W W U do?

[Pattree]

<———- 300mm / 1 foot. ————>​

I bought this from a junk shop with the intention of cutting up the blade to make a couple of folding knives.

It’s 300mm long total.
200mm x 30 - 35mm blade.
3mm at the spine flat ground.

(seeing eye)TAYLOR
WITNESS SHEFFIELD
ENGLAND​

It’s kitchenware and so it’s ground flat. This means that I can easily make a 40mm blade close to the tang but the grind makes the rest unsuitable for a folder where I want the blade parallel between the bolsters.

Do I keep it as a the original kitchen knife?

I don’t like the rectangular handle cross section. If I re-shape it or fit a new one have I spoiled anything?

Do I cut it up as originally planned and make a little stubby fixed blade out of the rest? By doing that I’d be slicing through the trade mark and would probably grind it out.

Do I pass it on to someone with more imagination than me?

 

[Keith_Beef]

Personally, I couldn't bring myself to cut up a perfectly usable blade like that, but I'd be quite prepared to put a new handle on it or reshape the existing handle.

Have you tested it for being stainless (which I very much doubt) or tried an etch to bring out the grain to see if it's shear steel?

 

[Pattree]

I’m certain that it pre-dates stainless steel.
I can’t imagine that it is anything special but it is an effective looking knife. Thus far I haven’t even tried to sharpen it. I am confident in the manufacturer even though it’s a mass produced item.

 

[Tengu]

I wouldnt like to cut up such a beauty but that is just me. It has age so I am sure it is good steel

 

[Broch]

I agree with the others; that is a lovely knife and typical of the kind that Nessmuk (George Washington Sears) was reputed to have made his blade from. Although, that may be an assumption.

 

[Pattree]

I’m inclined to agree.

Problem is that I cannot be (insert past participle of choice) -ed to go through shaping and heat treating a lump of metal when junk shops are full of it ready to use.

If I keep it or restore it then I’ll have a fixed blade knife that I’ll never use.

It’s had a hard life. Two of the rivets are sprung and there is a slight burr along part of the spine where it’s been battoned with some form of metal hammer. This could easily have sprung the rivets, as could stabbing it into a block over a period of time. Maybe an ex-butchers knife.

I’ve written to Taylor for any information that they have on the item. It’s nothing special just a mass produced kitchen knife.

 

[Tengu]

But its ten times as nice as the things marketed as kitchen knives these days

 

[Toddy]

I had one of those, passed it along to Motorbikeman and never heard any more of it.

It was a butcher's gammon cutting knife.

 

[Tengu]

How about you trade it for some metal suited to some folding knives?

 

[C_Claycomb]

What I would do, and what I would advise you to do are two very different things.

I would not have bought an old knife just to cut up because I prefer to work with known material with uniform starting sizes. Also, I would feel bad destroying a perfectly useable and no longer manufactured tool to make something else. If I had that knife I would re-handle it, sharpen it, clean the spine, then either use it or pass it on as a working tool (Moot bring and buy if I couldn't find anyone else).

I would advise you to quit over thinking and just cut it up as planned.

 

[Broch]

In an ideal world @Pattree what dimension steel would you want to work with. I have various and I could even heat treat it for you after you've shaped it (as our wives meet regularly ).

I'd quite like an old butchers knife for food prepping at camp

 

[Pattree]

That’s a kind offer @Broch.
Let me think about it a little. You guys have sort of sold me my own knife but I think it will just become a drawer queen.

I’ve written to Taylor for information. Let’s see what they say.

Give me a little space and I’ll consider.

 

[matarius777]

Personally, like others have said, I’d bring it back to its former glory, it would make a great kitchen knife, maybe for carving the Sunday roast. I love old carbon steel knives, I have, and treasure my mother’s two old Sabatier carbon steel chef’s knives, probably bought in the 50s after she married.

 

[Longstrider]

I'm in the same boat as C_Claycomb. I would not have bought it to re-purpose.

Just like CC, I make knives so have facilities to do all sorts of work to them. If I already owned that knife I'd probably put a new handle on it after removing the existing one and giving the whole thing a damned good clean-up. I would then keep it in the kitchen and use it for some of my larger venison butchery jobs. At 8" blade length it's just about right and not so big as to be unwieldly.

Taylors Eye Witness were some of the best in the day.

 

[Pattree]

After discussion here and a little information from Taylor Eye Witness - were I to keep it, I would probably thump the cutler’s rivets back into place and leave the patina and the chipped rosewood handle as they are. I might then intend to use it but I probably wouldn’t. My current all stainless steel kitchen knife is effective and hygienic.

As it is, the knife is off to a new owner who will enjoy it will and do whatever they wish with it.