There is just something about this old knife

[JAB]

When my maternal grandfather passed, I got many of the old kitchen knives he and my step-grandmother had.  I am pretty sure that at least some of the ones I got previously belonged to his mother, my great-grandmother.  Now, these were folks who lived on and around the Lookout Mountain area of Northern Georgia.  We aren't talking about the increasingly 'gentrified' areas of Lookout Mountain, either.  We are talking the old, country type folks who live at or near the top of the mountain.

 

Especially back in my great-grandmother's day, these were the kind of folks who went fishing and ate what they caught.  They were the kind of folks who usually heated with an old, cast-iron wood heater and who cut their own wood.  Heck, my step great-grandfather was a woodcutter who used mules to snake the felled trees out of the woods to his sawmill.  These were the kind of folks who raised, killed and butchered their own hogs and cured the meat, themselves.  I remember that my great-grandmother's house (which my grandfather and step-grandmother lived in for a few years after she died) had a salt box/table on what was basically a closed-in back porch.  The salt box was, basically, a low table with built-up sides that was pretty well full of salt (I was just a little kid at the time so I don't know if there were other things in there for curing, etc.)  The fresh meat would be placed on the table and covered in salt as part of the curing process.  The point in mentioning this is that it is quite likely that some or all of these knives were used in dressing, butchering, preparing and possibly even killing hogs, chickens and possibly other livestock (as well as likely having been used to dress and butcher wild game such as white-tailed deer, rabbits and so on.)  Those folks, previous generations of my own family and honest-to-goodness mountain people, weren't playing around.

 

Aside from the knife which inspired this post, there are a couple of these knives of which I eventually plan to post pics, possibly later in this thread.  Some of them are production knives, a couple are obviously home made and in the case of one or two I am not completely sure which they are.  The knife I want to discuss first is one of the latter category.  I am pretty sure it is either home-made or at least a blacksmith made knife, not a production knife, but I am not certain.

 

Whatever the case, there is just something about this knife that 'speaks' to me.  I don't mean in a psychotic break, voices in my head way but just that something about it really resonates with me to the point that I don't really want to use it as a kitchen knife but, instead, want to make a sheath for it and get it out of the house every once in a while.  The funny thing is that I can't explain why or what it is about the knife that is so striking, to me.  I imagine it has something to do with the connection with my forebears and their way of life of which this knife was a small part but that isn't the entire reason.  There is just a certain something about the knife, itself.  I can say that it has some really good steel that, while not extremely thick, has a nice stiffness to it as well as a very good edge.  In fact, it probably wouldn't take much to make it scary sharp or even "ridiculously" sharp.

 

Anyhow, here it is.  This knife is almost definitely older than me and, for all I know, could be 80 to 100 years old.  There is no brand name stamped anywhere I can see but that wasn't (and still isn't) necessarily all that uncommon even with production knives.  That said, the way the pins look and the fact that they aren't perfectly aligned along with a few, other details cause me to believe this is not a production knife but is, instead, a handmade knife, whether home-made or made by a blacksmith or individual knife maker.  It is a 'half-tang' knife - the tang ends just behind the rearmost handle pin - and you can see that the wooden handle looked a bit worse for wear with some roughness near the end of the handle as well as general, overall appearance (which still wasn't bad all things considered.) 

 

 

 

Last night I took some 120 grit sandpaper to the handle and then rubbed it with a little olive oil.  The purpose wasn't to make the handle look like a new knife - I like the aged and rustic look it has.  Instead, I wanted to just smooth and clean the wood up a little and keep it from being so dried out.  Here it is after I did those things. As I am thinking of outside-the-kitchen use, I might use some needle files to put a little, shallow jimping on the blade spine just forward of the handle. Other than that, I really don't plan to do anything else to the knife, itself, other than keep it sharp and oil the handle when needed.

 

 

 

So, any of you guys seeing what I see in this knife?  If so, maybe you can explain it to me.

Edited April 14, 2015 by JAB

[china coaster]

Nice old knife. it was probably black smith made although I have made one like it from a saw blade and used mower section rivits to   secure a wood handle. It could have been used for just about anything. You might want to try using boiled linseed oil and hot water with steel wool to clean the handle then linseed or mineral oil to keep it from drying out. Vegatble oils can get rancid and stink when used on wood.

[peejman]

Cool.  Heirlooms come in many forms.  Things that connect us to times long past can have great intrinsic value.   It looks well used, which is the best kind IMO.  The angled pattern on the blade makes me think it was made from an old file, which would also explain the short tang.  I'd also get some mineral oil, tung oil, or walnut oil for the handle. 

 

 

btw... did you get the Boker catalog in the mail?  Some cool stuff in there...

[JAB]

Nice old knife. it was probably black smith made although I have made one like it from a saw blade and used mower section rivits to   secure a wood handle. It could have been used for just about anything. You might want to try using boiled linseed oil and hot water with steel wool to clean the handle then linseed or mineral oil to keep it from drying out. Vegatble oils can get rancid and stink when used on wood.

 

Thanks for the reply and the advice.  Vegetable oils can get rancid, I know, but olive oil lasts longer than most.  My ex-wife's (sadly, late) grandfather made treenware.  At one time, some examples of his work were used in dioramas at the Smithsonian (might still be for all I know.)  Some of his work was sold in the gift shop at Colonial Williamsburg (until their demand exceeded the amount he could turn out as a part time hobbyist) and he taught classes at Arrowmont several years ago.  He intended his wooden spoons, bowls, platters and so on - most of which were based on historical research he had done - to be used.  He always used olive oil on his treenware because it was food safe and wouldn't quickly go rancid like other vegetable oils.  Apparently some of his research indicated that olive oil was often used on treenware in the old days for those reasons.  Now, he didn't use 'Extra Virgin' or anything.  The solids in Virgin or Extra Virgin probably would go rancid pretty quickly.  Instead, he used cheap olive oil that was very light - which in this case probably works best.  I have also been told that walnut oil is good to use as it is food safe and will not go rancid.

Edited April 14, 2015 by JAB

[JAB]

Cool.  Heirlooms come in many forms.  Things that connect us to times long past can have great intrinsic value.   It looks well used, which is the best kind IMO.  The angled pattern on the blade makes me think it was made from an old file, which would also explain the short tang.  I'd also get some mineral oil, tung oil, or walnut oil for the handle. 

 

 

btw... did you get the Boker catalog in the mail?  Some cool stuff in there...

 

Thanks!  No, I don't think I have gotten the Boker catalog, yet.  Unfortunately, our current mail person isn't always the most reliable so someone else might be enjoying that catalog for all I know.

[jhc77]

I received a knife similar to this when my grandmother passed. Mine is much cruder than yours and I'll keep it that way. Looks like a piece of scrap metal formed for a blade, eyeballed a pair of wood handles and used aluminum make-shift rivets to hold it together.  Hearing from my mom how grandmother grew up, her parents made everything to get by. I'm not touching her knife. Most antiques that I inherit are cleaned, waxed and pretty much roped off from the kids. This knife of hers will stay "seasoned". It would barely cut a cheese sandwich as it sits. Nice find by they way.

[Grand Torino]

It's got history and sentiment written all over it. Forget it's just a cool looking blade.......more than likely hand made. I'll bet it wwill hold an edge fairly well. Take care of it and you too can hand it down some day. ;)

[Monkeyman2500]

I have an old knife like this my grandfather made for my grandmother. It has her name in the handle. It's been with me a long time and I've used it in many restaurants. Love it. I retired it a year ago when my knives started getting stolen at work. Can't lose that one.

[JAB]

I have an old knife like this my grandfather made for my grandmother. It has her name in the handle. It's been with me a long time and I've used it in many restaurants. Love it. I retired it a year ago when my knives started getting stolen at work. Can't lose that one.

 

Very cool.  Sorry you had to retire it due to someone else thinking your property should be theirs.  Things like this is why I disagree when people argue against having the legal right to use force to defend your possessions.  They say, "It's just stuff that can be replaced and isn't worth someone's life," and so on.  Well, a knife that was hand made by your grandfather for your grandmother and that has been passed down to you isn't just 'stuff'.  It is part of your personal history, part of you and part of your family and absolutely cannot be replaced.  Stealing a knife that I had bought and that didn't have such meaning would be one thing as something like that might be 'just stuff' and replaceable (which still doesn't give Mr. Scumbag any right to take it) but, to me, some lowlife attempting to steal something like your knife is not worth nearly as much as those special heirlooms. 

Edited April 15, 2015 by JAB

[JAB]

Cool.  Heirlooms come in many forms.  Things that connect us to times long past can have great intrinsic value.   It looks well used, which is the best kind IMO.  The angled pattern on the blade makes me think it was made from an old file, which would also explain the short tang.  I'd also get some mineral oil, tung oil, or walnut oil for the handle. 

 

 

btw... did you get the Boker catalog in the mail?  Some cool stuff in there...

 

 

Thanks!  No, I don't think I have gotten the Boker catalog, yet.  Unfortunately, our current mail person isn't always the most reliable so someone else might be enjoying that catalog for all I know.

 

Hah, spoke too soon.  It came in the mail yesterday.  I have only flipped through it but man, they have a large selection from knives I can only drool over to stuff I can actually afford.  There are 'tactical' knives, traditional knives, some really pretty knives and some 'mall ninja' stuff that just makes me chuckle.