Some of my favorite sharpening work that I get in to do is the big heavy stuff, the meat cleaver & lamb splitter work.
It's great because most often it's vintage pieces being brought back to life, most having been badly sharpened edges and/or really bad nicks. The fun isn't just in removing all the old damage but in thinning and convexing in a whole new edge.
If possible I like to follow the original factory bevels when I regrind in the edge, these are the wide bevels that these tools came with when new. Normally I see that past sharpeners haven't been able to do this themselves which I believe is from a lack of proper equipment like we pro sharpeners have today. I mean try doing this with a pedal powered grindstone on the side of the road - not fun I'm sure.
Below are a few pictures of a couple of vintage Briddell lamb splitters that I just sharpened up for a customer as well as a couple of VERY old Beatty cleavers that I sold not too long ago. You can see the nice wide convex bevels that I ground into these tools. Note - the height of the bevels are dictated by the thickness of the blades as well as the original factory grinds. They are wicked sharp - frighteningly sharp actually. :cool2:
So if you've got old meat cleavers or lamb splitters that you'd like to bring back to life, (maybe an ebay project?), and like the look of these types of convex edges please feel free to contact me or just send them in as I love doing this work and would be happy to have them, I'm certain that you'll be satisfied with the results. :thumbsup:
It's great because most often it's vintage pieces being brought back to life, most having been badly sharpened edges and/or really bad nicks. The fun isn't just in removing all the old damage but in thinning and convexing in a whole new edge.
If possible I like to follow the original factory bevels when I regrind in the edge, these are the wide bevels that these tools came with when new. Normally I see that past sharpeners haven't been able to do this themselves which I believe is from a lack of proper equipment like we pro sharpeners have today. I mean try doing this with a pedal powered grindstone on the side of the road - not fun I'm sure.
Below are a few pictures of a couple of vintage Briddell lamb splitters that I just sharpened up for a customer as well as a couple of VERY old Beatty cleavers that I sold not too long ago. You can see the nice wide convex bevels that I ground into these tools. Note - the height of the bevels are dictated by the thickness of the blades as well as the original factory grinds. They are wicked sharp - frighteningly sharp actually. :cool2:
So if you've got old meat cleavers or lamb splitters that you'd like to bring back to life, (maybe an ebay project?), and like the look of these types of convex edges please feel free to contact me or just send them in as I love doing this work and would be happy to have them, I'm certain that you'll be satisfied with the results. :thumbsup: