I should have known, things were going too nicely for me, and that my luck (my
bad luck) would come around.
The problem - sharpening these things.
I've sharpened more than my fair share of vintage cleavers over the years, lots of them being Foster Bros. so I wasn't concerned. Yes I noticed that these cleavers had wide bevels at the heal but knowing how they're thicker in this section I know that's normal. I generally even the bevel out though as it looks more appealing to the eye. This is where things go awry.
These particular cleavers appear to be very uneven in the forging/grinding of the faces plus the right side is flatter than the left. This means that no matter what I do I'm left with uneven bevels along the length and not matching from side to side. And to make matters worse the heal section of the bevels are ground super high making me have to match that along the length.
I've worked on two of the cleavers so far and can state that these are the worst two cleaver sharpening jobs I've ever done. I chased my tail on both to the extent that I don't want to send them to their owners.
Yeah, this is a BIG problem because if I continue I'm likely to hose them all, or at least make them into something unsightly. This is a very tough thing for me to admit here, something that only 2 hours ago I wouldn't believe I'd be typing,
I'm going to give this some more thought before making a decision. I'm pretty sure however this goes I lose...but what's new? Ugh
Dave