My Historical Finds (pic heavy)

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KitchenCommander

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Just wanted to share a few photos of some of the cool things I picked up recently.
Most of these are from the local flea market, some are from further away. Feel free to comment and discuss. I will have some questions on a couple that some might be able to shed some light on.

Feel free to request more photos and post some of your own. I will basically use this as a type of archive for some of the things I picked up. Looking forward to what you think about my budding collection of old stuff.

Case 8" Chef knife. Found a thread on here about this that said it was discontinued in 1965, so I was happy to grab this one in excellent condition. Takes a very sharp edge. Just got this last weekend, so no testing on it yet. I do like the aesthetics of the stamping on this one. Grind is a little low on the blade though, so I'm skeptical of actual performance.


Chicago Cutlery Knives 44S and 42S. These are from Ebay and I wanted to get a couple of these to test them out and give as gifts. The 44S was a little thicker than I'd like, so it will be a project knife for my new belt sander I got for Christmas. The 42S are actually pretty nice. I gave one away, kept the best one, and have one left over for future gift or something. I will be posting a review of these when I have tested them out.
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Some cast iron cookware. The 2 skillets I got from my grandparents house. One is a no name #8 skillet, the nickel plated one is a Wagner and is very nice. The Dutch Oven is also a Wagner that I got at an antique shop. It is very nice and in surprisingly good condition. My favorite is the deep Wagner skillet. No lids for any of these, so I need to find some lids.
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Old wagon that I picked up from the local flea market. It is all metal with solid rubber whells. Bed was rotted out so we went to my in-law's place and got some barnwood to replace the bed. It is now our coffee table. Sits a little low, but it is very cool and rustic.
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Couple of Forgecrafts that I found. These are the later ones and not ground very well. Both are going to be practice knives for thinning on my belt sander. I need some practice knives and these are cheap enough. The chef is an 8" and is not very fun to use at the moment.
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Dexter Chef that I found for $2 at a thrift store. Badly bent tip lent well to a mod job. Dropped the tip down to make it about 9" blade. Now it is my makeshift Sujihiki slicer.
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Two more forgecrafts, both 8" slicers that were modified. Both are now finished in matching lacewood handles. These are fun to modify. The shorter one has a very nice grind. The longer one is a little thicker, but is a good slicer when I need a very stiff blade. Just fun project knives
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Batch of knives I picked up at the flea market. Chicago cutler cleaver, 8" Old Hickory cook's knife, 8" Old Hickory slicer, Geneva Forge butcher knife. The 2 Old Hickories are restored, the butcher was modified into a slicer profile. It is very flexible thin knife. Good slicer, but almost to flexible. The OH Cook's knife almost has a line knife profile from use I believe. Short at the heel and a flat profile. The cleaver I haven't done much with yet. I could use some information on the cleaver if anyone knows anything. Having trouble getting info on that one.
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Forgecraft Butcher with a hand regrind done by me. My first attempt at a regrind, and I wanted to get a lot of the pitting out of the primary grind. Polished up to 2000 grit sand paper for a nice reflective finish.
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True Temper Handmade Kelly Works double bit axe. Picked up just for fun. Have no use for it and haven't done anything with it since. This pattern appears to be slightly uncommon.
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Old Sythe that I was thinking of using for Halloween. I did not get it in time, so it will wait until next year (maybe). Otherwise just a cool piece that I got for a decent price.
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8" Old Hickory Cook's Knife. Excellent condition. currently one of my favorite knives. Got it for a steal and it was in great shape. Light sanding and a sharpening and I was using it the same day. Very good grind and gets very sharp. Not the best edge holding, but that's ok by me for that price.
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Antique Pasta Press from the large flea market in Canton TX. Two photos for this one because it is very cool. Large gears make it an interesting piece. Very hard to find information on something like this. I know almost nothing about it except is looks pretty old. I have made pasta with it twice, and it is not easy. Its work to roll the pasta by hand with this thing, but it is fun. It has some Japanese characters on the back of the cast iron base. If anyone would like photos of the lettering just let me know. Any information on this piece is most appreciated.
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Dexter 45A10H 10" Chef knife. Photo pending. Very large, tall chef knife. Gets very sharp and is fun to use. Huge handle to balance out the large blade. Some slight flex near the tip due to a distal taper. Really cool chef knife with a good amount of belly. Fun to rock chop with, and not too bad at push cutting either. Above average geometry, in my opinion, for an ODC (old dirty carbon) knife.

Forgecraft 10" Chef. Photo pending. I got this from Ebay because I had to have a 10" Forgecraft. My go to knife at the moment. Edge holding and sharpness in pretty good. I think mine might be a later model because the grind was only decent, not great. I put a steep bevel on it and then added a micro bevel so it performs very well even if it is slightly thick. Once I get more skill on the belt sander, this will get a regrind to increase performance. Excellent knife for the money.
 
Well I was planning to edit my previous posts to add photos and stuff, but I'm having trouble editing my posts in this thread. So I will just add my photos here. Please feel free to comment of include photos of cool stuff you find. Even non-knife stuff.

Dexter and Forgecraft pics.
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Cool stuff. that pasta press has me intrigued. Looks like the section where the handle is mounted has blades for spaghetti/linguine?

Re Editing: forum policy is that posts only remain editable for 15 minutes.
 
Thanks for the info on post editing. I'll keep that in mind next time.

Now for more photos on the Pasta Press for anyone who is interested. Take a look at the raised characters on the frame. If anyone who made it, I would love to know.

Photo of the top showing the brass rollers, one flat for rolling thin sheets, the other for spaghetti. The handle engages the outer axle via bolt and slot to turn the shaghetti rollers, as shown in photo, then can be slid over to engage the inner gear and turn the flat rollers.
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Photos of the makers mark, or whatever it is.
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Does anyone recognize the lettering on this? I have done a little research and have not seen a single piece that looks similar to this.
 
The letters are 小野式 which are Chinese, Tho plugin it in to Google you can find a bunch of blog posts in Japanese about the machine. Leads me to think that the machine is Japanese and not Chinese.

You can still buy a new one on rakuten for $340! :fanning:
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/fbird/kj-seimen1/
 
The letters are 小野式 which are Chinese, Tho plugin it in to Google you can find a bunch of blog posts in Japanese about the machine. Leads me to think that the machine is Japanese and not Chinese.

You can still buy a new one on rakuten for $340! :fanning:
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/fbird/kj-seimen1/
Yes, kanji 漢字 in Japanese means Chinese characters.
 
sorry for never PMing you back KitchenCommander, thanks for the Hickory, from the giveaway, much appreciated, I have been so swamped with work I haven't even been able to use it, what is the steel in it do you know?
 
The letters are 小野式 which are Chinese, Tho plugin it in to Google you can find a bunch of blog posts in Japanese about the machine. Leads me to think that the machine is Japanese and not Chinese.

You can still buy a new one on rakuten for $340! :fanning:
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/fbird/kj-seimen1/

Well would you look at that.
Perhaps not near as old as it first appeared haha. Mine might have some age, but if they are still making them its probably not as old as I expected. Still for that price I feel pretty good about it. I didnt pay anything close to $300.

Thanks for the link. That was very helpful.

And I apologize if I mixed up the characters between japanese and chinese. I'm not too familiar with either.
 
And I apologize if I mixed up the characters between japanese and chinese. I'm not too familiar with either.
No need to apologize; they are the same. If the characters look complex like 漢字, then they are Chinese but Japanese use them and call them kanji. If they look simpler (curly like ひらがな hiragana or more angular like カタカナ katakana), they will be exclusively Japanese.
 
sorry for never PMing you back KitchenCommander, thanks for the Hickory, from the giveaway, much appreciated, I have been so swamped with work I haven't even been able to use it, what is the steel in it do you know?

Your very welcome. Old Hickory (and Forgecraft too I think) knives are generally accepted to be simple 1095, or 1085. I tend to agree with that based on the experience I've had working with quite a few Old Hickory knives. Hardness is hard to quantify, especially for me, but I would say 57-58 maybe. Forgecrafts have been tested at 59-61, and these feel slightly softer. It should be very serviceable and gets quite sharp while holding a serviceable edge respectably well.
 
Hi KC,

Very nice finds/knives/tools. I had a neat little find myself today.....a vintage 12" (very thin stock) Chef knife marked : Landers Frary & Clark New Britain Conn.
GRAND PRIZE/ST. LOUIS 1904. A little bit rusty but, I have no doubt it will clean up nicely. I'm thinking Vinegar bath. The knife has a unique round Wood handle.
I suspect it's a "Rat tail" design. I got this knife for a song! My collection of vintage Chef knives continues to grow! It look something like this : http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-antique-lf-c-carbon-nogent-style-chefs

Regards,
SixCats!
 
Very cool. Feel free to post a pic of the before and after. Or just the after. I find restoring knives to be very fun and fulfilling. Always looking for another diamond in the rough.
 
Update. It appears I messed up the photo of my wagon, so I have added a new photo of that. Also I have brought home another large chef knife. Bought it as a no-name chef knife because it was in good shape and I liked the handle scales on it. Once I brought it home I discovered a makers mark beneath the patina. It was very faded, but I got a bad pic of it just for my records. It is a Robinson Knife Co. brand. Only issue I have with it was it has a slightly wavy edge. There was a small hole in the profile, but I am sharpening that out, so that is only a temporary problem.

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Robinson 10" Chef knife. Good condition. Still lots of life left. Nice profile with a generous flat spot. Still needs work fixing the edge though.
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Photo of the makers mark. It should be visible right in the shadow. If not I apologize, this was taken with an iphone camera.
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Impressive finds :). Did you refinish those knives?
 
Most I find have some sort of patina, so there is some restoration involved. Only the ones with the polished bevels have been thinned or completely refinished. Most have only been lightly sanded with 400 and 800 grit sand paper to remove rust/patina. I have since thinned the Forgecraft Chef knife and might post a photo of that later on.
 
New find that I picked up last month. A vintage Emerson Electric fan. I had been eyeing the vintage fans that I see around, but none were in the price range I wanted. This one turned up and I decided to restore it as a project. It runs well, but needed some TLC. Here is a photo or two of what it looked like when I got it.

In the shop.
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After some cleaning.
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Full restoration photos to come.

I hope no one minds me adding a few non-knife products in here. If so, I will stop posting other items.
 
You're good! Can't wait to see the fan when you're done.
 
Finished Product. Took me about 3 weeks off and on with a little help to get it restored. The cage badge and the label badge both did not get restoration, just cleaning. The entire fan was painted, blades polished, and new period cord added. Runs well at all 3 speeds and oscillates great. Fun project and great piece of functional décor for my home.
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I apologize for the huge photos.
 
Thread update for some new finds.

This is an older American Cutlery (if I remember right) carving set that I got for a great price. The blade looked almost unused, which is unusual for older carving sets. Most of the time I see blades steeled and sharpened to shivs almost. This is not the most ornate set, which I liked because it is not too flashy. The blade did have about a 1/16" crack in the blade on the cutting edge. I sharpened about half of it out then decided just to leave it because this will be mostly for cutting cooked foods, so it shouldn't affect performance too much. They need some restoration, and I have gotten started on the blade and working on the antler handles. Pretty cool set for only $15.
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Another carving knife found in an antique store. I cannot find a stamp on it, so for now it is a no-name carbon carving knife. I liked the shape and the quality seemed there for about $12 so I took a chance. This one is cleaned up now, but has not been sharpened yet. It has a recurve to it, so I might need some help from the sharpmaker for this one. The handle appears to have an integral bolter, but the neck is quite narrow. Interesting knife that appeared to be well made. As you can see the geometry isn't too bad, should cut quite well. Another slicer to add to my collection.
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Thread update for some new finds.

This is an older American Cutlery (if I remember right) carving set that I got for a great price. The blade looked almost unused, which is unusual for older carving sets. Most of the time I see blades steeled and sharpened to shivs almost. This is not the most ornate set, which I liked because it is not too flashy. The blade did have about a 1/16" crack in the blade on the cutting edge. I sharpened about half of it out then decided just to leave it because this will be mostly for cutting cooked foods, so it shouldn't affect performance too much. They need some restoration, and I have gotten started on the blade and working on the antler handles. Pretty cool set for only $15.
007317E9-DB67-48C1-B131-3F36BBB0B3E2_zpsadrvadie.jpg
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Another carving knife found in an antique store. I cannot find a stamp on it, so for now it is a no-name carbon carving knife. I liked the shape and the quality seemed there for about $12 so I took a chance. This one is cleaned up now, but has not been sharpened yet. It has a recurve to it, so I might need some help from the sharpmaker for this one. The handle appears to have an integral bolter, but the neck is quite narrow. Interesting knife that appeared to be well made. As you can see the geometry isn't too bad, should cut quite well. Another slicer to add to my collection.
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Handle looks to be in pretty good shape on that second slicer, too - and agree on the geometry, surprisingly good taper to relatively thin. Good find!
 
Update for some new stuff.

Double bit Plumb axe from Pawn Shop. Not sure if both blades are supposed to have the same shape or not. This one has a flat blade on one side, and a more circular profile on the other. Could be bad sharpening, but it didn't appear to be in that bad of shape, so I took it home.
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Collins 3.5 lb boys axe (I think). This one was given to me by a co-worker. Need to find a new handle for it, but besides being a little rusty it is in great condition. Doesn't appear to have been sharpened all that much, so plenty of life left.
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I like my old forgecraft knife very much. It's not too hard, and not too soft. I have chipped it out hacking chicken bones, but with light pressure have been able to separate the joints of poultry with no chips.

I honestly think these cheaper old carbon knives can perform as good as Japanese super hard steels. It's just there is no allure to something rustic, practical and non exotic.

Somewhere there is mention that some of the forgecraft blades were 59 rockwell.

The softer carbon is nice, because it can easily be touched up, two or three strops and you get fresh steel. Maybe they will wear faster, but they won't chip as much.
 
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