Van Wart & Naylor Table Knife Set Shear Steel & Horn Sheffield 1830s-1840

Early 19th century table knife set made in Sheffield, luckily for us it is easy to date with available records. In 1841 Samuel Naylor & Irving Van Wart dissolved their operations in Sheffield and New York, suggesting they were involved in the export of cutlery to the newly independent United States who was still dependent on Britain for goods such as cutlery. 

The wide curving blade and a smaller fork (3 or 2 tined) is typical of early 19h century table knife design in Sheffield. 

This set shows very little sharpening done on the blade, the horn has some wear and a gap on the knife but no cracks or big bug bites. Not bad for being nearly 200 years old!

Shear steel was a 19th and early 20th century steel that was made by case hardening bars of iron in ceramic boxes packed with charcoal, large numbers of these were heated for days on end at high temperatures and the resulting bars were broken up (it would break or shear rather than bend once carbon added hence 'shear' steel) and forged welded into a larger mass. This process was done twice on double shear steel creating a steel with a higher carbon content.