Butchers Meat Cleaver

I've recently been borrowing my Father's Meat Cleaver. It's a really good quality one from back when he was a butcher, and rather than reinvent the wheel I just copied his one. The blade on the original is nearly 5mm thick in places, but my new one is only 3.5mm thick, but that should still be ok.

• Large Saw Blade (mill saw)
• Wood for handle
• Brass Rod for pins
• Epoxy Glue
• Masking Tape
• Finishing Oil such as Linseed Oil
• Print out the Template on A3 size paper
• Angle Grinder
• Bench Grinder
• Drill
• Sand Paper
• Steel Bucket
• Water
• Gas Torch

For the first step, you can print out the attached template and then stick it onto the mill saw. To make the template I just photocopied/scanned the original Butcher's Cleaver and then stuck that to a piece of hardboard to trace around. This is so I can easily re-use the template again later.

Once, you have the template either stuck or marked around on the steal it's time to cut this out with an angle grinder.

You can now soften the steel on the handle section of the cleaver. Mill saws are typically already hardened and if you are careful not to overheat the blade you can avoid having to heat treat the blade again.

However, you do need to soften parts of the handle for two reasons. One, you won't be able to drill the holes until the steel has been annealed and two, as this is a striking implement the handle could fracture if it's too hard.

The easiest way to solve this is to submerge the parts of the blade that need to remain hard into a steel bucket of cold water and then heat the remaining section with a gas torch. Once the steel starts to glow let it cool down slowly again.

If the steel is now sufficiently soft you can drill the holes for the pins. To do this centre punch where the hole needs to go and then drill out the hole the same size as the brass rod. It's a good idea to use a little oil or cutting fluid while drilling.

Now start by grinding all the surfaces straight and smooth, once you have completed that you can then go on to grinding the bevel onto the edge of the cleaver, this design has the bottom and front of the cleaver as the blade.

Make sure you have a bucket of cold water on standby and keep dipping the cleaver every few seconds. You need to be very careful not to overheat the blade so you don't wreck the heat treatment.

The angle of the bevel shouldn't be too shallow and you want a steeper angle for the strength it brings when chopping bones etc.

Finally, I finished everything off with a flap disk to polish it up before giving it a final buff.

First up I put some masking tape over the blade of the cleaver to make cleanup a little easier. I then cut a couple of billets of hardwood and drilled matching holes that lined up with ones in the cleaver.

I cut some brass pins from the rod and bevelled the ends to make them a little easier to start.

Now once everything was cleaned and ready I mixed up some epoxy glue and stuck the handles and pins together. Then I clamped everything up and left it to set for a few hours.

Once the epoxy had set up I then filed and sanded the handle into shape. The best way to tell if the handle is shaped right is to hold it and keep going until it feels good in your hand.

Now I just gave everything a quick sand down to smooth out any tool marks from the file and applied a coat of Linseed Oil.

I didn't bother to sharpen a fine edge onto the blade as it's designed for striking not cutting like a knife.