Old Ajikiri/Cut-down Deba?

[AidenCC]

I found this knife on eBay from my favorite source of rusty things from Japan and I'm not quite sure what to make of it, so I thought I would post it here. If anyone has thoughts about what it might be or possibly its age I would definitely be interested in hearing them. The blade is quite short and thick with a significant patina (though a knife could look like that after a few years if treated very poorly or a few days if done intentionally) it's single bevel and has fish scales dried onto it (small ones) so presumably it was used like an ajikiri to process (small) fish.

You can see some of the scales on the handle and blade here. It seems to imply it was used in this state though it seems like it would be pretty hard to cut fish with a knife that hadn't been sharpened long enough to look like this.

Here you can see that it is in fact quite thick! That's what made me think maybe it was made from a larger knife at some point? As I said, I would be very interested to hear any thoughts about this interesting little knife.

 

[Greasylake]

What is the length on it? It could have been sharpened down a little bit but it also could have been made like that, I've seen a lot of small debas with similar profiles. I'm pretty confident it was either used on a fishing boat or by a fish processor, salt air will blacken a knife like that, and the handle was definitely replaced at some point. The handle makes me thing it was probably a fisherman's knife, as most Japanese fish processors I've seen take a little better care of their knives. The handle doesn't look very comfortable to use for fish processing, being on crooked and with the wires wraps so it most likely lived on a boat, cutting gills and nets.

 

[ethompson]

@refcast

 

[stringer]

What is the length on it? It could have been sharpened down a little bit but it also could have been made like that, I've seen a lot of small debas with similar profiles. I'm pretty confident it was either used on a fishing boat or by a fish processor, salt air will blacken a knife like that, and the handle was definitely replaced at some point. The handle makes me thing it was probably a fisherman's knife, as most Japanese fish processors I've seen take a little better care of their knives. The handle doesn't look very comfortable to use for fish processing, being on crooked and with the wires wraps so it most likely lived on a boat, cutting gills and nets.

Reminds me of a knife you keep on the boat to cut little fish you catch up into bait for the bigger fish you hope to catch.

 

[refcast]

Yeah not much for me to add, it's not a knife shape I see normally. Ikasaki is a similar size for cutting squid but much thinner. This is full deba thickness, and ajikiri are thinner. The handle looks original though, aside from the wire, which is usually there because the metal or plastic ferrules fall off. If you can get better pictures of the handle, it might tell of age a bit more, but I can't say. I've seen old blades that look quite new, like a 1940s woodworking blade, and 20 year old tools used near water very rusty or patina'd.

The options of original are the user sharpened the blade down to it's nubby size, or it came that way with a really short bevel height. . . I honestly think it came that way though, since most heavily sharpened blades look pretty bad in profile, that I've seen.

 

[AidenCC]

Thanks for all of the replies! It would make sense if this was a hard-use knife for some of the rougher tasks. It could be a bit hard to open up a fish with it in the current condition but I could see it for other "utility" cutting and maybe scaling too. @Greasylake the length of the blade is is 135 mm, the width is 35 mm, and the thickness is 9 mm. There is some ura left, though it is flat about half way up the blade, likely sharpened a lot. @refcast some more pictures are below. It looks like the handle was made with a knife, or maybe clumsily with a plane, chisel, etc. It definitely shows facets. The wire is fairly tidy, with the terminations neatly tucked in. I've certainly seen worse repair jobs than this.

 

[refcast]

Oh wow definitely not a normal mass made knife handle. Probably the original rotted off. . . Or not, I've seen weird handles before, anyhow very cool and my kind of knife

 

[McMan]

My thinking would be that the best way to tell what's up would be to clean it up with scotchbrites and examine the ura closely.
If it's a re-ground deba that's lost height and length, then this will likely stand out as opposed to an ajikiri/etc where the ura would look more 'normal' (though probably still quite worn). Considering it's a working knife, it's unlikely that someone would take great care to re-establish the ura if it was just cut down from a bigger deba.

 

[salvo]

Hi Folks,
Could it be an old knife made from a sheep shear?
Sal