Another knife thread - Restoration of I & H Sorby

gelandangan

So this mate of mine brought an old family heirloom knife to me for restoration.
The knife certainly have seen better days.. among other, the main things are
- the spine is folded due to some hammering (could be when the user try to chop through bone etc)
- the sides of the blade are badly pitted due to corrosion
- the dark patina, although is beautiful, I suspect it is full of blood and flesh bits that accumulated over the years (century?) of use
- the handle is loose and were being wedged back with a bit of newspaper.

There is no reference in the net as to the actual age of the knife, however I & H Sorby mark has been used since 1822, so for all I know this knife could have been 180 years old.

So, I started by removing the handle and then grinding off the folded metal spine which is the worse part of the blade in its original state... sorry no photos here..
Once I removed the deformity, I then buff off the dark patina on the side of the blade..

Here I noticed some lines along the cutting edge and the fact that the surface of the side of the knife is full of ridges like folded steel in a damascus blade..

So.. I raise the pattern by etching it.. and hoooleeee ....

It is indeed folded metal..
The it hits me.. it is wrought iron blade with an insert of hardened high carbon steel for the cutting edge.
This fact is accentuated by the dark etched result on the cutting edge. High carbon steel would color to black when patina is forced be acid.
It is indeed a beautiful blade with very pleasing damascus like patterning

I notice that the handle is also quite beautiful, although it is full of cracks, so I ended up restoring the timber handle (oak?) by rough sanding the bulk and then impregnating it with resin and re construct the pieces together... sorry again no picture..
It does look good on the assembly.

I then peen the end of the blade over a washer made of a 5c coin for retainer - it is illegal to disfigure a current currency coin so I wont post the photo of this Razz

Anyhow here is the final look of the blade, I am quite happy with it..

So there..
Thanks for looking

slimjim

gelandangan, you have been working hard. Nice job. But aren't you supposed to sharpen it too?

gelandangan

Oh it IS sharp slim, almost shaving sharp, but with convex ground edge it does not look like it. LOL.
I can cut drinking straws standing up on the table without any thing to hold the straw in place with it.

Suzanne

I love it!! You did a wonderfully beautiful restoration in every respect. I hope it gets better care for the next hundred years. Maybe you could write to Sorby (including your photos) to find out the age, that would certainly complete the hard work you put into it.

Suz

Elvis

lovely cleaver and an awesome restoration job.
I reakon the 432 will be a rego number for a freezing works either the works or cleaver itself??? as my much younger model has a 4 digit number stamped in it too.

Elvis

Surfing net to see what I can dig up, load of all bill hooks site is interesting..this company ended up as marples a very very good brand indeed.

Vince

You have done a magnificent job of restoring that meat cleaver Gelan. I particularly like your etching of the blade to bring out the patina.

Well done mate. Your hard work has assured another century of use from this blade.

inthedark

Nice job and a good story there Gelan Smile

gelandangan

Thanks guys, it was a fun project and I am glad of the result.

Ominivision1

Great project Geland and great results as well.

Aloysius

Just a question: why such a round handle? Doesn't that make it more difficult to keep it straight?

gelandangan

The handle is original, why they are round I am not sure but I guess it is the style at the time.