A vintage Sheffield knife - flea market find I hope to “restore”

[Smokefire]

Hey all, was at my local flea market the other day and got this old knife for next to nothing. It was really brown with age and the handle was a joke, but I knew from what I could see of the stamp that it was old and likely English. It is all made from one piece of steel, with a forged in bolster and tapered tang.

It looks like the original handle is long gone, and in the meantime someone had taken a 5” file handle, slit it nearly in half, shoved the blade in, put a wire ring around the top to retain it, then wrapped it in some kind of gauze tape.

I removed the tape and the handle, let the blade sit in vinegar for a day and then hit it lightly with the wire wheel. The stamp is: “V R / Warranted Cast Steel / Sheffield”. No makers name and no England, so I’m assuming this is possibly as old as the 1870-1880s. The tang looks partially hand forged, with evidence of five pin holes.

I was thinking about making some fancy maple handles for this, but I did a scratch test on the blade with a pocket knife blade and it seems pretty soft. Is that normal for knives of this era? Any idea as to who made knives marked this way, or when approximately it was made?

I ended up cutting through the file handle that was being used as the makeshift handle. It looks like pine, but does feel slightly harder than modern pine. Since I’m not sure how good the steel actually is (it’s quite dull now), I was thinking about adding the two halves of the file handle, pinning it properly, and slightly reprofilling the blade tip to get a point back. I really like the size and balance of this knife and I think using this older wood handle in the “proper” way will yield some interesting results. I know I will likely need to glue a dowel into the channel cut into each side of the new scales and sand it flush but that’s not that big of a deal.

Any thoughts you can offer are much appreciated. See the pics.

 

[TFoley]

Sheffield steel knives like this were made by the tens of thousands for the home and colonial trade by literally hundreds of Sheffield cutlers, or 'little messers' as they were known. In literally hundreds of one-room workshops around the city, they worked up to fifteen hours a day to satisfy the seemingly endless call for their wares. At the time that this knife was made, unless it was marked 'Solingen' - in Germany - the other European centre of knife-making, then the word Sheffield was enough - everybody on the planet knew that meant Sheffield in England. As far as world trade was concerned, that's all that was needed to identify the source of manufacturing. Here in in UK we don't suffer the need to add England to a place name, there being, in British eyes, only the original place.

Your knife was made by a cutler, but 'handled' by another workshop who likely put bone scales on it, rather than wood. The bone handle would follow the line of the bolster, and that, with the small diameter pinnings, makes me pretty much certain of a smooth bone handle rather than anything else. It looks to me more like a tableware blade, rather than a working-type outdoors knife, but that is a surmisement.

 

[Brokennock]

I also was thinking tableware, but being able to see the entire blade would be good.

 

[Smokefire]

Thanks for this info. I thought I had posted a picture of the whole blade. I’ll add it to this post. The blade is just under 8” from the bolster to the tip. So, it doesn’t seem to be a personal dining knife but yes, something to be used in food prep and not for rugged field use that is for sure.

Any thoughts on the type of wood this file handle appears to be? I’d really like to use this wood for some reason.

 

[TFoley]

Thanks for this info. I thought I had posted a picture of the whole blade. I’ll add it to this post. The blade is just under 8” from the bolster to the tip. So, it doesn’t seem to be a personal dining knife but yes, something to be used in food prep and not for rugged field use that is for sure.

Any thoughts on the type of wood this file handle appears to be? I’d really like to use this wood for some reason.

Might be ash. Here in UK ash is used for hammer, axe and cleaver handles, so it might be suitable.

 

[[email protected]]

I have a Wade and Butcher Sheffield knife that my dad used for hunting. Still takes a good edge and lots of steel left.

 

[TFoley]

I have my grandads' butcher's knife - he lost it before WW2 whilst trimming a hedge to build a stile down Gwern Lane, Caerestyn, North Wales. I found it in 1959, along with a few halfpenny tobacco pipes he'd smoked and broken whilst on the job.

 

[Smokefire]

Might be ash. Here in UK ash is used for hammer, axe and cleaver handles, so it might be suitable.

After looking at the exposed grain with a 10x glass, it appears to be some type of birch. Probably not an ideal knife handle, but I like the idea of repurposing it for this project, even though I know this file handle was not the original set up. Plus, I just like the way old aged wood finishes out compared to a newly cut piece of maple, for instance.

 

[smoothshooter]

Hey all, was at my local flea market the other day and got this old knife for next to nothing. It was really brown with age and the handle was a joke, but I knew from what I could see of the stamp that it was old and likely English. It is all made from one piece of steel, with a forged in bolster and tapered tang.

It looks like the original handle is long gone, and in the meantime someone had taken a 5” file handle, slit it nearly in half, shoved the blade in, put a wire ring around the top to retain it, then wrapped it in some kind of gauze tape.

I removed the tape and the handle, let the blade sit in vinegar for a day and then hit it lightly with the wire wheel. The stamp is: “V R / Warranted Cast Steel / Sheffield”. No makers name and no England, so I’m assuming this is possibly as old as the 1870-1880s. The tang looks partially hand forged, with evidence of five pin holes.

I was thinking about making some fancy maple handles for this, but I did a scratch test on the blade with a pocket knife blade and it seems pretty soft. Is that normal for knives of this era? Any idea as to who made knives marked this way, or when approximately it was made?

I ended up cutting through the file handle that was being used as the makeshift handle. It looks like pine, but does feel slightly harder than modern pine. Since I’m not sure how good the steel actually is (it’s quite dull now), I was thinking about adding the two halves of the file handle, pinning it properly, and slightly reprofilling the blade tip to get a point back. I really like the size and balance of this knife and I think using this older wood handle in the “proper” way will yield some interesting results. I know I will likely need to glue a dowel into the channel cut into each side of the new scales and sand it flush but that’s not that big of a deal.

Any thoughts you can offer are much appreciated. See the pics.

Full-length photos?

 

[Smokefire]

Full-length photos?

 

[morehops52]

Looks like a kitchen utility type knife. Oroinally would have been handled in a hard wood such as ebony, etc. Could have also been two slabs of stag. If found in the US it would be pre-1893 as it would have had to have "England" marked on the blade after that. The blade looks to be less than top quality and the partial tang is also indicative of that. I wish you luck on your restoration. Any blade 130 years old is kinda cool to own.

 

[TFoley]

After looking at the exposed grain with a 10x glass, it appears to be some type of birch. Probably not an ideal knife handle, but I like the idea of repurposing it for this project, even though I know this file handle was not the original set up. Plus, I just like the way old aged wood finishes out compared to a newly cut piece of maple, for instance.

Imported file handles MAY be birch, but home-grown items of this nature are usually beech or ash.

 

[Hermit Tim]

I call it a good find. She has potential. May have started life as some kind of kitchen/food prep knife but would make a fantastic patch knife/squirrel skinner.

 

[Banjoman]

Nice! Any time an old knife is rescued it’s a good day. No matter what it was originally intended to be, it’s still better than a lot of the junk produced nowadays.

 

[Rudyard]

Well like me its a Sheffield article the term by the way was' Little Mester's ' Small shops .the blades where steel but the ' bolster ' & part of the blade inc the tang would be iron as at the 'Choil' where the two exibit bluish Steel forge welded to the brown looking Iron( much the same as a Bayonet has a forge welded socket & neck goes into the steel of the blade the colours often quite clearly defined ).( wont come unglued !) Huge quantities where exported to the US Wolstenholme's called thier factory" Washington works " Their foreman Freddy James had premises up Broomspring Lane he & Ivey' s shop was in the same yard as Georgy Whatt's who did my knife & Dirk & Canue knifes forging &' Indian awls 'Oft time I go buy steel strip. rope it on my' company veicle' ( Push Bike from down Shales Moor & ride it up to the yard . But Middletons did the grinding Freddy was dearer & had a good export bussiness . Some Dirks, Scene Dues,, & Crooked knives had my name as I was the' Factor ,some had a Bear others a crowned head these being my' marks ' Roland Swinden ground me some but the Middletons out at Halfway where the best grinders
All I need now is Tony Capsticks" To Be A Sheffield Grinder" folk song and where away !. I can sing it too ! incidentally both my grand dads where grinders in Sheffield when they weren't killing Germans . one a Sapper invalided out from gas in WW1 , I only remember Grannies, grinders didn't have long lives
Rudyard