New chef knife

[kml]

This a rarity.
Brass pins in the handle, rosewood handle, (ROSEWOOD!!) carbon steel, not stainless, hand hammered in the early seventies by some old man in in the Sabatier Thiers Issard factory in France.
Carbon steel blade that is easy to sharpen unlike the Japanese knives that are in fashion now.
13 inch blade it's huge, yet due to it's construction it's very light. Tapered tang in the handle, that's done for balance and to reduce weight that cannot be done by hot drop forging only by a craftsman with hammer forging. You will notice the knife is not symmetrical in the forth photo you see the side that how a hand forge created the blade. 13 inches in length 10 is common, 12 a little less, so but 13in is just the right size for large amounts in a commercial kitchen and such an uncommon size!. The steel is softer than what is common now but that allows for easier sharpening and it responds to a steel in a few strokes unlike modern knives which are so hard they are difficult to sharpen and the modern hard knives chip easily.
It was on ebay and set me back 500 bucks
It's often in my hand for four hours a day.

cheers
ken

 

[ottafish]

Love it. Great find and super jealous. I'd love a carbon steel set. Or at least one good one. I have two sets of the modern stuff, (both reasonably top quality) but keeping an edge is hard work. I've almost given up on using any steels and just revert to the stone now.

 

[TallTom]

Not gonna lie. A good knife makes you never want to go back. I dated a chef for a time. Went to her place and picked up a knife as we were meal prepping Instantly felt different. Then I used it. OMG this is nice.

"I like this knife."

"Yeah they certainly give you confidence".

"Do you have any others?"

She rolls out the set.

"How much?"

"$800"

"I said that's not bad can I buy a set?"

"Sure, do you want the whole set?"

"Sure $800 seems fair"

She took my hand, smiled sweetly as she looked into my eyes and said intently "Honey, 800 is for that one knife. That set is $2700.".

I was sufficiently humbled that I was now clueless to quality knives.

She could skin a tomato cleanly. You could see through the skin. It never caused a drop of tomato juice.

The balance in your hand was immediate. The sharpness was so clean it was almost too easy to cut clean thru by accident. Yet so precise. I even said "Man I could shave with this thing"

"Yes easily", was her reply.

She would take a clove of garlic, slice it so thin, the slices melted into garlic oil in the pan in seconds.

It was amazing to watch a pro.

Good find in that knife.