Sabatier Trumpet / Ancienne Maison 11.75” Tranchelard Stainless France 1950’s

 Vintage 11.75” tranchelard slicing knife made for Ekco’s Ancienne Maison series by Sabatier Trumpet in France in the 1950’s. 

These were drop forged and then hand forged and hand ground to finish and represent the excellent quality of 1950's French knife making.

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. 

stainless steel but still no dishwasher, just don't put any knife in the dishwasher