I recently purchased this knife from Golden Horn Knives (http://www.goldenhornknives.com/), a small online dealer of handmade old-world style knives from the Island of Crete. The knives are all hand-made by a gentleman named Apostolis Pachtikos who has been making knives for over 61 years in the town of Chania.



The knives are each unique, handmade customs that are handmade in the old-crete style which really makes them unique. They have an upswept, sharpened clip point similar to a bowie, with a hilt that is a cross between an “Ear Dagger” and a Yataghan.

They are also all hand-engraved with traditional sayings from the Island of Crete.

The knife I received was the “Theseus” which is a type 1A:

The knife was shipped to me in under a week and was packaged extremely well. It did not come with a sheathe, but rather shipped wrapped in a beautiful hand-woven cloth. Immediately upon taking the knife into my hand I felt a superb sense of warmth from this knife. The beautiful cow-bone handle is designed for larger hands than I have, but it still felt extremely comfortable.



The engraving reads “ Though I have never had an enemy, I have a knife, to give as a present to a friend that I trust”.



Length: 7.5 inch blade, OA: 12 Inches

Weight: approximately 1 lb.

The shipping edge was not as sharp as I typically like my knives, however 10 minutes with a spyderco sharpmaker and a strop and I could shave with it. The edge retention is quite good and I was able to do all the following tests and slice up several cardboard boxes before it needed a touchup on the strop.

Phonebook Penetration Test: 300 Pages. Would likely go to the hilt in flesh. (Note, this is an abusive test for a knife of this type. While it came through with flying colors, I would not suggest stabbing phonebooks on the kitchen counter regularly.)

Push Cut: 1 sheet Newsprint using only the weight of the knife = 5 inches

Pull Cut: 1 sheet of paper only using the weight of a knife = Approximately 9 inches

The knife sliced through a 2 inch thick flank steak like it was a hot knife through butter.

I did not try to hack any bones as this knife is not designed for that, howcver it easily skinned, boned and jointed a chicken.

The knife has a superb sense of power and warmth to it. The weight is in the handle which makes it extremely fast and maneuverable. The grip is made from Cow bone and has a superb old world fit and finish. Overall this is an excellent knife and makes an excellent general purpose or hunting knife.

The knife also makes an excellent fighter, the sharpened clip point works extremely well in the back cut and it slices extremely well. The grip is comfortable in the pakal, saber, hammer and handshake grips. While it is not a light knife, it is extremely fast and maneuverable.

Mr. Pachtikos makes a beautiful and warm knife that has an amazing old-world charm. I heartily recommend Golden Horn knives for anyone looking for a knife that represents old-world values and a craftsman that truly takes pride in his work.

http://www.goldenhornknives.com/

I've walked by that guy's shop once or twice and browsed. I honestly wasn't too impressed by his knives, but the flaws that I noticed during my visits seem absent from your purchase. I must have been looking at the "tourist" knives. Maybe I'll drop in on him this weekend and demand to see his private stash of good knives. :cool:

Thanks for posting those pictures! I keep planning to hunt down an antique Cretan knife in a museum or antique shop to see what they looked like when they were still regularly used on people. Subtle differences may have crept into the blade geometry since the Turks went away. But my weekends keep getting eaten by other things, so I haven't done it yet. :(

John,

Thanks for your response!

John Linker wrote:

Sam, Apostolis has two shops on the same street in Chania. One is mostly the cheap stuff for tourists, but he has some much nicer stuff hidden away if you ask him nicely. If you strike up a conversation with him, he is more than happy to show you his best knives, as well as the wealth of magazine articles from all over the world featuring him and his knives.

I suspected as much. Clearly, I judged the grain by the chaff and need to pay the man another visit in the near future. :)

John Linker wrote:

As you probably know, there were only 7 traditional knifemakers alive in Chania up until recently, and now that the other six have died, Apostolis is sadly the only one left. There are, however, some very touristy shops on the same road, perhaps those are what you are thinking of?

Wow. I knew that the numbers had dwindled but hadn't heard that all of the others had died. That makes me sad.

I assume the road we're talking about is about a block up from the harbor, has something like four knife shops in a row on an elevated sidewalk and is presently in a state of disrepair from construction projects? If so, I know exactly where he is. Do you think he'd mind if I hung around his shop and watched him work sometime?

Yes Sam, that sounds like the right street, and last time I was there there was some construction going on which meant that they had torn up most of the pavement and you had to get to Apostolis' shop by walking over some planks, though I expect that the concrete etc. will have dried by now.

He is a very agreeable man for all his eccentricities, and is generally more than happy for people to watch him work etc. If you want an amusing lecture then ask him about a certain well known smith in Iraklio :D