What is this??

[lenny357]

Any ideas picked her up for $5.00 bucks today

Im in the process of lookin her up in Levine's but I thought I would puch the easy button.

11.5 inches long
1.25 inches wide at it's thickest

[rigwelder]

its a butcher knife,,,,dont think thats what you wanted to hear? but you asked for it.

[philco]

its a butcher knife,,,,dont think thats what you wanted to hear? but you asked for it.

[jonet143]

but....... it is a U.S.A. made butcher knife! clean it up and fix your wife dinner!

[lenny357]

Never seen a Butcher knife with a "swage" like this. I think it's an old Hunting knife

[jonet143]

levines shows several butcher knives with swedges. and several early makers marketed "hunting" knives with butcher knife origins.

[lenny357]

I think I will EDC this thing then. Well not bad for $5 bucks has a great edge and feels very bushy

[jonet143]

be careful....looks like it could be hard on your pockets! lots-o-steel for $5! many of the old buffalo skinners were butcher knives.

[keithlong]

Hey Chris,
Nice knife for 5.00. I would clean it up a bit and use it to. Would look nice with some stag handles on it also.

[tongueriver]

Butcher knives like these were virtually unchanged from the early 1800's until say, the 1960's, when some newer variations, especially handles, started coming out. I know that in the 1960's I could walk into a hardware store anywhere and they were loose on the shelves in the three time honored blade styles: the upswept skinner with plenty of belly, the thin boner, in both straight and upswept versions, and the butcher, like yours. In recent years they have become popular with rendezvouers and black powder mountain man types, which would be historically accurate. People make their own sheaths. In the 19th century, if your knife was inside of a shed or building, it was a butcher knife. If you walked outside with it, it was a hunting knife. Buffalo hunters bought them in barrels of one to five hundred knives. The design was probably fairly mature even back in the 17 and 1600's. It may have been the original model T Ford in terms of the earliest products of the assembly line. In recent decades, butcher knives as used in the home and packing houses often exhibit synthetic handles. This largely arose as a desire for antibacterial safety, but sporting knives had already taken off in this direction. Turns out that the wooden handles, and wooden cutting boards are both more hygienic. You can read all about that in one of Bernard Levine's links over on BladeForums. Here is the page: http://www.knife-expert.com/cut-bo93.txt

[philco]

Wow, Tongueriver.........

A history lesson and a science lesson in one posting. I am much impressed! Thanks for sharing this very interesting information.

[tongueriver]

Here is another "butcher knife," that weighs 4.25 pounds and is about 20.5 inches long. In the hands of a big man, and using it like an ax, it could split a mature beef carcass, right down the center of the spine, in less time than it could be sawed. It is called a cleaver. There are those who collect butcher shop items.

[lenny357]

Very nice thank you learned alot their I also have one of those..well alot smaller

[lenny357]

live and learn http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... NA:US:1123
It's threads like this where I learn the most.

[philco]

So will you be adding this one to your collection of buffalo skinners?

Phil

[GregNYC]

tongueriver, thanks a lot for posting this! What a lesson! Will switch to the wooden board and throw out the plastic. Better on the cutting edge too!