Vintage Forged 8" Sabatier Veritable Breswick Chef Ritz Chef's Knife

I came across this nice vintage carbon steel chef's knife:

Vintage Forged 8" Sabatier Chef's Knife Veritable Breswick Chef Ritz

This knife is a forged knife made of carbon steel — rather than stainless steel as almost all knives today are made of. There are collectors for everything, and since mainstream manufactures no longer make carbon steel knives, knife enthusiasts are always on the prowl for vintage carbon steel knives.

This one is in very good condition considering that is has been in different kitchens for all these years. 

I have put this up for sale on eBay. 

My Helle Knife Stock is Replenished

The Helle knives that I had requested have finally arrived.

Helle Knife Unboxing

Here is my modest shipment of Helle knives. I ordered a total of six knives.

Helle Knives

Here is a group shot of three Helle Knives. I had high hopes for this shot, posed on top of the Helle catalog and all — but it came out rather sad...

The knife on the left is the Viking, The Viking is made of carbon steel, and other than where the blade is ground and sharpened the blackish gray heat treating color is left on the blade. The Viking has a leather sheath with a belt loop strap and this sheath allows the knife to be on your left or right side.

The knife on the upper right is the new Utvar. The Utvar is Helle's first full tang knife. This knife has a curly birch handle with a brick red liner accent and a leather sheath. The handle has two rivets, and they are open through the handle so a lanyard could be tied to the knife if desired.

The bottom knife is Helle's always popular Eggen. This is one of Helle's most popular knife. It is more typical of knives that are popular in Europe — smaller, and with less bell's and whistles. All the knife one needs and no more.

Helle GT Fixed Blade Knife and Leather Sheath

This is the Helle GT. I think it is the only Helle knife that has a metal bolster, the GT has a stainless steel bolster. 

I Sharpened Two Very Old Carbon Steel Chef's Knives

A customer brought these two carbon steel chef's knives to me to be sharpened:

Vintage Forged Carbon Steel Chef's Knives

One is a Pouzet brand, made in France. The other is a J. A. Henckels.

The customer told me that these knives were he mother's grandmother's knives!

Vintage Pouzet and Henckel Chef's Knives

Here is a picture of the maker's stamps on the knife blades. These knives are carbon steel — so that discoloration or staining that is visible in these photographs are the nature of the beast. Yes, the knives started out as nice shiny 'steel' color — but contact with food causes this staining, or patina as we like to call it. There is no practical way to prevent it, and the patina seals the steel and makes for a better knife.

Vintage Kitchen Knives

Here are the handles. Other than the chipped handle and some irregular wear on the cutting edges, these knives are in very good condition! I like to say good kitchen knives are multi-generational, and these knives illustrate that point exactly.

More Knives in the Door

I have received my knives that I recently ordered:

Shipment of Folding Pocket Knives

Here is the box of knives. A rather small box — but filled with some very nice knives.

Kershaw Launch 2 Folding Knife

Here is the Kershaw Launch 2. It is a automatic, aluminum handle and pocket clip. I photographed these knives outside on an old, weather-beat formerly blue bench. I like how the texture and the lighting works with these shots.

SOG-TAC Automatic Knife

SOG-TAC automatic. The old workhorse, I have had this model knife a handful of times. A good, solid knife.

Emerson CQC-6K Wave Knife

This knife has the Emerson 'Wave' feature, the Wave allows one to pull the (manual opening) knife out of the pocket opened.

Piranha Fingerling

Piranha Fingerling. Piranha knives are all American made, and all are attractively priced, all are automatic knives.

Piranha X Automatic Knife

The last knife is another Piranha. This is the Piranha X.

Mobile Knife Sharpening Booth vrs Weather Mobile Knife 0, Weather 1

Being a mobile knife sharpener and setting up your knife sharpening booth outside year around — you tend to fight the weather!

Here in Northern California, San Francisco Bay Area the weather is generally quite mild — but that is comparing our weather to the areas of the country. Compared to indoors it's wild out there!

My stop at Lunardi's San Bruno is probably the most challenging weather-wise.

Windblown Mobile Knife Sharpening Booth @ Lunardi's San Bruno

Here is a what's left of my booth at Lunardi's San Bruno last March 30th. The wind was relentless, blowing constantly, a big gust every now and then.

This canopy was already weather worn, with a couple of bent struts from days past. It was probably time for it to go.

My View from My Windblown Knife Sharpening Canopy

Normally I am rather prepared for the wind. When it starts gusting I start taking down non-essicentiels. I started to do so here — my sign banners are down — but the wind picked up faster than I could react.

I still had knives on display that I did not want damaged. I did not want the canopy to take off, taking out the tables holding the knives on display, hitting my truck or somebody or something! Being alone increases the challenges.

What I did first is cut out what ever canvas I could reach so that the wind had less to catch, then added bungie cords and whatever weights I had on hand to stabilize the canopy.

Next step was to pack up the knives on display and get them save, then I started working on the canopy. 

Canopy Frame Now Scrap Aluminum

At the end of the day everything was OK. The canopy was toast — but I survived to knife sharpen another day. I cleaned up the aluminum parts of the canopy and gave them away via craigslist, and stopped at Costco the next day and bought another canopy.

I Received A Giant Shipment of Knives!

I received a big box of knives and axes, here is the group picture of all the new goodies:

Incoming SOG, H&K, Condor and More!

We see the big Condor boxes. They have axes and sporting knives in them, then we see SOG, Emerson and HK knife boxes.

SOG, Emerson/Kershaw, Boker and HK Knives

Here are just the knives awaiting being opened and played with!

HK MP5 Knife

First up is this gnarly HK MP5. It is a heavy duty knife. The aluminum body is fairly massive, and has a plain edge black coated blade that is deployed via push button.

Boker Urban Trapper

This is the Boker Urban Trapper. This is a very slim, very light, elegant pocket knife. The body is made of titanium, the body is slim and light, and the blade opens easily with just the lightest touch on the flipper because of the ball bearing hinge.

Pro-Tech Half Breed

Here is a Pro-Tech Half Breed. This knife has a small blade on a full sized handle. A very nice little guy is what I think about this knife.

Emerson / Kershaw Wave CQC - 6K

A Emerson designed knife made by Kershaw. This is one of the 'Wave' series. The wave is a hook that enables fast one-handed opening of the folded knife as it is drawn out of the pocket. The wave is seen in this photo as the 'hook' on the top of the blade just to the right of the thumb stud. The wave is designed to hook onto your pocket as the knife is drawn, opening the blade.

Come by my mobile knife sharpening booth at whatever location is convenient to you and I will demonstrate how it works.

SOG Flash 1 Folding Knife

The SOG Flash 1 is a small, very light pocket knife. The combination of the small size and the light weight G-10 handle material makes a knife that will not depress your trousers.

SOG Twitch XL

The SOG Twitch XL is one of my favored knives. It is American made, solid and strong, slim so not bulky. This one is black anodized aluminum.

HK Turmoil Knife

HK Turmoil knife. A very nice knife. This knife is made in America.

SOG 

I don't have the details on this knife -- I will need to dig up the specs and update this bog a bit later.

SOG Spec Elite 

I need to dig up the specs on this knife also.

Condor Axes

I received a selection of axes, all made by Condor. These axes all have forged axe heads, hickory handles, and leather sheaths.

Condor Axe

This is the middle sized axe.

Condor Greenland Pattern Axe

The larger Condor axe, this one is the Greenland Pattern axe.

Condor Solobolo Fixed Blade Knife with Leather Sheath

Here is a giant big Condor Solobolo. It is either a very large fixed blade knife or a small machete -- take your pick. Carbon steel blade, micarta handle and leather sheath with belt loop.

SOG Snarl Neck or Belt Knife

This is the SOG Snarl.