# LambSplitter & Meat Cleaver Sharpening



## Dave Martell (Feb 5, 2013)

Some of my favorite sharpening work that I get in to do is the big heavy stuff, the meat cleaver & lamb splitter work. 

It's great because most often it's vintage pieces being brought back to life, most having been badly sharpened edges and/or really bad nicks. The fun isn't just in removing all the old damage but in thinning and convexing in a whole new edge. 

If possible I like to follow the original factory bevels when I regrind in the edge, these are the wide bevels that these tools came with when new. Normally I see that past sharpeners haven't been able to do this themselves which I believe is from a lack of proper equipment like we pro sharpeners have today. I mean try doing this with a pedal powered grindstone on the side of the road - not fun I'm sure.

Below are a few pictures of a couple of vintage Briddell lamb splitters that I just sharpened up for a customer as well as a couple of VERY old Beatty cleavers that I sold not too long ago. You can see the nice wide convex bevels that I ground into these tools. Note - the height of the bevels are dictated by the thickness of the blades as well as the original factory grinds. They are wicked sharp - frighteningly sharp actually. :cool2:

So if you've got old meat cleavers or lamb splitters that you'd like to bring back to life, (maybe an ebay project?), and like the look of these types of convex edges please feel free to contact me or just send them in as I love doing this work and would be happy to have them, I'm certain that you'll be satisfied with the results. :thumbsup:


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## ThEoRy (Feb 5, 2013)

Wish I had a use for the lamb splitter..... Of course I could always go on a zombie killing spree....


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## wsfarrell (Feb 5, 2013)

Do you do that on a belt grinder or stones?


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## Dave Martell (Feb 5, 2013)

wsfarrell said:


> Do you do that on a belt grinder or stones?




Belts for grinding & buffs for deburring. These things would kill stones, especially the Beattys.


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## heirkb (Feb 5, 2013)

Do these bevels just blend into the face of the knife or is there a clear cut-off line? I once saw a cleaver sharpened with the bevels blended up into the face. Looked like a bada** beast of a knife.


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## Twistington (Feb 5, 2013)

http://imageshack.us/a/img802/2723/photofeb04151122.jpg

Landed in the mailbox a few days ago, 1200g... :O


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## Dave Martell (Feb 5, 2013)

heirkb said:


> Do these bevels just blend into the face of the knife or is there a clear cut-off line? I once saw a cleaver sharpened with the bevels blended up into the face. Looked like a bada** beast of a knife.




On the thicker pieces the transition is less noticeable and blends nicely mostly due to the blades being ground with some degree of tape whereas the thinner blades show the transition noticed more because they're not as tapered and the height of the bevel can only be "so high".

Now if I was going to regrind the blade completely (or like I do with axes) then the bevels would blend in seamlessly with the blade face as it should be.


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## Dave Martell (Feb 5, 2013)

Twistington said:


> http://imageshack.us/a/img802/2723/photofeb04151122.jpg
> 
> Landed in the mailbox a few days ago, 1200g... :O




Nice project you've got there.


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## SpikeC (Feb 5, 2013)

Poor baby lambs.......


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## sudsy9977 (Feb 5, 2013)

Dave...feel like doing a Japanese axe and sickle!!!!....lol...ryan


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## Dave Martell (Feb 5, 2013)

sudsy9977 said:


> Dave...feel like doing a Japanese axe and sickle!!!!....lol...ryan



What? I can't hear you.... :razz:


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## brainsausage (Feb 6, 2013)

After reading this, I gave my recent eBay Beatty beater find, a couple passes on the 325 grit, just for the hell of it. Suffice to say- I'll be sending it your way soon Dave...


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## Dave Martell (Feb 6, 2013)

brainsausage said:


> After reading this, I gave my recent eBay Beatty beater find, a couple passes on the 325 grit, just for the hell of it. Suffice to say- I'll be sending it your way soon Dave...




LOL - I'll be looking forward to receiving it.


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## Dave Martell (Feb 6, 2013)

Something worth mentioning is that if you're going to clean the blade (de-rust with Flitz or whatever) you might consider doing this before sending it in for sharpening. The first reason is that many of these chemicals kill edges (yeah Flitz is an edge killer) and the second reason is that you don't want a heavy sharp object accidentally slipping from your grasp while working on it.


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## kalaeb (Feb 6, 2013)

Okay how many people placed bids on ebay after reading this?


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