So first off, I don't have any experience restoring blades, and I just wanted a new project while job hunting.
This old Ox-Head cleaver from the 50s had been rusting away in my grandfathers garage, I didn't get a photo, but it had a red electrical tape wrapped Handle (very post apocalyptic) so I fashioned a bit of olive root that I had laying around in the backyard (hadn't gotten around to throwing it out) which was the perfect size for the handle.
I sanded it down, cleaned up the blade, and customer made rivets from 6.3mm aluminium, gorilla glued the scales in place, then spent a few hours with a ball peen hammer to get the rivets secure.
All in all I'm pretty happy with the overall result, plus, you never see olivewood so I thought I'd share here
by herodotus74
1 Comment
* Custom made, not customer made.
The holes in the cleaver handle were massive, so bought a rod of aluminium, as knife making stores aren’t exactly plentiful, so i had to make do with what I could access.
I restored an old Bowie knife before the cleaver, using som jarrah skirting boards that were lying around, that one was much more complex as I carved out a hollow on both scales for the tang to slot into, then made rivets from nails, then repurposed an old cowboy style carved leather holster into the right shape, and riveted that together too 😅
https://preview.redd.it/xekt4011t8dg1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cabea7ec36430881f8308a607b2ca0936ccb851