I have just come across this on YouTube which shows knives which were actually used on the frontier, somewhat different to our fancy hi tech steel blades no? More like my mums cooks knives which got smaller and smaller as time went by. Enjoy:
Real knives in the old west.
- Thread starter Laurentius
- Start date
-
Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
Interesting; thanks for posting. It looks like they know less about knife history than gun history though.
My Mum had one of those 'butcher's knives' that I searched for when we emptied her kitchen but never found
- I fancied using it as a camp kitchen knife; it would have been cool.
My Mum had one of those 'butcher's knives' that I searched for when we emptied her kitchen but never found
- I fancied using it as a camp kitchen knife; it would have been cool.
Interesting video. Those knives had real purpose. How many of our knives will be worn down to that extent by the time we’ve done with them?
Even our carving knife which we’ve been using for 40 years is only showing a few mm of wear.
My recently purchased Morr Ison has very few good qualities but should see me out.
These guys used knives as tools. They may only have owned the one.
Even our carving knife which we’ve been using for 40 years is only showing a few mm of wear.
My recently purchased Morr Ison has very few good qualities but should see me out.
These guys used knives as tools. They may only have owned the one.
Last edited:
Probably weren’t cheap coming all the way from Sheffield, either. On top of them being a more expensive item back then already.
Thanks for the vid, that’s interesting.
Thanks for the vid, that’s interesting.
Thanks, I enjoyed that
Very much a case of use whatever worked, and why replace it if it's still working. Puts me to shame really as some of mine have never even been sharpened let alone used like that!
Then again they may have been used for literally everything, food prep etc rather than a knife for each task
Very much a case of use whatever worked, and why replace it if it's still working. Puts me to shame really as some of mine have never even been sharpened let alone used like that!
Then again they may have been used for literally everything, food prep etc rather than a knife for each task
an awful lot of 'trade knives' were sent over either as finished knives or blades. Butchers knives like that were the most common, but other sorts too. Most were not expensive pieces at all and were churned out pretty low quality because they were going to the Colonies (not just the US, but the Caribbean, Australia, etc).
He mentioned casks as well, same as the "trade axes" (hatchets) that were shipped across the Atlantic as heads in barrels, the Basque region being one of the places supplying them. It looks like Sheffield did the same with knife blades.
The guy didn't seem all that knowledgeable on the subject, but fine if guns are his thing...
"Old Hickory" still make (I think?) a line of carbon kitchen / butchers knives, for anyone fancying a "trade knife" it's pretty close short of a real hand forged blade. A couple below I've had a few years, using in my kitchen (ignore the hatchets).
I've a soft spot for old carbon kitchen knives & have found a few nice ones at boot sales over the years, they remind me of images I've seen of Frontier / Trade knives.
Below are "Sabatier's", they actually turned out loads of carbon knives from the French region until very recently.
Above is after they were initially cleaned, they discolour with use, I do use them even though it's not really practical since Sheffield invented that new fangled "stain less steel", but I enjoy seeing the various colours that form from different foods and looking after them.
The guy didn't seem all that knowledgeable on the subject, but fine if guns are his thing...
"Old Hickory" still make (I think?) a line of carbon kitchen / butchers knives, for anyone fancying a "trade knife" it's pretty close short of a real hand forged blade. A couple below I've had a few years, using in my kitchen (ignore the hatchets).
I've a soft spot for old carbon kitchen knives & have found a few nice ones at boot sales over the years, they remind me of images I've seen of Frontier / Trade knives.
Below are "Sabatier's", they actually turned out loads of carbon knives from the French region until very recently.
Above is after they were initially cleaned, they discolour with use, I do use them even though it's not really practical since Sheffield invented that new fangled "stain less steel", but I enjoy seeing the various colours that form from different foods and looking after them.
The Green River hunting knife sometimes called the Arkansas Tooth-pick was originally produced in Massachusetts but Sheffield makes quickly copied them when they proved popular. In the days of my youth when knife dealers shops were common, in Shrewsbury the dealer convinced me that the Green River knife was a Sheffield invention. He said every one of them that he’d sold was made in Sheffield. I had to wait until the internet came along to discover it’s real origin.
Lots of Sabatier carbon steel knives got dumped on the market after the rules for kitchen knives changed in the EU and all commercial knifes were supposed to be stainless steel and dishwasher safe for hygiene reasons. As a professional cook I think that is actually a reasonable thing but SS trade knives don't sharpen as easily. I have a few of the smaller knives in the picture above and use mine all the time. I wish I could find big messers like the above blades cheap here
One knife to rule them One knife to do it all.
Although I suspect that most of them also carried a small folder in a pocket for cutting string and such, castrating calves, etc:>
I actually have my Great grandfathers small pocket knife in my drawer, a true "pen" knife and it has been sharpened to with-in an inch of its life, from around 1850/1860
Although I suspect that most of them also carried a small folder in a pocket for cutting string and such, castrating calves, etc:>
I actually have my Great grandfathers small pocket knife in my drawer, a true "pen" knife and it has been sharpened to with-in an inch of its life, from around 1850/1860
amazingly some companies manage to make a crappy copy in super- soft stainless steel and hollow plastic handles and sell them as kitchen knives in Costa Rica...
most folks associate Bowie knives with the Wild West, BUT in the mid-19th century they got introduced to New Zealand as well and played a role in their colonial wars --- "svord" still makes a copy called the "von tempsky bowie" after the prussian(?!)aristocrat who introduced them...
Similar threads
