Universal L.F. & C ?

[teke]

LANDERS FRARY & CLARK (1865-1965), New Brittain, Connecticut.
By 1903, the company became the largest cutlery company in the world, as well as the first manufacturer of small electrical appliances.
From 1914 to 1930, produced and pocket knives.
The company made knives under a lot of brands. It is worth noted first class kitchen / butcher knives labeled «Double Shear Steel» and «Grand Prize / St.Louis 1904» «Universal»
The company was bought and destroyed in 1965 by General Electric
Excellent knife!

[teke]

LF Chef's
L - 440mm, Blade =310mm, height -55mm, Thinness - (4,0-1,5-0,5)mm weight 235 g
Carbon

[chinacats]

Beautiful knife, how does it cut/sharpen?

[teke]

Sharpen - fast, cut -very good
It is LANDERS FRARY & CLARK «Universal» too. I think 1950-1960

[wheelinshirt]

An eBay merchant has a similar knife for sale right now. I actually found this page while looking for more information about the company that made this sweet American knife.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Antique...item54008b18ef

As others have said, it is a 'nogent' style knife, where the blade has a sort-of 'tail' which is inserted into the handle. Then, a bolster is secured around the handle near the heal to keep everything in place. It is a difficult process, and requires a wider variety of skills (and therefore more craftspeople) to make these knives compared to the integrated bolster common to german knives. Nogent style knifes have the benefit of much reduced weight. These knives also typically (though not always) feature thinner, more flexible blades (again, reducing weight).

I have seen quite a few nogent-style knives, but I have never seen a bolster that looked like that. To me, it looks more modern than the more typical 'band' style bolster.

[knyfeknerd]

That's a pretty common style bolster for a Sab. If you look closer at the pics it is the separate band style, not fully integrated. I will smack the person upside their head that pays that much for that knife! It's ODC, but in bad condition and TINY!

[wheelinshirt]

As far as I know, Nogent-style has pretty much disappeared, but that is because it requires an expensive production process, not because it results in an inferior product compared to a single piece of metal with two scales attached (integrated-style).

The knife listed on eBay is definitely small, but it looks like the handle is angled slightly away from the cutting edge to allow for slightly greater knuckle clearance. Again, I think the main appeal of this type of knife is the low weight. The blade appears to be in good shape, but (according to the seller) the band wrapped around the handle as a bolster is iron (others have stated that pewter is more common) and it looks like it has acquired some rust. I think this knife would look at least 25% better with an ebony handle; the light-colored handle makes it look cheap. It is likely a fine knife, probably priced more for collectors looking for an old, American made but classic-French style knife than for an everyday user. (Note: I'm not sure what the above poster meant by 'ODC.' Google told me that stands for Oil Drilling Corporation lol).

Sab makes (or at least made) integrated and nogent style knives, as you can see here:
http://www.cheftalk.com/image/id/113...000/height/500

Nowadays, it is typically better to go with a knife that is made from a single piece of steel that divides the handle in half (full tang), as pretty much anything else tends to be inferior (e.g. partial tang). But that definitely doesn't mean that only one-piece fully-integrated bolster knives are high quality.

[knyfeknerd]

ODC = Old Dirty Carbon

The tang, whether it be full, partial, with or without bolster has NOTHING to do with superiority. It's all about personal preference.
I've refurbished and rehandled all makes and model of Sabs from 1 to 100+years old, so I'm just a little bit familiar with them.
There's no way this knife is worth the money, collectible or not.

[brainsausage]

I've checked out a bunch of his(Ralph1396) auctions over the years, and they're always on the steep side IMO.

[ecchef]

That's the same type of cast bolster that came off of the knife that Dave resurrected for me here
http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/sh...Chicago-Refurb
It was cast in place with the metal running through a hole in the tang to secure it. No solder, braze or pin in this instance.