Ex British Blades members- Advice needed please. Cleaver project.

[JasonM]

I recently rescued this behemoth cleaver from my Grandparents shed, its huge, over 2ft in length, pretty beat up and superficially rusty, its had a hard life but theres something pretty cool about it, I would imagine it was used to split kindling in its latter years but I imagine it started life as a meat cleaver.
My issue is the wooden handle scales, they were fixed to the tang by some rusty self tapping screws and taped over, I would love to fix them properly with correct fixings, from my clumsy Googling I think I need either Corby bolts, loveless bolts, sex bolts or similar, the thing is, I don't seem to be able to find them long enough, obviously those products are more knife orientated and as such the handles of a knife are much narrower, the width of the handles and tang are 42mm 36mm 36mm at the mount points, there are 4mm holes in the metal at the mount points, this can of course be made bigger if needs be, so any ideas what I should use?
So far all Ive done is rub off the surface rust with emory paper and oiled it, a light sand of the handles and linseed oiled, I don't think I want to do a full on restoration / refinish as I like it original as it is, any thoughts on that?
Thanks in advance.

[Lelykins]

You can get 40mm loveless on ebay. Just take a shaving off the scales and re-finish them.
Like the look of that great kindling splitter

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[JasonM]

Thanks, do you think loveless is what I need then?

[Saint-Just]

Let me ask a knife maker. I am sure Ian will have some valuable input as well.

[JasonM]

Thanks SJ.

[ernestrome]

The simplest way is to glue the scales on with epoxy and pin them with thin brass rod, also glued and possibly lightly peened. Given the age and style of cleaver I think that would suit well, whereas with bolts you will end up with larger diameter pins, which would seem a poor match to me.

[Lelykins]

As above, on reflection i think pins would look better also. They will be more true to the origins of the piece.


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Saint-Just]

First replies:

It’s a carcass splitter. Probably wouldn’t make a very effective wood tool as the impact stresses would cause twisting of the long tang. It likely had brass pins originally.

He could just use straight pins combined with epoxy instead of worrying about Corbys or loveless. Could always peen them over if a more mechanical fixing is wanted.

[oldoakknives]

I would go with brass pins or all brass loveless bolts. The loveless bolts give an extra mechanical fixing over the pins, but if its fixed with a decent epoxy as well all should be good. I would use the loveless bolts simply because I like over engineering in everything!
Ian

p.s. the secret to getting a good fit is to dry fit everything first (at least twice if you're obsessive)

[JasonM]

Thanks all, I appreciate the replies, I’ll post pics when I’ve done it.

[ernestrome]

Do get some decent epoxy, not five minute stuff, and do thoroughly clean (degrease) and rough up all the surfaces to be fitted immediately prior. Any excess epoxy can be removed and scraped away when it is at the gel stage.

[JasonM]

Thanks, any particular brand you recommend?

[ernestrome]

Devcon two ton is easy to find but there are lots of others too.

[Saint-Just]

From Stuart Mitchell:

I would go with pins and washers, very traditional for such type of knife/knives too...

Like a Corby bolt but no threads involved, you use a parallel sided pin, the 4mm he has already drilled is fine, then pop a washer with a 4mm hole over each end of the slightly proud pin before riveting, so you are rivetting against the washer and not the timber...

He might have to make the washers though, 8mm diameter would be nice and slightly thicker than the norm, it would also obviously benefit from the washers being inset into the surface of the scales...

[JasonM]

Great stuff, thanks. I’m out in a bit to get the pin stock and I’ll keep an eye out for washers.

[JasonM]

All done, pretty pleased with how it turned out, 4mm brass rod bought from B&Q, a fiver for 1M, cut to size and 2 part epoxy liberally applied after degreasing with brake cleaner, clamped the whole lot together for 9 hours and its rock solid. I used washers with deep sides to tap over the rod ends, the end result is pretty rustic when I tapped them in, they are pretty soft so after they went in they flattened out a bit, which is a good thing, the old look is retained pretty well, a light sand and some Briwax rubbed in and Im pleased with how it turned out, thanks for all the advice. Bring on the Zombie apocalypse.

[ernestrome]

That's turned out alright Jason. Particularly when the brass patinas down a little it'll look just right.

[Saint-Just]

Well done