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Fit & Finish Fit and Finish = the difference in "good art" and "fine art." Join in, as we discuss the fine art of finish and embellishment.

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Old 12-12-2016, 11:03 PM
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M&J M&J is offline
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Old kitchen knife refurb?

A relative gave me a few that her dad had used and said go with it. These are well beat-used and the handles are cracking. He'd used the spline in such a way that it had deformed from being hit. Whether he drove nails with them IDK but it was pretty bad.

They are about 40-50 years old and I'm not sure what to do with them. Looking at the market that sells the contemporary version these things sell at sub $10.

Thoughts?
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Old 12-12-2016, 11:32 PM
Bob Hatfield Bob Hatfield is offline
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Take it on as a project to do. Remove the cracked handles and do some hand sanding to clean up the metal, does not have to be perfect. Put new handles on and contour shape them. Sharpen the cutting edge and use in the kitchen or give to a friend or relative that may like having a refurbished meat cleaver.


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Old 12-13-2016, 04:36 PM
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Hoping to preserve some of the aged patina but the rust spots have to go if in use. Wiped them with a rust remover/cleaner and it did well but the pitting is fairly deep from the long standing rust. Not sure because the moment the handles are fitted up it will be shiny freshly exposed metal. In that regard the thought to bring them completely refreshed came to mind.

There are a few others but these two looked to be the most fun. The other cleavers have big gaps in the handle and that from a food safety aspect is a thumb down. Those big gaps hold water and food stuffs which would need to be filled.

The two pictured I'll probably handle in a black-gray layered G-10 or the 2x2 CF. Would be cool to keep the patina and have a juxtaposition theme in a working knife. Their value is low so to spend what I approximate 3 hours per is crazy. (The Mrs. tells me my time estimating is off by 3X. Uh-oh.)


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Old 12-14-2016, 05:20 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Do you have access to a glass bead sandblaster? If you do it will round off the pitting to a large degree then use Super blue and blue it then buff the heck out of it with 0000 steel wool. I mean tape it to a drill bit and use a drill gun or drill press and rub most of it off. Or sandblast and hit it with a fine steel brush on a grinder if you want to get rid of the pits, but if you want to keep the patina just hit it with a brass brush. It looks like the rust remover etched most of the patina off anyway. The steel brush will at least shine it up.

I did the bead blast and blue with a rusty Norwegian laminated blade and you couldn't see the pits after it was done and it shined too. For a kitchen blade you want to wear the blueing mostly off though as it will come off in acidic foods.
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Old 12-19-2016, 08:38 PM
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Good thoughts Jim. Will see what a steel brush will do. The steel is quite soft and however he used the knife left some pretty deep scars.


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Old 12-19-2016, 09:02 PM
Bob Hatfield Bob Hatfield is offline
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the spline may be soft and the cutting edge may be harden since they are that old. You may have a surprise on how well the cutting edge may hold up under day to day use.


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Old 12-24-2016, 01:59 AM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Unhappy

Mike or Junko have you checked how hard the edge is? Just run a file up against it and see how it bites. Or my fave is to see how my medium India stone bites into it.(It doesn't bite well into anything above RC 58) If it is harder than the spine then at least you know it's hardenable. Peters Heat Treating has a laser metal analyzer and for a small fee I am sure they wouldn't mind telling you what the cleavers are made of.

Of course you may not want to go to that expense which of course I understand. I'm just intrigued as to what kind of steel they are. Bet it's 1075-65 or 5160 if they are that old, any markings about where they were made? Those handles look like some decent wood made before the advent of the common dishwasher available everywhere. I live alone and have used mine only when my grandchildren visit.
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Old 12-29-2016, 03:09 PM
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No markings at all. Was in one of those rush modes that I didn't take snaps of the process. My rough guess during sharpening was this felt like a low RC steel, comparable to a 420 level of hardness, maybe C 52-53. 1075 would be in range for this. Looking for pics I see similar samples of them listed as "vintage cleaver". The rust-pitting are amusingly similar and they seem to be generic sterile productions.

This was fun and I put more hours than estimated. (Doesn't that seem to be the case? )


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Old 12-29-2016, 09:47 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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That's too bad if they "feel" that soft when sharpening. I sharpen by hand and know what "feel" means. Though a diamond sharpener can make it harder to discern it. An oilstone though will give a good idea of how hard by how easy it bites into the steel. Not scientific, but a knife at RC 59-60 feels like you are sliding the knife across glass more than biting into it unless you use a diamond sharpener. S30V at RC 60 needs a diamond if you don't want to be there all day.

Too bad your cleavers are not differentially HT as that would have made them worth more. 1075 is quite capable of being hardened around 56-58 with good toughness. 5160 is just as capable too.
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bead blast, blade, brass, clean, cleaver, drill, edge, etched, grinder, gun, handles, harden, kitchen, kitchen knife, knife, metal, press, project, safety, sanding, sharpening, steel, stone, water


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