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In the center man's left hand. Never seen one like that before, and I don't think I've spotted one like it in other sources. Do we have any surviving examples of that kind of knife? It reminds me a bit of the chopper's you see in the hands of soldiers later on in that book, so I figure it's probably some kind of butchering knife.

M.

I believe the book Knives and Scabbards speculates they are fish knives or something similar. Or maybe it was bread knives. I don't have the book handy at the moment.

I think, it´s a knife to cut meat in small stripes and serve it right away to the guests, the man with the knife could be that, what we call "Truchsess" in German, a high recommended job at the table. He does the main work of cutting and serving.

As Chad said, Knives and Scabbards does have several depictions from period artwork and calls them "fish knives", but in all shown depictions they appear to be shown cutting bread/cheese. One depiction from Gregory's Moralia, Paris, shows the same shape as that from the Mac Bible, but with a prominent U shaped notch in the edge near the "tip". The book also states than no know archaeological examples exist.
I hope this helps,
Dan

Hm, I will have to hunt up a copy of that book sometime; Out of Print however :|

Perhaps by "fish knife" they're making a reference to the shape, which looks like a fish's tail?

M.

We're on the right track... I believe that this is a sort of knife called a 'chaffer,' used as a combination slicing knife and 'spatula' for serving the food. Never seen one quite this shape though.

I came across this replica by Manning Imperial:

http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?item_...mp;c_id=15

Danny

In every illustration that I have seen of this type of knife it is being used to cut bread, if I recall correctly the "Goodman of Paris" (it could be "Kervinge" or "Ffor to serve a Lord") recommends that slices of bread should be served out with the knife. It is just my opinion, but this knife shape would be admirably suited for use as a serving tool.

so would it resemble a sharpened spatula? uniform x-section perhaps?

It looks quite handy for use on the BBQ...