compound
11:20 Boiled linseed oil
11:30 Grinding in micro bevel with very fine belt
11:48 Hand stopping on leather with fine polishing compound


Thanks a lot for watching, I hope you liked the video!
Suggestions and comments are welcome.
Leave a like and share to anyone who might be interested!

And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell if you are new here so you don't miss upcoming projects!


★Patreon★
https://www.patreon.com/blackbeardprojects

★Website★
http://blackbeardproject.com/

★Follow me★
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/BlackBeardProjects/
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/BlackBeardProje
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/black_beard_projects/