Old school,low end, wickedly sharp

[eltonmichael45]

Admittedly I'm fascinated by the old school ekco Flint Vanadium knives.
Scored this set for $20. All three knives were wickedly sharp on arrival.
What I thought were some composition type handles are actually wood I suspect ebony.
Still looking for statistic on the composition of Flint vanadium.
Note that riddle users guide recommends 20 degrees for sharpening angle

 

[eltonmichael45]

I'm estimating the date on these somewhere between 1962 and 1970

 

[eltonmichael45]

Well it seems like I was a bit off on that dating: the trademark was registered in 1962 but it seems like it was used in the late 40s.
Another card in the box was promoting a book on meat carving copyrighted 1948 that shows similar knives.

 

[Naftoor]

Interesting! My mom has a bunch of the ecko flint kitchen utensils, They’re ancient and been run through the dishwasher so many times the handles are starting to turn into layers. Always figured it was some form of early composite material. They were from a garage sale 30 years ago so who knows actually how old they are. Fantastic utensils though that modern stuff just doesn’t quite seem to match. Pancake turner/spatula, potato masher and soup ladle.

More interesting, is that she had a mystery 8” chefs with a VERY similar handle, but no markings left on the blade that was acquired in the same time frame. I love that knife, it’s dull as sin at this point and I consider it sacrilege to take it to stones since my mom has always steeled it. Cuts just on geometry and surprisingly well at that, profile seems a little frenchy, it’s a pretty short knife with a pronounced flat spot.

I had given up on finding the brand at this point. This post made me realize it could potentially be old 70’s era ecko vanadiums, so thank you for the inspiration =D

 

[Naftoor]

My understanding is that at various points flint made either/both vanadium carbon steels, and vanadium stainless. Any inklings on which these are?

 

[eltonmichael45]

Made my day Naftoor. I have quite a few of these.The three I got today are all quite sharp. One is like wielding a light sabeSaber!
I've started noting the various markings on them and tracking down dates the marks were registered.
What initially threw me off on these was the mark with EKCO inside a little lozenge shape was registered in 1962. But it was just block print. I found a picture of an old ad from 1947 that had the lettering in a style I took to be Bodoni Bold(wildly popular advertising typeface in that era).
That's the markings with this set(on the user's guide not the knives)
I remember the EKCO can opener bottle stopper and I think the set I have with the fake staghorn handles may have come from my folks but neither of my siblings can remember them...I think so but just not certain

 

[eltonmichael45]

My understanding is that at various points flint made either/both vanadium carbon steels, and vanadium stainless. Any inklings on which these are?

Definitely the vanadium stainless.
Their literature says Chrome Vanadium steel with chrome plating.
Here's their spiel(hope it's readable)

 

[Naftoor]

Definitely the vanadium stainless.
Their literature says Chrome Vanadium steel with chrome plating.
Here's their spiel(hope it's readable)

That’s really interesting, from doing some reading chrome vanadium steel was a relatively generic steel name, rather than an actual identification of composition.

It sounds like a few makers at least used to use the term to reference 1095 or a similar alloy, which would make sense if they’re specifically calling out a chrome plating which I don’t imagine a full stainless blade would need. It looks like 440c, which would be fully stainless was in use at least as far back as the 60’s as well.

Shame it’s so hard to dig up information on old steels and old manufacturers, it’s even surprisingly difficult to find out when a steel first began being used.

I know there’s quite a few folks on here who collect older American knives, so I don’t doubt they know quite a bit more about what was around back then. Hopefully they pop by soon as it’s always interesting to read =D

 

[eltonmichael45]

Somewhere on one of the knife forums I saw a photo of one of their little pamphlets that had the exact composition of their stainless vanadium.I do remember the vanadium content was pretty high.
EKCO acquired dozens of companies over the years especially in the 40s. Lots of them knife manufacturers in New York state.
Yep do hope some knife history buffs jump in here

 

[eltonmichael45]

Following up the above post. In 1934 EKCO aquire Geneva Cutlery Corporation in Geneva NY. They changed the name to Geneva Forge a year later.
At the time of takeover GCC was a major maker of straight razors and blades for safety razors. One of their straight razors versions was called Vanadium.
By 1954 Geneva Forge( i.e the EKCO knife plant)was noted as the largest cutlery manufacturer under one roof in the world.
One look at their non serrated slicer shows the obvious characteristics of the straight razor.

 

[PeopleoftheSun]

My favorite paring knife is an old ECKO Flint parer that I think we acquired/inherited at some point. I had to grind down the bolster with a file and the end ge of a SP320, but it’s my favorite in-hand knife by far.

 

[PeopleoftheSun]

Photos of the ECKO parer