# Shibazi 210 Carbon Cleaver Re-handle and Saya



## jayhay

I recently moved to a new area of Philly and there tons of Asian markets around. Let me say, I'm in freaking love. That smell of durian and star anise always gets me excited to hunt for new things to try, and usually makes my friends want to leave. I also enjoy picking through the piles and piles of knives trying to find something something cheap and in carbon. On my first dig through the pile I ran across a carbon Chinese cleaver by Shibazi. The model was listed as the 210-1, which is interesting because they make no mention of it on their website. It was $20 bucks so I grabbed it up. And being that I've been eyeing a CCK recently, but didn't want to buy it through the normal source, I was pumped to find this. And I haven't seen many (or any) threads about it, so I was excited to post about something new. 

Long story short, it's very similar to a cck. Cheap, rough f&f and kurouchi, normal Chinese handle and no rounded spines etc. Here are my measurements,

Spine at handle: 2.2mm
Spine mid: 2.1mm
Spine tip: 2.1mm
Blade lenght: 9"

So, it's thin. And after I rounded the spine and choil, it's very comfortable to hold. I also started to remove the kurouchi, but it's pretty tough stuff. Much harder to remove than on a cheap Tojiro. The steel itself sharpens up very nicely. Fast to cut fresh bevels and raise a burr. It comes pretty dull, so a good sharpening is very necessary. Holds an edge well too. A buddy at work bought one up too and put it through hell one day prepping about 100lbs of meatballs. He cut everything with it, meat, onions, garlic and crusty old bread (all the normal meatball stuff). The cleaver ate it up and asked for more. Still had a nice toothy edge on it afterwards. I was really impressed. 

This knife also gave me the opportunity to try out handle making/re-handling. It was easy to strip off the old handle by unbending the end of the tang off the handle. With a few good tugs it really did slip right off. I made the new handle with some bass wood and the ferrule from a mystery piece of hardwood laying around. I used a 1x30 belt sander to fashion the male end of the handle, and the ferrule was carved out with wood chisels. I had to cut some metal off the tang to make it more size appropriate for the handle. I installed the handle by drilling a hold a tad smaller than the tang, so I could get a nice friction fit. I also used some good epoxy as an insurance policy. After some good whacks with a rubber mallet, it was on the cleaver! Booyaa!

Then I made a simple saya by carving out one side of a piece of bass wood and gluing to an un-carved piece. Sand and rub with some tung oil, complete! Hope you all enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts!


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## K-Fed

Nicely done sir.


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## heirkb

Very nice! I've been wanting to try my hand at making handles. Now I might have to make one for the cheapo Carbon cleaver I have. Off to buy even more basswood (I've already been making basswood sheaths like you).


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## mpukas

Very well done. I love finding an inexpensive gem like that, and the handle you made makes it that much better. I really like the handle you've made - for a Chinese cleaver, I find that many re-handle we see w/ a wa-handle just don't work. But the handles that usually come on Chinese cleavers are usually too short. And, I refer handles that are rectangualr in shape so they are taller than wide. This looks great! I think I would have left the KU finish on though...


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## jayhay

TY guys! Polishing a turd is fun, isn't it?

-heirkb, go for it man! It's a fun project to take on. All you need is a few tools and a good bit of patience 

-mpukas, thanks on the compliments. I would say the handle is about the same length as the original. The new handle does feel much better in the hand on the knife. And I too generally prefer taller than wide. As for the kurouchi, it was real messy in its original state. And it usually comes off overtime, so I thought better just to remove it.


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## markenki

Very nice! I like it.


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## Lefty

Looks great!


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## Mike9

Nice looking cleaver and handle - I gotta redo my Lamson one of these days.


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## sw2geeks

Very nice!


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## Jmadams13

Threads like this make me wish we had Asian markets around here. Lots of mexican markets, but no Asian. 

Nice handle, and nice cleaver. Now go to the market buy and send me one so I can copy cat you, lol


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## jayhay

Thanks all! I already bought up the stock of 'em at the store. They had 3 in total, and the other two went to coworkers


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## Burl Source

You did a great job with this cleaver.


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## EdipisReks

really nice.

it inspired me to buy a carbon shibazi from tastepadthai.com, and i might try my hand at something similar. my local places only get stainless, unfortunately, and i definitely wanted carbon!


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## Eamon Burke

Great job!


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## Line cooked

I like that bad boy...cool stuff


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## jayhay

Line cooked said:


> I like that bad boy...cool stuff





BurkeCutlery said:


> Great job!





EdipisReks said:


> really nice.
> 
> it inspired me to buy a carbon shibazi from tastepadthai.com, and i might try my hand at something similar. my local places only get stainless, unfortunately, and i definitely wanted carbon!





Burl Source said:


> You did a great job with this cleaver.



TY, guys!

Edipis, I checked out that site and didn't see what looked like a carbon cleaver. I saw a description that said carbon, but the image looked like something stainless. I'd imagine the same kurouchi finish on a carbon blade. If it is carbon, would you post back and let me know? Great price, I just think the site might be wrong/misprint. Good luck with the new cleaver


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## chinacats

you could always try the wokshop...not sure of the brand and I haven't purchased from them, but seem to be some of the least expensive cleavers i've seen online

btw, nice job on the rehandle


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## RoanRoks29

Wow, Jay the handle looks great, it looks even better in real life too.You mentioned something about patience, I don`t remember you using them!!


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