Bolo knife

“ It should have a handle easy to grasp, a long, thin, sharp, pointed blade, and be of a size adapted to the article to be carved and to the person using it. A lady or a child will prefer a small knife. Be as particular to have the knife sharp as to have it bright and clean; and always sharpen it before announcing the dinner. It is very annoying for a person to be obliged to wait and sharpen the knife, or to turn the meat round to get it into the right position. Never allow a carving-knife to be used to cut bread, or for any other than its legitimate purpose. ”

“ The best dinner-knife is of steel, of good quality, with handle of ivory, ebony, or silver. Silver-plated knives are much used; they do not discolor so readily as steel, and are easily kept polished. They answer the purpose for luncheon, but they rarely have edge enough to be really serviceable at dinner or breakfast. ”

“ A knife which is of almost constant use in making decorative candies and which is particularly satisfactory for lifting small forms is a palette knife such as artists use for mixing their colors. It is thin, flexible and sufficiently sharp for cutting fondant. Also the blade lends itself to use in many different positions because its curved shape allows the hand a degree of freedom not possible with the ordinary knife. The palette knife is much better for freeing or lifting forms from a flat surface than a spatula or a case knife. ”

“ A word about the care of carving knives: a fine steel knife should not come in contact with intense heat, because it destroys its temper, and therefore impairs its cutting qualities. Table carving knives should not be used in the kitchen, either around the stove, or for cutting bread, meats, vegetables, etc.; a fine whetstone should be kept for sharpening, and the knife cleaned carefully to avoid dulling its edge, all of which is quite essential to successful carving. ”

“ On taking up these, each owner of the knives will imagine that his remains on the table and his neighbours’ are being used. Even if he suspected a substitution, that would not account for the trick.
Ingenious Variation.—One knife is laid on the cup with its handle outside to maintain the balance; a long knitting-needle, fastened to the knife-handle with a lump of sealing wax, while a leaden bullet at the other end and knife point serves as counterpoise. The glass table is used, and the Magician withdraws to a distance. All of a sudden though, the knife leaps off from the cup. ”

“ Descended from his flint knife is the abounding variety of steel cutting tools all the way from the razor, concave on both sides, to the axe, doubly convex. As the arts have become more specialized, as artificial power has been introduced, the contrasts of the form of one tool with another have grown more and more striking. The bar which slices metal is stout of build, and rectangular in section, while a lancet is little wider or thicker than a [90] blade of grass. The knives which divide leather, rubber, and rope, differ much from one another ”

“ The kinds of knife in which the housewife is particularly interested are: carvers, vegetable slicers, parers, fruit, cleavers, etc. Subdivided, they are: paring, bread, meat, poultry, carving, cake, boning, paring (small pocket type style) , spatula, lemon, grape and orange, curved in French, German and American fashions, cleavers and scrapers.
Where it is necessary for a knife to conform to shape in paring, a flexible knife is more comfortable than a stiff one. ”

“ But as a fruit knife at present the stainless type seems to be a fine thing, though the ordinary steel knife, if sharp and well made, is no less of a joy than ever it was. Manufacturers are adopting the stainless—even those who think that it isn’t as good as it is claimed to be.
Vegetable and fruit slicers and parers come in many sizes and styles. They are usually small and light with narrow blades and sharp. They are to be had in stainless and carbon steel in sets and in singles, and when bought wisely make the kitchen maids’ job an artistic one. ”

“ Grinding (fig. 2) is necessary because new knives are not usually sold in a form sharp enough for immediate use. The stone should be water, or oil-cooled to avoid overheating the knife. The blade should not be ground back more than 1⁄4 inch from the edge to form the proper bevel. The bevel should be the same on both sides of a skinning knife so that it may be used with either hand in removing the hide from a beef carcass. It is best to grind the knife by holding the knife edge against the stone at a right angle to prevent scarring the blade any farther back than the actual bevel. ”

“ Such knives were by no means an uncommon decoration of the table at the period when this was designed: it is now a branch of art utilised until all trace of design has gone from it; for we cannot accept [9] the slight scroll work and contour of a modern silver knife-handle as a piece of art-workmanship, when we remember the beautiful objects of the kind produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gorgeous in design and colour, and occasionally enriched by jewels or amber. ”

“ A cutler could supply such knives, or they may be purchased at the depots for conjuring apparatus.
Having placed out these articles on your table with seriousness and imposing formality, show to the audience the knife that is whole, and call upon them to observe that it is sufficiently strong and sharp. The other knife must be placed somewhere near you, but where it is sheltered from the observation of the spectators.
Ask some young friend to step forward, assuring him that you will not hurt him. Make him sit down on a chair facing the audience. ”

“ It should not be necessary to remind people in this day that the knife must only be used for the purpose of cutting food. When it has fulfilled this duty, being wielded by the right hand, the food being held in place by the fork in the left, the fork is then taken in the right hand, and the knife laid, with the edge turned outward, across the back of the plate. It is generally supposed that all classes know the use of the knife, yet in a fashionable restaurant there recently sat a handsomely-attired woman carrying French peas to her mouth with the blade of her knife. ”

“ For the person who must economize on the number of utensils, a knife about 8′′ or 9′′ long with rather wide blade can be bought which can very comfortably be used for cold meat slicing as well as bread and cake. A set of six knives, two spatulas and two forks, will fill most kitchens’ needs. Other knives and forks can be added as specials. Here is the 2′′ paring knife, 3′′ for splitting. The general household keeps a fork with the French pattern blade for general work and the heavy 6′′ blade for cutting vegetables such as turnips, pumpkins, squashes, etc., where a thin blade would snap ”

“ When the way to control the knife has been mastered, the keystone to successful carving has been acquired.
The cut should be direct, sharp, and incisive. A saw-like action should never enter into the operation.
Generally speaking, the knife should be held firmly, but it cuts best when applied lightly, and less gravy is squeezed from the meat when the pressure is slight. By using the point of the knife lightly as a wedge, and the fork as a lever, even a big turkey or goose may be easily jointed, provided the carver is aware exactly how the joint is situated and held together. ”

“ The finished blade is then riveted into the scales or handle, which may be of ivory, bone, horn or other material; and when thereafter the razor is set on a hone it is ready for use.
The processes employed in making a table-knife do not differ essentially from those required for a razor. Table-knife blades are forged from shear and other steels, and, if they are not in one piece, a bit of malleable iron sufficient for the bolster or shoulder and tang is welded to each, often by machinery, especially in the case of the cheaper qualities. ”

“ Felicia said.
They were all sitting on the hearth, warming their fingers, and when the apple-wood fire burned down to coals that now and again spurted short-lived flame, they set the can of peas and the can of baked beans among the embers. They turned them gingerly from time to time with two sticks, and laughed a great deal. The laughter echoed about in the empty stillness of the house.
Ken's knife was of the massive and useful sort that contains a whole array of formidable tools. These included a can-opener, which now did duty on the smoked tins. ”

“ GUN SLING. Cutlery.
Knives.
Tools.
Do not be induced to encumber yourself with one of those ornamented, highly polished, useless abominations popularly known as hunting knives; they are worse than useless, and only serve to exasperate the owner. For general rough and ready work, nothing is better than a strong well-made butcher’s knife. The blade should be continued through the handle, which is formed by pinning two cheeks of hard wood or horn together. The hand grip should be long, and the steel sufficiently soft to be cut by a common hand saw file ”

“ For each person lay 2 small silver forks, 1 small steel knife, and 1 silver knife. It is a very slovenly way to put only 1 steel knife to each person, for after eating bacon or any meat with the steel knife, it is very nasty to use the same knife for marmalade or butter. Small second-hand silver knives are not expensive to buy for breakfast or for meat teas; keep them for that purpose, and for children’s fruit at lunch, and it saves the nicer dessert knives and forks being used. ”

“ In the purchase of a pocket knife, choose one that is small enough to be a constant companion; one, or at most two blades will be found sufficient for one handle. A very convenient description of knife is to be met with in most hardware shops. The handle is straight and flat. A stout stick-cutting blade is at one end of the haft, and a strong scalpel-shaped pen blade at the other. The miniature tool chests sold under the name of pocket knives to emigrants are jacks of all trades in their way, having all sorts of supposed capabilities, associated with a general tendency to uselessness. ”

“ Study carefully the knife. No matter how carefully the machine is built, an imperfect knife cannot cut right. Most knives are imperfect in spite of the rigorous specifications given them by makers. They vary in thickness, straightness, concave, bevel, flatness, temper, and quality of steel; and also in the character of their sharpening and honing, which varies with the fineness or coarseness of the grinding wheel and stone. These variations need only be a few thousandths of an inch to cause trouble. ”

“ I have seen flint knives in outline very like Fig. 240 in the museums at Cracow, Moscow, and Kiev. Some are highly polished by friction and may have served as sickles.
It is difficult to assign any definite use to the British form of knife, but as the curvature is evidently intentional, and as probably it was more difficult to chip out such curved blades than it would have been to make them straight, there must have been some advantage resulting from the form. As both edges of the blade are sharp, it is hard to say whether the convex or concave edge was the principal object. ”

“ The housewife’s best method of sharpening or rather keeping the edges straight and keenly cutting is the steel. When the knife really gets dull it should be ground. The use of the stone or carborundum by the ordinary operator often wears the steel. However, if the use of the grinder or the stone or the carborundum is really known, time and money will be saved in the sharpening process. Sharp knives save temper, save food to a great degree, and therefore if you can’t sharpen knives yourself send them out to be taken care of once or twice a year. ”

“ Another party at dinner without knives or forks is represented in the cut No. 20, taken from the same manuscript (fol. 51, vo.) . The tables here are without table-cloths. The use of the fingers in eating explains to us why it was considered necessary to wash the hands before and after the meal.
No. 20. Anglo-Saxons at Table.
The knife (cnif) , as represented in the Saxon illuminations, has a peculiar form, quite different from that of the earlier knife found in the graves, but resembling rather closely the form of the modern razor. ”

“ It is very important for safety that the fingers of the left hand push downward only to maintain an even pressure on the knife blade over the stone. If the left hand pushes laterally with the sharpening stroke, and the knife catches on an irregularity, then the fingers will slip off the edge and can be cut severely by the freed knife blade. With a sweeping motion toward the right of the stone, draw the knife completely across the stone, against the cutting edge of the blade. ”

“ Knife drawers or racks with grooves to keep the [167] knife blade inviolate are too little used. This is one of the things that will make the kitchen a more proper tool chest, prolong the life of cutlery and save time in the search for wanted knives on the part of the worker. These are being made in compact, useful fashion to meet the needs of the well ordered kitchen. We can’t stress the housing of cutlery hard enough—and it is a real housing problem.
The pot cover rack for those who do not hang up their pots is a great comfort. ”

“ The knife is not much different from the ordinary bread knife, but it is suspended from a frame which causes it to come down in the same place each time it is swung for a cut. There is also a gauge which insures every slice being of the same thickness. ”