A J Jordan 11.5" Bullnose Butcher Hand Forged Double Shear Steel Persian Boxwood 1885-1926

Marked Jordan's Best on the handle and AAA1 A.J. Jordan Sheffield, England on the blade, with PM 1896 scratched into the handle. This knife was made in Sheffield, England, from 1885 to 1926, so the 1896 personalization is very likely. Made at the East India Works in Sheffield, with the best Sheffield steel of the day: double shear steel and Persian boxwood, which wears incredibly well. 

This knife has been sharpened a bit, requiring a little thinning behind the edge; it still has some scuffs and scratches from previous sharpening, but it is otherwise ready to get back to work with a fresh edge. The dense, hard Persian boxwood handle is in great shape with no gaps or cracks; it has mellowed to a nice warm color and has a smooth feel. 

Andrew Jackson Jordan was an American from St. Louis who set up a knife manufacturing business in Sheffield (the East India Works) and imported knives to the USA made at the East India Works and on contract for A J. Jordan by other Sheffield manufacturers. This is a knife made at the East India Works with double shear steel and 'seasoned Persian boxwood'

Double 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 was 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. 

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 greatly improves a knife's performance, as it sticks less than a flat face and doesn't get thick behind the edge nearly as fast as a flat-faced blade. Since we often work with old blades that need reshaping and may have rust, except for minor imperfections, we try to give our reground blades a fresh start, keeping their original grind style and retaining as much metal as possible.