Lamson & Goodnow S Falls Works 12.25" Large Carving Knife Carbon Steel Ebony 1870-80s

Large master carver style knife made by the great Lamson & Goodnow company of Shelburne Falls Massachusetts with a blend of French and English influences. A knife like this was designed for carving large joints of meat and shows a strong English style shape with its paralel sided edge and blade with a bullnose tip. The handle shows a blend of French influence from the cuisine massive rat tail tang design with ferrule and one piece wood handle, the pommel shows a more English origin but the strongly curved large beak of the birds beak is an American take on the narrower saber style pommel found on English knives. 

A big stately knife that has a distinctive American design and is a great example of the prime of New England knife making with industrial process and skilled hand labor coming together to make knives to rival the finest Europe and Britain were making at the time.  

This knife has some shallow pitting on the side opposite the mark and has a very slight cant to the blade as well as a shallow forging flaw on the spine but otherwise is in great condition especially for its age.

Silas Lamson began making scythe handles in Sterling Mass in the early 1800s he moved to Shelburne Mass in 1837 and joined with Ebenezer Goodnow to form Lamson-Goodnow Company in 1842 and changed to Lamson & Goodnow MFG Co in 1853.

12.25" tip to handle, 18" overall and 6.4 oz