This is an old meat cleaver. It's large. 2.5 pounds. Peened brass bolsters. Stabilized spalted maple burl handle. Red and black micarta spacers. More pics on my Instagram
jaysonleek
jaysonleek
View attachment 47243
I'm posting this one to illustrate some mistakes I have made. Maybe help someone else. This is one of the first rehandles I did when I got a belt sander. It's an old Wusthof paring knife in stainless. It had really bad recurve from someone abusing it with a steel leading to a severely hanging bolster. While I was fixing this I managed to cut a 4mm gouge in the edge about 2 cm above the bolster. I fixed it the best I could, but it was too deep to remove completely and have any knife left.
When I first rehandled it I just epoxied it, no brass pins. This worked fine for a few months, but my wife really liked the knife. So it got soaked frequently. Eventually the handle started popping off on one side, and the wood shrunk.
So I put a brass pin in near the bolster. Filled in the gaps with epoxy.
A few months later it started buckling more. So I put more brass pins in. While I was peening the bottom pin I hit a little too hard and the wood split. You can see the crack in the photo. I filed the pieces until they fit real snug and then epoxied it back together. So far so good. It's ugly but she's grown quite attached to it which I guess means I'm committed to fixing it for the long haul, even if it makes me cringe every time I see it.
Teach your wife not to let them soak. I succeeded with my wife but failed with the rest of the family using knives of mine.
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I haven't tried this tactic in a few years, but to be on the safe side I'll definitely start outfitting all her knives with Micarta.
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