# 20+ year old Chinese Cleaver Rehandle and refirb



## jessf (Feb 2, 2017)

I took a 3 week trip to China, specifically Kaiping. Surrounding Kaiping are many small farming villages that are slowly becoming abandoned as people migrate to larger cities. Granny, 84 years old, has a cleaver we surmise to be 20+ years old. It needed a new handle and sharpening. I was going to make a handle from scratch but for 25 cents you can buy a new handle with a pre-drilled hole. 

The village is around 500 years old and many people will upgrade 500 year old homes with a few modern conveniences. However many homes stand empty and will slowly rot.




I laid out the tools I had access to, carborundum stone, pliers, hammer, driver and two heavy machetes. The cleaver and new handle are at the bottom of the picture.




Pried the bent tang and the handle came right off.




The blade has quite a few large chips and is well worn. Edge was closer to a dull axe than a kitchen tool. A good 45mins on the stone and I was raising a bur. 




Each village has a small pond where fish and ducks can be raised; also serves as a place for washing clothes and today a place for sharpening cleavers. For a finishing stone I used the fine texture of the concrete step. It's definitely carbon steel. 




Fitting the handle was fast. Put a poker in the fire and brought it up to cherry red. Used it to widen the pre-drilled hole in the handle to fit the bulge in the tang.




Once everyone saw this cleaver push cut paper I had a whole stack of dull cleavers to sharpen. I'll be back in a couple of years to sharpen them again.


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## Bill13 (Feb 2, 2017)

Super cool post! Sad to see the villages decaying, esp considering the pollution levels in the cities.


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## valgard (Feb 2, 2017)

Bill13 said:


> Super cool post! Sad to see the villages decaying, esp considering the pollution levels in the cities.



+1 what he said. Although I fully understand why people would move.


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## jessf (Feb 2, 2017)

yeah the villages often see donations from former residents who have moved on but not forgotten their roots. As a result, many have running water, power and cable TV. Old buildings are either knocked down and built new or left to rot. it's definitely a simpler way of life.


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## milkbaby (Feb 2, 2017)

Sounds like an awesome visit, really cool pics. Sad to hear how the villages are slowly being abandoned.


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## merlijny2k (Feb 3, 2017)

Same the world over i guess. Small settlements that are growing are the ones close to some desirable source of natural beauty. Beeches, waterfalls, hills with popular hiking trails, skiable mountain slopes. Purely agriculture and fishing based are often in decline. Maybe there's exceptions but i have yet to see them.

Nice work on the cleaver!


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## foody518 (Feb 8, 2017)

Great post and thanks for the photos. A part of China I've never really seen, not having relatives in the rural areas


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## Iggy (Feb 8, 2017)

Great Post. Thank you for that! :goodpost:


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## Marek07 (Feb 9, 2017)

Thanks for the post. Love your work and the photos. Hope you get back next year - they'll be waiting for you.


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