Alcoso 10" Slicer Carbon Steel Solingen, Germany 1950-60s

Old style 10" slicer from the 1950's-60's. Ground by hand after drop forging. This knife was made at a time that there were many brands drawing off the large pool of talented independent smiths and grinders in Solingen, Germany. A great example of the high quality work that was the norm for Solingen culinary knives when handwork was the norm.

While it's certainly not the last of its kind and forged carbon steel is still done in Solingen, this knife represents the last of the era of carbon steel and hand grinding as a mainstay of production. Look for the shape of the bolsters (narrow and tapering) and well as the slight curve on the face of the blade.

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.