Estate Sale Knife Hunt!

I went estate sale shopping today and found some knives.

Vintage Zwillings Twinworks 202-10" and L F & C Universal Chef's Knives

Let me first post these two chef's knives. The top knife is the L F & C Universal chef's knife, the bottom one in the picture is the Zwilling Twinworks chef's knife.

The L F & C is a vintage carbon chef's knife with a giant 12" blade. This knife was made in a process that we call stamped. A stamped knife is made by cutting out (stamping like using a cookie cutter) the knife shape out of a specially prepared steel blank. If you look down on a stamped knife you would see one long length of steel. It is made of carbon steel. Carbon steel was used to make knives before stainless steel was developed. The gray mottled appearance tells us it is carbon steel.

This knife is marked L F & C UNIVERSAL MADE IN U.S.A. It is in excellent shape!

Friodur Twinworks Forged 202-10" 10" Chef's Knife

And here is the Zwilling knife. This is a stainless steel forged knife made by Henckel.

A forged knife is made by taking an amount of steel and pounding it — usually using molds — into the desired knife shape. You can usually identify a forged knife by the bolster (the bolster is where the handle meets the blade). The bolster on a forged knife is think metal, and if you are looking down at the top of a knife you would see how the bolster is made of the same metal as the blade, but gets wider where it meets the handle.

This Friodur Twinworks chef's knife is a forged 10" bladed knife forged from stainless steel.

Dexter and RusHar Knife Honing Steels

I picked up two knife honing steels. Both are 14" one is made by Dexter, and the other is a RusHar. The Dexter seems to have had little use, the RusHar is more worn — but I am not really sure how a steel wears out. What I mean is my guess is that a steel that has been worn smooth with use should pretty much still hone the knife edge back to good condition.

Ontario Pacific Carbon Steel Paring Knife

This little knife is marked Ontario Pacific. It seems to be a small utility knife, being that I found it in Santa Clara County — my guess is that it is a cot knife, a knife used in the apricot industry that was big here years ago.

Cutco Knife Sharpener

I came across this handheld Cutco brand knife sharpener. I bought it just because I know that any Cutco items are always desired. I have already resold this guy.

Cutco Knife Set and Cutco Knife Wall Rack

The same estate sale had this set of Cutco knives. The rack that they are in hangs on the wall (with the handles facing down), and you lift the knife up and out.

Cutco Knife Set

Here is the Cutco knives out of the wall rack. There paring to chef's knives, and also a serrated spreader.

I sharpen Cutco knives every day — and everyone that I ask says that they love their Cutco knives!

What's on Display at my Mobile Knife Sharpening Business's Display Tables

My knife sharpening business is mostly sharpening — but not exclusively — I also sell new knives, buy, sell and trade knives, and repair and restore old knives.

Kitchen Knives on Display

Let's start with my new knives on display. The picture above shows (from the left) Boker ceramic chef's and paring knives. Next to the Bokers (and kind of under them) are my carbon steel Old Hickorys. I usually have at least five of the Old Hickory knives available. The knives on the far right are Mundial, there are four knives unpackaged on display on the table, and in the red boxes are Mundial knives individually packaged, and also packaged sets.

Sporting and Folding Knives

This shot shows my folding knives, hunting and skinning knives, and fish filet knifes. I see Kershaw, SOG, Boker, Spyderco, Arno Bernard, White River Knife and Tool and others.

Vintage Handmade Kitchen Knife

Lets talk vintage! I love vintage knives, and I always have an eye out for them. This one, though, is not mine. A customer brought it in wanting to have it restored. He said it is a handmade knife made years ago by his grandfather. He asked to have it cleaned up and sharpened.

Vintage Handmade Kitchen Knife Cleaned Up

Here is the knife before sharpening but after cleaning and restoring. The steel was cleaned and polished, the wooden handle was cleaned and oiled.

Vintage Handmade Kitchen Knife Restored.

Here is the finished knife. I see that the lighting was not the best — kind of makes the knife looks a bit flat and washed out — but here it is! Sharpened, cleaned, oiled and ready to go. Maybe I will photograph it in better light before it is picked up by its owner...

Handmade Forged Woodcraft Knife

Here is a beautiful one of a kind hand made forged knife. This is what one might call a 'woodcraft knife' or 'fieldcraft' knife. You wear it on your belt while tromping around — you will find a fieldcraft useful for any number of things.

Forged Fieldcraft Knife

Here is the bad boy in the sheath with the curly maple handle visible.

Handmade Woodcraft Knife and Sheath

Here is the knife and sheath. The knife blade is made of 1095C carbon steel, the handle is curly maple, and the sheath is vegetable tanned leather.

Five Knives At the Doorstep Today

A beautiful Wednesday here in Northern California, which called me out to ride my motorcycle. Me and a buddy rode up over the Santa Cruz Mountains to the ocean and back.

Steamer's Lane Santa Cruz

The ride was great fun, and icing on the cake was my knife shipment waiting for me.

My Shipment of Knives

Here are the knives. a couple of SOGs, Ontario RAT, Boker and Kershaw.

SOG Twitch XL with Rosewood Handle

I received another Twitch XL with rosewood handle. I received one just a bit ago, but sold it and I thought to replace it.

Kershaw Knockout Assisted Opening Folder Brown Aluminum Handle

Next up is this Kershaw. It is a limited run of (I believe) 400 pieces. It has a bead blasted finish on the blade, an anodized aluminum handle in brown, and is an assisted opening knife.

Kershaw Knockout

Here is the Kershaw Knockout again. I think it is on the large size, the clip can be repositioned, and made in the USA.

Ontario Knife RAT Model 1 Folding Knife

RAT Model 1 by Ontario Knife. RAT is short for Randall's Adventure Training. This is a manual opening knife, full sized and strong.

Ontario RAT Model 1

Here is the RAT's clip side. The clip can be repositioned to any one of the four ends.

Boker Anti-Grav Folding Knife

This is a nice, light knife. Boker Anti-Grav. The blade is ceramic, and the handle scales are carbon fiber.

Boker Anti-Grav Clip Side Folding Knife

Here is the clip side of this beautiful Boker knife.

SOG Spec-Elite Automatic Knife

Last up is this SOG. It is a fully automatic knife, the silver button shown above releases the blade. This is the Spec-Elite.

SOG Spec-Elite Automatic Knife

Clip side view of the SOG Spec-Elite.

This Old Knife

Digging up old knives is my passion! I always have my eye out during my daily travels.

Last Saturday I found these two knives:

Cattaraugus Chef's Knife and Cattaraugus Slicer Knife

These are stamped Cattaraugus. I believe that Cattaraugus was in business from 1890 until 1963, based in Little Valley, New York. The top knife is a 8" chef's knife, the lower knife is a slicer knife. They are carbon steel knives, and I believe that the handles are made of Bakelite. These are stamped knives.

Cattaraugus Knives

Here is a closeup of the Cattaraugus name stamped onto these knives.

Robinson Carbon Steel Chef's Knife

Here is a Robinson carbon Steel chef's knife. Made in the USA, and I believe it is carbon steel and then plated. There is rust coming through the finish, that I what makes me feel that it is plated. This is a full tang stamped knife.

Robinson Chef's Knife and Original Chipboard Sheath

Here is the Robinson knife photographed with its original paper sleeve or sheath as you wish.

Sabatier Forged Carbon Steel Chef's Knife

This beauty is a forged carbon steel knife made by Sabatier. It is forged (I believe) but the bolster is not forged, it is a cast piece that was soldered to the knife.

Dufresne & Co La Trompette Forged Chef's Knife

This knife is marked Dufresne & Co La Trompette, and marked France. It is a forged carbon steel chef's knife.

I must have much more to post. Let me find some more pictures and get back to this!

What's This? A New Box of Knives??

I received a box filled with some pretty nice folding knives!

My Box of Knives That Arrived

Yep, here they are. I see SOG, Spyderco and Heckler & Koch. The knife on top is a SOG Twitch XL with a rosewood handle that is a customer request.

SOG Twitch XL Rosewood Handle Folding Knife

Here is a picture of the SOG Twitch. It is a beautiful knife. I prefer wood handles on knives, most people seem to prefer basic black...

SOG Twitch XL 

I got a SOG Twitch XL in black for those that want the black look.

SOG Spec Elite Folder

I also received a SOG Spec Elite. I like the locking mechanism on this knife, it's call SOG Arc-Lock. This knife opens and closes smooth as silk.

Spyderco and Heckle & Koch Folding Knives

The rest of the knives are packed in rather boring boxes so I just took a picture of all of them at once.

I am busy doing close up photos of the knives right now. First up is

Taking Photos of Knife Edges

Visual inspection of the knife's edge is an important part of sharpening a knife. Pre-sharpening is important to see what you are up against. Post-sharpening is important as it helps one know how good of a job one did. To that end I have been experimenting with taking photographs with my smart phone.

Pitted Blade on Shun Knife

As issued my smart phone can't take a picture of a knife edge. A real closeup photograph like the picture above is called a macro, and the camera or the lens needs to be designed for macro photography.

I have a small handheld magnifier that I use to inspect knives, and to take this photograph I held the magnifier up to the camera lens. I think it worked pretty well! It does take three hands to hold all elements in position and position everything in the proper light, and dealing with the very small 'focus' window is almost insurmountable — but other than that it's a piece of cake.

Magnified View of Dull Knife Edge

Here is a closeup of a dull knife. I wanted to capture the 'glint' of light that one sees on a dull knife edge.

As a knife is used, the sharp edge gradually rounds. A sharp edge will not reflect light, the more rounded (dull) the edge becomes the more light that is reflected.

Magnified View of a Sharp Knife Blade

Here is the same knife after I sharpened it. A sharp edge reflects no light.

What's This? A Box of Arno Bernard Knives?

Nothing better than coming back from a nice day of riding the motorcycle and having a box of Arno Bernard knives waiting for me!

Me (and friends) Totally Unaware of the Arno Bernard Delivery

After riding over hill and dale I see box this awaiting!

Box Containing Arno Bernard Knives

What's this I wondered?

I bent down and squinted at the label, trying to read it. I was expecting some Arno Bernard knives — but other things are delivered all the time.

I was quite happy when I figured out that the box is my Arno Bernards!

Arno Bernard Knives

I had ordered four Arno Bernard knives and that is what I received. The picture above shows all four knives.

The largest knife on the left is a Hippo from the Giant series. The Hippo has a giraffe bone handle and a cape buffalo leather sheath (as are all the sheaths). The next knife is a Cheetah with giraffe bone handle from the Predator series. Next is a Nyala from the Grazer series. The Nyala has a warthog ivory handle. The last, the smallest knife pictured is a Porcupine from the Bush Baby series. The Porcupine has a wart hog ivory handle.

All of these knives are beautiful! The workmanship is flawless. All of the blades are made of N690 steel, all the sheaths are cape buffalo leather.

Arno Bernard Hippo Knife

Here I'm holding the Hippo. This knife has a giraffe bone handle, the blade steel is N690, and the sheath is cape buffalo leather.

Arno Bernard Hippo Knife

Here is another view of the Hippo knife. Beautiful.

Arno Bernard Cheetah Knife

Next up is the Cheetah. A little bit smaller than the Hippo. This knife also has the giraffe bone handle.

Arno Bernard Nyala Knife with Warthog Tusk Handle

The third knife is the Nyala. Smaller, a graceful beauty.

Arno Bernard Porcupine Knife

Last is the Porcupine with a warthog ivory handle.

Arno Bernard makes knives in three 'series.' The series are Bush Baby, Scavenger, Grazer, Predator and Giant.

The Bush Baby series is the smallest, they are sized from 5" to about 5 3/4" They step up in size through each series, with the Giants being the largest. A knife in the giant series are 9" to about 9 7/8"