Vintage A J Jordan Carving Set AAA1 Sheffield England Curved Blade Horn Tip Handles 1880’s-1920’s

3 piece carving set made from approx 1880’s to 1920’s. Hand forged 9″ carbon steel blade has been sharpened in some but is still full of life, stag grips with brass pin in center are nice and secure. The Copley’s patented guard is secure but the spring is soft, tines have a slight kink on one side but are otherwise in good shape. Light flexible blade has a fresh edge and has been thinned and refurbished. .

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 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.

Like all other culinary knives this should never go in the dishwasher, carving knife handles will come loose with high heat (dishwasher, stove top etc), carbon steel can rust if left wet or dirty, expect a patina to form with use.