I have been largely silent for quite a while tied up running the engineering on a (partly) historical TV show and so it is time I started back at work.
The first pieces are two late 16thC or Early 17thC eating sets of a knife and fork. Around 1550 (in the UK at any rate) small knives started moving away from scale tang construction and back toward whittle tang or rat tail construction, often with integral bolsters and these are early exmples of this style. Forks also started to be used for eating around this time and only later did they move to 3 or 4 tine.
The handles are both in horn and one has bone spacers.
The other knife is a real curiosity to me and I know very little about it. The client sent pictures that labelled it a Navaja and for my mind it is certainly not that and also labelled it around 1600 and indicated it was from Spain. That is all the information I have. I puzzelled for ages about what the ring and hook were for and the thickening in the scales of the handle and then I realised that it had an inbuilt spring balance and so was for weighing. This leads me to be (almost) certain it is a fishing knife. The presence of the coil spring also means that the date must slide forward quite a way and so I would put this down to 18th or 19thC. Either way it is a lovely piece.
The blade does not have a lock or spring catch and you weigh by suspensing between the hook and the ring. The scale has a positive stop and weighs between 300 - 1300g = about half a pound through to 1 and 3/4 pounds. The whole knife is of steel construction.
I hope you like them, comments always welcome and further information on the Fishing? knife would be very welcome.
Regards
Tod
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