History on Forgecraft knives; please educate me

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Son's last post is especially true. The one that I sold to Huw is one of the finest vintage grinds I've seen/used. Karring's is my all-time favourite, though.

Man, I love vintage carbon.

Cheers Tom. I'm certainly enjoying it! I was über impressed with the grind also. Although I have very little experience to compare it with. I'm glad I started out with a great example
 
Son's last post is especially true. The one that I sold to Huw is one of the finest vintage grinds I've seen/used. Karring's is my all-time favourite, though.

Sorry I missed this thread. I'm sitting in Starbucks, trying to cram for a classification exam and here I am reading through this. Haha. As for Old Hickory, I have two bullnoses by them that are maybe, just maybe superior to Forgecraft. Beautiful, heavy nosed knives. Man, I love vintage carbon.

Are they fordgecraft or old hickory that's coming my way?
 
Thread rehash for you experts. I want to roughly date this Forgecraft. I bought two off of Ebay and one was workable though I have now sent it to Dave for an expert thinning. I put an edge on it that I could deal with but it really needed a full thinning where I would lose a lot of the marking character. I used this knife for a while but it was wedging so bad I decided it was time for a rehab. I love the edge potential of this knife.

The other knife has an edge with up to 1mm of waviness in a couple spots. It's going to have to become a suji/yuto to become workable. I'm waiting to have some extra funds to have somebody professionally work on it.

The handle is in surprisingly good shape and the little bit of rust that was on it was really easy to remove with BKF only scrubbed off with a cork. The black striations look great but I fear with the slightly thick looking geometry it would lose a lot of that character with a full rehab. This and insufficient funds have kept me from having this project tackled.

The coolest thing about this blade is that it looks like it's double struck. This makes it difficult to date in comparison. I'd love one of you experts to see if you could put an approximate date on it.

photo.jpg
 
It has been double struck , is it a 8in or 10in version. It looks like it may have jumped out of the slot when it was struck and placed back in and restruck. I'm going to say late 60's judging by the full tail on the G., thicker larger r trade mark and poor thick grind. It's very classic late sixties.
 
My immediate thought was mid-sixties, but Son knows much more about them than I do. In fact, he got me started on Forgecraft. Until then, I was chasing old Lamsons, Dexters and Sabs.
 
Adding another stamp shot to the Forgecraft library. It looks deeply struck as well:

TrgbRK5.png


Do you reckon this is one of the earlier ones? I'd be glad to describe it better once it arrives in the mail, but the guy who done sold it took a good shot.
 
I want to say fifties, It looks similar to the one I posted but, just a little bit different in the ft on the end. Very nice mark though.
 
I want to say fifties, It looks similar to the one I posted but, just a little bit different in the ft on the end. Very nice mark though.
 
It seems to have uploaded properly. I see what you're saying, that the ® is more above the "t". Soon we'll have to start seeking out and collecting their stamping dies. Wouldn't be surprised if Son already has cufflinks made out of them.
 
Looks like everything is bunched together. Is that a chef knife or something smaller like a boning knife or carving knife?
 
Carving knife. I haven't really done as much research on the smaller knife as I never use them. I know the markings are definitely smaller and different than the chef knives.
 
I got mine for 3 bucks at the thrift store...it's been poorly sharpened by myself in my learning days, now it is still a fun knife that I like to pull out for fun. It's got decent edge retention and with a fat convexed edge I can hack through whole chicken bones. It's probably upper 50's in the rockwell and maintains it's edge longer than Shun or Wustoff. They are a helluva lot of fun but the ebay prices and false inflation are a bit absurd.
 
Sorry i would like to add picyures but the sites 1980 technology wont let me.
 
Just picked up a 10" forgecraft chef knife at a thrift store for 20 bucks! It needs a little polish, but I'm putting it to work in the kitchen already
 
Saw these for sale on Craigslist and was going to jump on them but now it looks like they might be bogus. See there advertising below.

This is a vintage 4-piece set of Forgecraft Hi-Carbon knives. These knives have never been used.
The knife blades measure as follows: 8", 7", 4 3/4", and 3 1/4".
Handles are as follows: 4 5/8", 4 5/8", 3 5/8", 3 5/8".
The handles are tight and the the points are good.

00F0F_iPWAA7rFAC1_1200x900.jpg
points are good.
 
Hey! Thanks for such great posts and information! There's a set om ebay now with a stamp I haven't seen before - with the high-carbon under the Forgecraft name. Two lines. The 'g' divides high and carbon. Would love to know what you all think? I just bought a set pre-bar code, small g tail still in wrapping... These do look pertty though :D Best to all!

 
Hey! What a treasure of info here about Forgecraft knives. Thank you! Anyone else familiar with this stamp? First time I've seen it two lines. The 'g' has a more modern curl but they seem older than later versions.



Best to all!
 
Ebay steal-Forgecraft, Vtg LoT FORGECRAFT 5pc Knife SeT "KiTchen-KLeaver" knives 1 CLEAVER Brass RiveTs | eBay

I just found this less than $20 in the original box, the box says stainless but they look could be high carbon, What do think ?

Those aren't the carbon version. The carbon ones stopped being produced in the late 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s someone produced stainless Forgecrafts that were a pale imitation to the original.

You can find everything (bullnose, slicer, utility, cleaver, parer, 8" chef) but the 10" chef very affordably on eBay. They make great practice knives and gifts. I've got a complete set, though I haven't cleaned them all up yet.
 
I gifted my 8" carbon to my step-daughter but still have a carbon 10" that I've used for sharpening practice. Does not hold an edge for too long but the grind behind the edge is pretty impressive. Now if my sharpening would just do it justice :) I did do a little thinning and setting the primary bevel on my Gen3 Wicked Edge so anything that happens after that is just based on my lame-a$$ free hand sharpening skills.
 
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