American 12" Chef Knife Carbon Steel & Rosewood ~1920's-50's

Markings lost but definitely American from the 1920's-50's (handle shape looks like Russell) with a 12" blade and rosewood handle with steel rivets, typically an early to mid 20th c rivet.

Re-profiled to have the tip more in the center of the blade; equidistant from the spine and the heel similarly to some Japanese chef knives, it can accomodate a standard western push cut technique but also allows for extra control at the tip which is closer in line with the handle. Light and nimble this does not feel like a battle axe.

This knife will work great for large ingredients like melons, large batches of veggies or as a slicer for boneless meat. Large chef knives like this were often used to prepare a roulade; a thin sheet of meat cut from a larger tougher section that was rolled up and trussed with different ingredients, there are old French or German recipies, see our book Sharp to see chef Chris Kronner's take on this classic.

This knife has been re-ground and thinned behind the edge on a large 3 foot diameter Japanese water stone wheel (kaiten mizu toishi) and then resurfaced with a medium fine finish, our take on an old style grinding and finishing technique. While the particular wheel used to refurbish this knife is typically used in Japanese knife making it is very similar to the old grinding wheels used to shape European and American hand ground cutlery. A convex face to a blade greatly increases a knife's performance as there is less sticking as there is on a flat face and the blade does not get thick behind the edge nearly as fast as with a flat faced blade. Being that we are often working with old blades that need re-shaping and might have been rusted expect some minor imperfections, we try to give a fresh start to our re-ground blades with an eye towards their original grind style and keeping as much metal is needed on a blade when ever possible. Check out Bernal Cutlery co founder Josh Donald's book Sharp to see these wheels in use and more about their history in Europe and Japan.