Brades 419 cleaver / chopper / thingy?

[slowworm]

I've just been cleaning a small cleaver type tool I picked up cheaply. It turns out to be a Blades 419 but I can't find out what it would have originally been used for. Anyone have any idea of its proper use?

I had assumed meat cleaver but could it have been sold for chopping kindling or something else?

I've found this link online which shows what it is like: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/brades-419-wood-chopper-axe-vintage-1694597847

 

[crosslandkelly]

Kindling splitter I'd say.

 

[British Red]

Yup, looks like a stick chopper

 

[Nativewood]

Aye, wee kindling chopper/splitter. I like restoring these old, historic tools as giving new purpose to something is very rewarding especially when the steel is good and it works as it should.

 

[slowworm]

Thanks for the replies. I've eventually found an old Brades catalogue, from 1951, and it's listed in amongst the Butchers' Choppers but it is listed as a "wood chopper".

http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/images/Brades catalogue.pdf

It seems a tad heavy for a kindling splitter as it's a good 6mm thick. I've used it to cleave some stakes for the garden, so it's been de-rusted and given a few coats of linseed oil on the handle.

 

[Nice65]

Nice site is Timeless Tools, Laurentius posted up an Elwell 4789 he was interested in on eBay and linked to the site. Out came my wallet and I bought one myself. It came as seen, but with the addition of a sharpening stone which was a nice touch.

I had a similar kindling splitter, much smaller but about 5 or 6mm at the spine. I used it with a baton instead of chopping and it worked ok, the width is to part the wood. Gave it to the twins down the road who raid the local sawmill for offcuts and supplement their pocket money selling bags of kindling. Known locally as The Kindling Kids.

 

[Robson Valley]

I'd clean that up for kitchen duty. A bone chopper for sure. Butchery isn't rocket science.
Bring it over to my place and you can joint a meat rabbit for the roasting pan.
Or slice up a big mess of liver, onions and bacon.

I buy the 6" little cleavers in the way far backs of gloomy asian grocery stores.
Packed in grease, crude unfinished handles, bevels need refining and the clean-up only needs doing once.
$15.00 is about 9.4 BPS.

 

[Nice65]

I'd clean that up for kitchen duty. A bone chopper for sure. Butchery isn't rocket science.
Bring it over to my place and you can joint a meat rabbit for the roasting pan.
Or slice up a big mess of liver, onions and bacon.

I buy the 6" little cleavers in the way far backs of gloomy asian grocery stores.
Packed in grease, crude unfinished handles, bevels need refining and the clean-up only needs doing once.
$15.00 is about 9.4 BPS.

Here’s the one I gave to The Kindling Kids. It was £3.41 looking at my old email invoice, £6.90 with postage. Definitely not a knife I’d swing at a the end of a stick, but fine with a bash on the spine from a small log.

https://www.tradingdepot.co.uk/fait...t01geQLb-ZH4AyB8Zx6xOeVv7t4ZtZBRoCVNsQAvD_BwE

 

[Robson Valley]

Holy Cow! Looks like a froe to me. Meant for splitting shingles and shakes from wood blocks.
I can't see: did that thing have a bevel on one side of the edge or both?

I has a blacksmith forge one for me.
My wood blocks (12" x 12" x 24" ) are often bigger than the carvings I might want to do.
I can split to 1/8" with the froe and a 50oz log mallet..

 

[slowworm]

I'm using mine as a sort of froe, I'll avoid too much twisting in case the tang isn't that strong. I knocked up a simple log mallet, out of a long log with a large knot at one end, to hit the back of the chopper.

I had seen people advertise these things as "carpenters froe" hence my question. It seems they were not sold as such originally though.

 

[Nice65]

Holy Cow! Looks like a froe to me. Meant for splitting shingles and shakes from wood blocks.
I can't see: did that thing have a bevel on one side of the edge or both?

I has a blacksmith forge one for me.
My wood blocks (12" x 12" x 24" ) are often bigger than the carvings I might want to do.
I can split to 1/8" with the froe and a 50oz log mallet..

That one is bevelled both sides. I’m sure it would work as a froe, the handle is low like a froe knife. Not so good in the kitchen for that reason.

 

[Robson Valley]

The crappy little cleavers that I buy are meant to be used as right-hand slicing cleavers.
One bevel is 40* and the other side is maybe 15*.
I change them both to 12* each for a more general purpose tool.
I have 2 big 8.5" cleavers that I keep meaning to cut down to 6", a far better edge length.
I like having a choice of several (5 now) on my kitchen bench.

A froe should have the bevel on one side only. That side faces the slab to be split off.
The straight side plunges straight down into the block without drifting.
Mine has a 12" edge, big enough to span most of the wood blocks that I buy.

Big First Nations house boards of cedar might be 24 - 36" wide or more and 10-15' long, an inch thick!.
You start a cross cut at the top. Then a row of wedges along each side.
You walk the wedges down the log as ithe board splits off.
Make good wedges from cedar, too. Soft, they don't marr the object wood.