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Hello all
I am in the middle of making some knives based on finds at Vindolanda and a couple of other places. It has got me wondering about the polish these knives held.
Is there any evidence on whether the whole blade and handle (prior to the wood), the whole blade or only the blade edges were ground and polished? Most recreated knives I have seen are only polished along the blade edge itself.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
All the best
Graham
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This is one question that cannot be answered,but the quality of domestic knifes vary and on the whole I believe that every day knifes would be left blackened of heat treatment or oil hardening. The more well made knifes may have a polished blade for the table for guests.
These are some of my knifes I use, As you can see from the top pic these blades have been polished and are stained with rust hence the dark areas. This happened even when keeping the blades clean and oiled, Were as the bottom pic both still has forge scale and have been oil hardening, and have not suffered as from the above. Also the bottom ones are made from wrought Iron and fair better when it comes to rust.
Regards Brennivs
Woe Ye The Vanquished
Brennvs 390 BC
When you have all this why do you envy our mud huts
Caratacvs
Centvrio Princeps Brennivs COH I Dacorivm (Roma Antiqvia)
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Those are nice looking knives. The top ones, what kind of metal are they made from? Mild steel? Springs, or other high carbon steel?
I especially like the center one in the top group. Good all purpose kitchen chopper, looks like, from parsnips to beef.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
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Demetrius Thanks, The top one is made from a Shiefield steel carving Knife that I altered to a one from Vindolanda
The next was a meat cleaver that had been used as a axe and I altered, To a one depicted being sold by a knife seller with his wares.
The bottom one is made from a industrial hacksaw blade a cheap way to make a short knife
Regards Brennivs
Woe Ye The Vanquished
Brennvs 390 BC
When you have all this why do you envy our mud huts
Caratacvs
Centvrio Princeps Brennivs COH I Dacorivm (Roma Antiqvia)
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from a knife makers point of view the more polished the blade the less likely rust will take to it. But that doesnt answer the question.
I have tried sanding/polishing a blade using a traditional style of sandpaper made from sands glued onto linen with hide glue. Not as effective as our modern papers, so to achieve a polish the hard way would have been a big undertaking.
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Without wanting to reignite the tired old "Japanese vs. Roman steel" thing, I do want to mention that the Japanese were able to polish their blades to a high level using fine-grained stones. Of course, the way they do/did it, that's very labor-intensive work for a highly-trained craftsman. (Yeah, I've made knives myself at the forge, but I'm not enough of a purist to polish them by hand. That's why I have four grinders.)
It's been pointed out that a well-polished blade resists corrosion much better. For a more pragmatic point of view, it's also a lot easier to clean (and I think the Romans, while not squeamish, would have preferred their food cut with clean knives -- especially with the level of importance they apparently attached to food). Both are good enough reasons, regardless of cultural esthetic choices.
It's easy to imagine a Roman cook or butcher valuing a set of knives very much like his modern counterpart does -- they're the tools of his trade, and well-made ones are precious to him. He'd clean them, sharpen them regularly, and probably yell at anyone who touched them without permission.
My guess is that the cheap knives the average or poor Roman could afford probably would be fairly mass-produced, with minimal polish, to keep the prices low. If the customer is willing to pay for an apprentice's time at the grindstone, he could probably buy a blade with a much higher level of finish. And a composite, forge-welded blade -- like we've seen the Romans did have -- probably represented enough investment in time, effort, and valuable steel that it would be polished, if only to ensure its endurance.
Wayne Anderson/ Wander