New knife - Old Hickory7" butcher knife!

[Samon]

This one arrived from la la land today!

Really nice bit of kit too. I was expecting the blade to much thinner and poorly ground but it's actually very good. At £10 delivered from over 3000 miles away and of very high quality I am very very impressed!

7"'s of 1095 carbon steel and a tight well grained handle, perfect for the kicthen!

I bought it with the intention of giving it a bone handle and kitting it out for a trade style sorta project. But as it my kitchen knives (£10 set of kitchen devils from Wilko) are pretty 'meh' I think I'll give this one a few months on the front line of dinner prep and see how I feel then.

Anyone else got one of these? have you modded/used it?

Been great to see some pic's of them if so.

(got it from here btw: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000MF9PY0/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 , took about 2 weeks to get here.)

Anyway, I thought this might be of interest to some of you chaps/chapeetes..?

Peace,

Sam

 

[British Red]

Honestly I find them a pain in the posterior. The pointless waffle stamps trap food debris and they rust at the drop of a hat. You have to hand wash (no dishwasher) and oil after drying with a tea towel. I cook a lot and in quantity and I find them painfully high maintenance

 

[woof]

I've got one, had it a few years, it came to me 2nd hand, but i confess its in the "not very often used knife box"

Rob

 

[Samon]

lol the waffle texture certainly seems to have no real purpose. I can only give a first impression but as I do all my cooking from fresh I am sure I will have a more experienced opinion in two weeks. I've already oiled the handle and blade with olive oil ,and I may consider oiling the block it's now living in.

 

[bb07]

I like them. The newer Old Hickories are much thinner than the older ones, and aren't finished as nicely either. Ebay quite often has the older ones that can be gotten for a reasonable price (though I understand that's not an option for you, is that correct?)
Forgecraft Hi-Carbon is another brand that might interest you, being very similar.

These knives are not super hard, but do hold a decent edge. We use them a lot in everyday use, as well as when butchering moose and caribou.
For me they are good value for the price. And for anyone wishing to make modifications, they offer practically unlimited opportunities.

As far as rusting goes, once they have a good patina, I simply wipe them dry after washing and haven't had problems with rusting, but our climate is drier.
I do have a few, as well as the Forgecraft brand and others

 

[santaman2000]

I grew up using them in my Grandmother's kitchen (and pretty much everybody else's kitchen back then) Love 'em.

I have a set now; two butcher's knives, a boning knife, a chef's knife, and a couple of pairing knives. I've seen no real need for the waffle pattern but then again no real fault from it either.

As for rust, well I've never had one rust yet. Mine are over 30 years old and have been in several climates to include the Nevada desert, the Texas Hill Country, the UK and finally the last twenty years here in a high humidity/high salt environment. Granted they've always been used as indoor, kitchen knives rather than outside. As BB07 says they develop a wonderful patina.

They do need frequent sharpening though if you use them a lot. But that's one of the advantages as they're relatively inexpensive to replace once they've been sharpened away (so far my set is over 35 years old and the only ones so worn have been the small paring knives)

As for not being able to wash them in the dishwasher, well TBH I would never under any circumstances wash any knife (other than a butter knife) in the dishwasher!

 

[Samon]

I grew up using them in my Grandmother's kitchen (and pretty much everybody else's kitchen back then) Love 'em.

I have a set now; two butcher's knives, a boning knife, a chef's knife, and a couple of pairing knives. I've seen no real need for the waffle pattern but then again no real fault from it either.

As for rust, well I've never had one rust yet. Mine are over 30 years old and have been in several climates to include the Nevada desert, the Texas Hill Country, the UK and finally the last twenty years here in a high humidity/high salt environment. Granted they've always been used as indoor, kitchen knives rather than outside. As BB07 says they develop a wonderful patina.

They do need frequent sharpening though if you use them a lot. But that's one of the advantages as they're relatively inexpensive to replace once they've been sharpened away (so far my set is over 35 years old and the only ones so worn have been the small paring knives)

As for not being able to wash them in the dishwasher, well TBH I would never under any circumstances wash any knife (other than a butter knife) in the dishwasher!

Me neither. Great way to lazily ruin a real knife's temper though!

I measured the spine and the knife is 2mm thick. What is the thickness of the old 7" models.?

 

[British Red]

Me neither. Great way to lazily ruin a real knife's temper though!

Sorry, but that's just plain wrong - a dishwasher doesn't get above 100C - boiling water - no way that 100C ruins the temper of a knife

 

[Samon]

Sorry, but that's just plain wrong - a dishwasher doesn't get above 100C - boiling water - no way that 100C ruins the temper of a knife

Just did some quick google-fu to check the running temp's of an average dishwasher and the heat doesn't seem to reach high enough to effect the temper, but alot of people believe the 'corrosive' nature of the washing and knocking around in there will do no good to a high end blade. The hot water/steam cannot be good for the wood handle though..


Either way, I don't even have a dishwasher or anything fancy like that, and I've always washed the sharp knives by hand myself.

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah I'd have to agree that the dishwasher doesn't get hot enough to affect the temper. But I don't like the idea of them being knocked about in the rack.

As for the thickness of the older blades, well I've never measured them but I'll measure my oldest and newest and get back to you.

 

[British Red]

Just did some quick google-fu to check the running temp's of an average dishwasher and the heat doesn't seem to reach high enough to effect the temper, but alot of people believe the 'corrosive' nature of the washing and knocking around in there will do no good to a high end blade. The hot water/steam cannot be good for the wood handle though..


Either way, I don't even have a dishwasher or anything fancy like that, and I've always washed the sharp knives by hand myself.

It has its place - you cannot for example have a "porous" handle on a (commercial) game dressing knife in the UK. If the knife is stainless and the handle synthetic, the knife (and kydex sheath) can go in the dishwasher and be sterilised as well as cleaned - similar to the autoclave used in surgery. If you put the knife in a proper cutlery rack, it doesn't get knocked at all. My chefs knives are all stainless - I want them clean and not absorbing blood and gunk.

 

[BlueTrain]

We don't have any but my wife's parents did. I don't know who got them when my father-in-law dies and the household was broken up among the children. I did get a cartload of old tools, though, but no knives. Incredibly enough, I got a pre-WWI Mills web belt, of all things. But no knives. Anyhow, there is a school of thought that prefers carbon steel blades over stainless no matter what under the theory that it is impossible to get a decent edge on a stainless blade. Maybe so, but I'll take the stainless blade myself, especially for outdoor use. Those butcher knives aren't really outdoor knives, though, unless maybe you're the skinner for a buffalo hunter. Justs the same, I always use a regular kitchen steel or whatever they're called before using any of the kitchen knives except for ones with serrated blades, which is half of them, or ordinary table knives. Of course, I'm not planning on shaving with any of my knives, either.

I will admit to being lazy about knives and dishwashers. They go in, even though I'm sure that the handles will eventually loosen, only that's never happened. I'm also pretty sure it's hard on anything you put in the washer but I'm not prepared to prove anything right now. I am afraid I also have to admit that they are not stored with any care either, just dropped in the drawer with all the other knives, tongs, bottle openers, cork screws and assorted dingbats, none of which, including the knives, are "high end."

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

I have some old carbon steel kitchen knives and the patina has protected them well enough but must admit for my bushie
knives I'm heading more towards stainless now coupled with man made handles.

Good video on YouTube of a guy shaving with one of the Kyocera ceramic kitchen knives
http://youtu.be/ESzGLSI1URE

 

[santaman2000]

As promised I've just measure blade thickness on one of my older knives vs one of the newer ones:

Old knife = 1.5 mm
New one = 1 mm

A 33.3% reduction

 

[santaman2000]

.....If you put the knife in a proper cutlery rack, it doesn't get knocked at all. My chefs knives are all stainless - I want them clean and not absorbing blood and gunk.

When I said "knocked about in the rack" I was referring to the cutlery rack. That's still too much knocking about for me.

 

[British Red]

Each to their own - I use a combination of Sabatier and Sheffield Taylors kitchen knives (Sabatier make the better chefs but Taylors for the butchery). I even keep a game knife that is all synthetic and stainless with a kydex sheath - when it gets covered in membrane and blood, it gets a good hot wash and comes out sterilised. None have come to any harm yet - but maybe our dishwashers are more gentle?

 

[chimpy leon]

Im quite interested in these Old Hickories. Do they take and maintain a decent edge?

I ask because my kitchen knives dont take a very good edge despite a good sharpening and the edge it does get can be lost if you stare at them too hard.

 

[British Red]

They take a good edge but are relatively soft and, because thin, the edge can fold under stress (if you hit bone on game for example). They are good value - just take a bit of looking after

 

[Samon]

Im quite interested in these Old Hickories. Do they take and maintain a decent edge?

I ask because my kitchen knives dont take a very good edge despite a good sharpening and the edge it does get can be lost if you stare at them too hard.

Low temper 1095 high carbon steel.. so I'm guessing they'll take a nice edge pretty easily! I've done a quick sharpen on my kitchen block but I will give it a proper edge another day as I was working alot today and only had a few hours spare to sit down.

The knife came with a pretty evenly ground bevel with a small secondary V grind. I'll be grinding this out on the sander and convexing so it'll take a more natural edge when I slap it about on the stones/block. I gave it a quick play earlier though cutting up hald a kilo of chicken thighs and an assortment of peppers for dinner. It took a very mild patina once the onions got sliced up.

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah they're a good standard steel and take an edge easily. But as Red says they can lose it easily too. A quick touch-up on a butcher's steel will do nicely most of the time.