Cleavers

[Herman Trivilino]

After my Dad passed away in 2005 I started setting some of the tools in his garage aside.  My Mom kept telling me to pick out what I wanted.  I ended up with a box full of old tools, mostly anything I saw that had an edge on it went into my collection.  Most of the edges had been damaged and showed evidence of attempts to fix them by grinding at ever more blunt angles.  And lots of mushrooming on the end of tools where it was designed to be struck by hammers.  Lots of interesting old tools in that box.  Every once in a while I'll pull a tool out of the box and try to rehabilitate it.

Yesterday I found an old rusty cleaver.  I cleaned it up and sharpened it, but I have no idea what the edge angle should be.  I guessed at 40 degrees (20 degree bevel angle on each side), which I figured would be a good sturdy edge.

Does anybody know what edge angle is appropriate for a cleaver?

http://s1291.beta.photobucket.com/user/htrivilino/media/cleaver_zpsf7fbe715.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[Rob]

That looks a lovely tool Herman, Ive no idea what the angle should be but your logic sounds reasonable.  I guess if it were destined to be cutting bone, the punishment it would take might warrant an even broader angle, to try and retain the edge for longer.  The max is obviously 90/2 ie 45 deg either side of the bevel but it could be worth trying going closer to the 45 if you intend to use it on animal carcasses?

If its just going to slice flesh, a lower angle would suffice I guess

[Herman Trivilino]

The next time I cut up a whole chicken it's going to be hard to resist using this bad boy.  I'll see how well it chops a chicken bone.

I would guess that Dad and his fishing buddies used this to chop off fish heads.  There was only one small nick in the edge and the only signs of wear were the rust and marks from many attempts at sharpening it at a variety of edge angles on a wet stone.  I never saw him use it when we butchered deer or the occasional front quarter of a cow.  I don't ever remember him using it and it's a mystery as to how it ended up in his garage.

[Rob]

Isnt that funny...when I did the same as you and emptied my Dad's tool draw in the garage, Ive never seen so much cast iron!  Old crucibles for heating animal glues, the heaviest gas burner Ive ever seen (with a bathroom tap improvised after the original tap obviously broke), tap and die sets...it was a treasure trove.

But Ive never owned one of those cleavers

Ironically, I made what in England we call a "priest" which is a short wooden club to despatch a trout after youve landed it....that was what was in that photobucket series of size posts :-)

[grepper]

I poked around on Google a little bit.  Seems like 30 degrees per edge is pretty average.  You whack and HACK with a cleaver, so you want the edge durability of steeper edge.

Just stuff I got from searches.  Personally I don't know.

[Rob]

yeh that makes sense.....my guess was following the same thought pattern...wack n hack :-) I like that

[Herman Trivilino]

A 60 degree edge angle (30 degree bevel angle) is pretty blunt.  But that sounds like it would be right for a cleaver.  I've needed wood chisels that blunt when used for hammering on hard wood.

There was talk here of manufacturing a universal support with longer legs so it could be set higher above the grindstone for sharpening wide cleavers using the knife jig.  I can see how that would be an unstable set up, with the cleaver being prone to being grabbed by the grindstone and flipped under the universal support.  That could send the cleaver flying into a precious body part!

[Rob]

Ouch!!

[Herman Trivilino]

That would definitely ruin your day!

[Rob]

and possibly your wifes too!

[Herman Trivilino]

If it were that serious I'm afraid the damage would last far longer than a day! 

[Jeff Farris]

Herman,

Nice tool.  I've heard 50º.  25º per side.

Computer issues seem to be resolved!

[Herman Trivilino]

Thanks Jeff.  I'll give that angle a try the next time this cleaver needs sharpening.  I don't think it'll take long to get this one dull.  It's not the best steel.

[grepper]

Welcome back Jeff!   Those computers...

[Herman Trivilino]

Ascii code 248, is that how you got the degree symbol into your post, Jeff?

A bevel angle of 25° on each side of the cleaver gives an edge angle of 50°.

I can't wait to chop up that chicken!