Thread: Meat cleaver restoration

Nice! And by the way, any plans you have to take that blade to Japan....leave it at home. With the hamon, you'd never be allowed to bring it into the country. I mean, just in case this becomes a knife you have to use everyday...

Really? You can't bring blades with a Hamon into Japan?
I would think that noone would mistake this with a real Japanese blade.

This is the first time I did something like this, and I was not sure how detailed the shape of the blade would trail the clay line.
That is why I kept it simple. As you can see, the way the actual hamon matches the clay line in 1 smooth line is uncanny.
Now I just need to get my hands on more carbon steel...

Very, very cool.

I finally finished the cleaver.
I gave it a light etch to protect it against rust, and to highlight the hamon.
The handle was made Japanese style: I took 2 planks of meranti which were scrap from an old window. I carved out the shape of the tangon both sides, and then glued it together. (sorry, no pics of that). For the ferrule I used a cut off from brass water piping which I found in my basement. I sanded it clean, and then used a blowtorch to gave the surface a weathered look. With a chisel I shaepd the handle so that the ferrule would fit snugly.
I then treated the handle with linseed oil.

I learned a ton, making this knife, and made a good number of mistakes.
There's a couple of things I am not entirely happy with.
Still, At the least I ended up with a usable, very sharp knife.
And most importantly: I had a ton of fun doing this. Special thanks to Mike Blue for patiently answering all of my questions.

Very nice, what a huge transformation from what it started as
-dan-