History on Forgecraft knives; please educate me

[Jmadams13]

Wow! Thanks Son. Makes me appreciate mine even more now. You the man!

[Benuser]

Thank you Son, especially for explaining the food release with a concave face!

[DevinT]

Thanks Son, lots of great stuff. It's interesting that the profile is closer to a Japanese knife than a European knife, which is where most of the early American cutlery got it's influence.

It would be cool to find some of that old band saw material.

Hoss

[DevinT]

Son, do you have any pics of the different markings/name stamps?

Hoss

[sachem allison]

unfortunately Devin, I don't. There aren't any books or references I can find with the different markings, It's more something that I have noticed and picked up over the years. subtle differences in printing size and shape and slightly different placement within the little plaque. I have four or five of them here, I'll see if they match up and I can take some pics.

[Benuser]

Thanks Son, lots of great stuff. It's interesting that the profile is closer to a Japanese knife than a European knife, which is where most of the early American cutlery got it's influence.

I guess you mean German where you write European. To me it's quite obvious the Japanese took the French profile as a model. Is it unthinkable the Forgecraft guys did the same?

[DevinT]

Good point. Sabatier's have a different profile though.

I did the math on the Forgecraft and it is the same as many Japanese knives. The handle reminds me of a wa handle except for the full tang and rounded scales.

Hoss

[Marko Tsourkan]

The story was that the original pattern was from Band saw blades used in lumber mills. The cold rolled forge allowed long continuous sheets of steel to be made and the ridges left over from the rollers actually proved to be beneficial in that they allowed the blade to run cooler by reducing friction from contact with the wood. Like many early knife makers, they were always looking for cheap sources of steel. When the band saw blades would snap or dull they would throw them on a scrap pile. In the early days they would just give the stuff away to get it out of there space. The knife makers found out it was good steel and they could make good inexpensive blades and sell them at a reasonably affordable price. During the Depression, There were a lot of public work projects and a lot of lumber mills were set up an a lot of surplus and used steel laying around. In the twenties all the way up to WW2 you see a lot of companies using this type of steel. During the War that sort of stopped as all that scrap went to the war effort. When the war ended you again had a surplus of steel lying around and this pattern went on for about 20 more years. Old Hickory continues with thie pattern today more for nostalgia's stake than anything else. Old Hickory really made their company what it is today. Unfortunately The origi8nal Forgecraft was bought up by Washington Forge and the brand was retired in 1968. Washington forge had over 40 plus individual brands and lines of cutlery and just over extended them selves and then The Japanese came to knife prominence in the 70's and things have never been the same for the American knife industry.

Now that's damn impressive.

[don]

Thank you for sharing, Son. Really interesting read.

[sachem allison]

here you go Devin