Marbles Camp Cleaver Mod

[The Warrior]

Got this cleaver a few weeks ago, decided to mod it.

The Marbles Camp Cleaver the day I got it:

Fresh out of the stripper. Only took about an hour and a half with Citrustrip. Looks like hell at this point:

After some sanding on the handle and blade. If you noticed in the first photo, there's some edges where the flats on the side transition to the top and bottom. You know that's going to create some hot spots, so, I filed and sanded those out. Also, this doesn't have scales. It's one piece of pine, with a slit cut into it. The blade goes back just behind the 3rd pin. I made a tube of sandpaper, and sanded the edges off the slit. They felt like they pinched before, but not after sanding:

I never did like the handle shape. A pointed handle on a rounded blade made no sense to me, so, I cut the end off, and contoured it. I also made the spot where the forefinger goes on the handle go a little deeper, and more forward, to accomodate my hand size a little better, but also to get a better grip in general. Cleaned the lanyard tube out:

Ground on the blade a bit, so I could choke up on it more. I personally think it looked good stock, as the flow of the handle and blade worked good together, but, this is more functional. On the other hand, it does sort of go with the contour of the forefinger "groove" I made. Still contouring the handle more, and also got the paint out of the fullers:

Applied stripper yet again to the spots I couldn't get sanded off. Not sure what the deal is, but I still couldn't get some of it off. I said the hell with it, gonna be a user anyways. So I put a wood conditioner on it, and stained it a Red Mahogany color. And finally, sealed it with 3 coats of a clear satin polyurethane:

Tried a mustard, and apple vinegar patina, but didn't care for the results, and sanded it off. I ended up doing a vinegar splatter patina. Good enough for now at least:

Finally, added a leather lanyard and beads:

Regular grip:

You can see the "notch" I ground to be able to choke up:

Choked up grip:

Random shots:

Darkened in the "Marbles" logo with a black sharpie. Didn't hide it completely, but muted it a bit. You can compare it with the first photo above. I definitely think a leather sheath would look better with it now:

Another fun project. Really enjoyed modding this one.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Its a great improvement on the original.

You can now fry eggs on it or play table tennis with it.

 

[udamiano]

Nice job, thanks for sharing it with us Looks 1000% better

 

[The Warrior]

Its a great improvement on the original.

You can now fry eggs on it or play table tennis with it.

Don't forget it flips pancakes.

 

[The Warrior]

Nice job, thanks for sharing it with us Looks 1000% better

Thanks, appreciated.

 

[plastic-ninja]

What a result!
That really was a bit of a bushpig in the beginning but I found myself softening towards it by the time you had got it well made over. It does look capable of pretty much any camp task including digging the latrine!
Good job bud.
Cheers , Simon

 

[The Warrior]

What a result!
That really was a bit of a bushpig in the beginning but I found myself softening towards it by the time you had got it well made over. It does look capable of pretty much any camp task including digging the latrine!
Good job bud.
Cheers , Simon

Thanks. I was kinda on again, off again about the design, but liked it after modding. They're only $23 shipped, so I wouldn't have felt too bad if I would have messed it up.

 

[Harvestman]

That's a beast, but now that you've played with it, its quite a nice looking beast.

 

[Perrari]

I would say that was a modification well executed. You have transformed it from something that looked a bit 'tacky' to a beautiful tool. Maybe a nice leather sheath would really finish it off ? Well done !

 

[Samon]

looks much better! how does it actually chop/hack?

goes to show what a little elbow grease can achieve!

 

[The Warrior]

Thanks guys, appreciated.

I would say that was a modification well executed. You have transformed it from something that looked a bit 'tacky' to a beautiful tool. Maybe a nice leather sheath would really finish it off ? Well done !

Would like to get a leather sheath for it, but honestly, a little hard to justify the expense of leather for a $23 blade.

looks much better! how does it actually chop/hack?

goes to show what a little elbow grease can achieve!

No idea, never used it, tbh. I watched a video on youTube when I was researching it, and it seemed to do okay. I live in the heartland of Illinois, the land of corn and beans. I have to drive 3 hours to get to the woods, so I don't get to do it often.

 

[Perrari]

Yeah ! I see your point.

Thanks guys, appreciated.

Would like to get a leather sheath for it, but honestly, a little hard to justify the expense of leather for a $23 blade.

No idea, never used it, tbh. I watched a video on youTube when I was researching it, and it seemed to do okay. I live in the heartland of Illinois, the land of corn and beans. I have to drive 3 hours to get to the woods, so I don't get to do it often.

 

[martsim73]

In original guise it looked awful... The finished article is so much better with your mods. Well done 100% improvement!

 

[The Warrior]

Yeah ! I see your point.

I really would like to have one. Maybe I could make my own. Never done it before, but there's always a first time.

In original guise it looked awful... The finished article is so much better with your mods. Well done 100% improvement!

Thanks, appreciated.