How to Fix an Old Cleaver and Turn It Into a Beautiful Like New Knife

I recently found this old cleaver at an estate sale for 3.00. Luckily it was a Sunday so I got it for half off. Unfortunately the handle was kind of crap and needed to be remade. So this is how I did just that.

Old knife of some kind, or if you want your welcome to buy a knife blank online.

Some kind of hardwood. There are a lot of different types of hardwood you can use but there are a couple that are recommended like Walnut or Hickory.

This is always easier said than done. I usually start by cutting the pins in half with a hack saw and then using a punch to knock them out. Sometimes there is some type of adhesive and you might need a scraper or old chisel. Just make sure to be careful because hopefully the knife is sharp and its easy to cut yourself. Always put blue tape or something like that over the blade.

Scales are what the wooden parts of the handle are called. Since this particular knife is only a half tang I needed to do a few things to make it work better with the style of handle I like to make. First cut out a strip of wood as close to the same thickness of the knife as possible. Then cut out the shape of the tang. I then glued this part, made from Ash, to the first part of the scale, made from Mahogany. I also took the blade and made sure that the brass rod I had would fit, 3/8, and then drilled an extra hole at 5/8, the same size as a mosaic pin I had made recently. Now I mixed up some 5 minute Epoxy and epoxied the blade to the first scale. I then left it in the clamps for at least and hour. The longer you can let this cure the better.

This is very similar to the first step. The first thing you need to do is use the same drill bits you did before and drill through the holes you made in the knife in the first step, through the wood. I also decided to add a piece of Ash to the outside of the scale so it would give me a little more palm swell, since this is a knife for heavy use and chopping you want to be able to get a good grip on it. Now mix up some more Epoxy and put the scale on the other side. I will usually give this 30 mins to an hour to cure and drill out the holes on the other side. Mix up a little more Epoxy and put your pins in. Let this cure overnight because the next step can get the metal hot and that isn't good for the Epoxy.

Now that the Epoxy has had plenty of time to cure and fully set up you can start shaping the handle. I will normally use the hack saw to cut the brass pins close to the wood. Then I will break out the angle grinder with a flap disk on it and do some very basic shaping. If you don't have one of those then that's fine. You can use a pocket knife or a belt sander. I've used all of those many times on different projects. As you get the shape you like make sure to grip the knife and see how comfortable it feels in your hand. I've been known to walk around for 20-30 mins holding a knife to see if it feels good in my hand, I also like to let as many other people hold it to see if its comfy for others as well. After I get the shape done I will run through the grits. I normally start at around 180 grit and end around 16,000 grit. Make sure you put some water on the handle between grits to pop the grain.

This is fairly simple. For a knife handle it is recommended to use an oil based finish. I have used boiled linseed oil, mineral oil, walrus oil, or a variety of different oils. They all seem to work just fine. For this knife in particular I used walrus oil, the cutting board oil they sell, and let it soak in for several hours. After the walrus oil was soaked in, I applied some beeswax, mineral oil, carnauba wax mixture I make for items like and buffed it in. I also like to do a couple coats of that wax mixture but I don't know how much it actually helps, but it makes me feel better. Now you can sharpen your knife and its ready to go. I find knives like this at estate sales all the time. If you are a little picky about what knife you buy you can easily get great steel for very cheap and then a little work and you have a great knife to use or sale.