The Birth of a blade 3 : The Meatcleaver

What you really need, when someone dumps half a lamb on your kitchen table, is a good sharp heavy meatcleaver. Its also pretty good for flattening a Schnitzel.

It must be sharp enough that the meat gets cut nicely and have enouch heft to go through small bones and cartilage with ease.
I have never owned a meatcleaver before, but have always liked the idea of having one, the aesthetics of such a hefty knife is just appealing to me.
Thus, I decided to make one of my first projects in my new forge, a meatcleaver.

I used a piece of 80 by 10 mm spring steel stock and since this would be a fairly square blade most of the hammering work was getting the tang out. I was not very experienced at the time so it didnt turn out perfect. there was a strange flare in it that I had to grind away

I managed to get a fairly nice shape and got a hole punched

Then I rough ground the blade, ready for heat-treat. When the blade is as short and stocky as this one, it rarely if ever warps, so it was an easy heat treat. Just up to 850 degrees celsius and dunked in water, and then in the baking oven at 150 degrees celsius for an hour.
This produce a rather hard blade which is well suited for kitchen knives

The handle was made out of a piece of beechwood (I think, it was a piece I had lying around) and a piece of really hard reddish wood that I think may be yew.
I glued the blade in with epoxy and riveted it with 2 silver rivets. (yes that is probably a bit extravagant but hey silver isn't that expensive, and I like the thought of silver rivets)
finally the whole thing was oiled and polished vigorously.
It has been used occasionally since and it still holds a nice edge.
The long handle gives some extra leverage when used for chopping or for flattening meat like chicken, pork or veal for schnitzels.

You can check out some of my other blades here:
Gyldenklo
Pertinacia
My sons knife
A knife for my cousins 40th birthday

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Im EvilHippie, a compulsive creative and jack o' trades. if you want to know more about me, check out my introduction post here

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