cleaver..woodwork or butchers tool ?

[john d hamilton]

Helping to clear out an old garden shed in London u.k., we found this cleaver.

Its pretty ancient probably from about 1910 or so.

Some think it's a woodworking tool or similar, and others think its a butchers cleaver, although some think not, because butchers cleavers are usually much bigger and you can see from the photo it's really quite small. it also has the number 6 stamped on the blade. anyone any idea what its original purpose was likely to be? thanks.

photo on tinypic website:

[Nancy2]

chicken, for instance, or ribs or something - much bigger, and it would be pretty heavy, no?

I can't think of anything it could do as a woodworking tool that a better, smaller tool couldn't do better.

N.

[James Silverton]

john wrote on Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:14:30 +0100:

Looks like a butcher's tool but do a Google search on

adze cleaver

and you will find that they are sometimes synonyms for a woodworking tool rather like a broad bladed axe. (I could almost imagine a medieval executioner using one.)

[Sheldon]

On Oct 23, 11:14=EF=BF=BDam, "john d hamilton" wrot= e:

many sizes and configurations... no law says that tool can't be used for splitting wood stove kindling but so can any cleaver and many other tools... could just as easily split kindling with a big old kraut chef's knife.

[Omelet]

Looks like a kitchen cleaver to me... That hole in the end of the blade is for hanging it from kitchen hooks.

[notbob]

My vote is meat cleaver.

nb

[Rusty]

It's a prop for the movie Halloween.

Rusty

[LEGEND65]

Actually it's for hanging on the sign over the chisels that reads "These are not screwdrivers."

[Sheldon]

Actually it's for hanging up your ass on a rusty nail!

Ahahahahahahahaha. . . .

[Elly]

My mother had exactly the same cleaver. She used it to chop spinach. It came with a wooden board that was oddly shaped, being higher on one side than the other, with a ridge only on one side to hold the spinach. This was in The Netherlands just after WWII. I don't know how long she had it. Could have been pretty old. She was born in the year 1900.

Elly

[SteveB]

knife that looks like a cleaver. It can be used as a knife or cleaver, but I hesitate to start smacking stuff with it, as it is so sharp. This one I have is some off beat name, but had one in another marriage that was Joyce Chen, IIRC. They are fantastically sharp, and useful as heck, almost the one you'd take if you could only have one knife in the house. I really like mine.

Steve

[bugbear]

At the risk of mixing adjectives, I'd say it's a domestic butcher's cleaver, i.e. a domestic tool used for the same purposes as a butcher's cleaver, but on a smaller scale.

It's certainly not a woodworking tool (a field in which I have some knowledge).

BugBear

[bugbear]

Is that next to the sign over the screwdrivers that reads:

"These are not pry bars"

? BugBear

[Omelet]

Been there, done that.

[Omelet]

!!!