[Jeremy V. Krause]

Hi everybody,

I put this piece up like 10 or so years ago but I was looking at it this morning and appreciating just how nice it is so I decided to give it some attention.

In addition, I have been experimenting with developing a patina on this knife to look "maybe" similar to how it would have developed with the type of care it would have received back in the day.

I have used the knife quite a bit for eating. Immediately after eating I wipe it off with a damp paper towel and apply a very light coat of olive oil. This has, in my opinion, resulted in a pretty attractive patina. Removing it would take like 5 min. with a scotch-write pad and would bring it back to bright.

The blade is shear steel made by Owen Bush. The handle is bone with fine silver inlayed dot designs. The ferrule and end cap are fine silver. I do not consistently shine the silver if you don't notice.

The sheath was originally made by Tod- unfortunately, I spilled some household cleaner on it and it was ruined. I had Josh Davis of Davis Reproductions make a replacement and he did a phenomenal job resulting in a nearly identical- and I mean very nearly identical sheath to the original. As a shout out regarding Josh Davis- for anyone needing any type of care or adjustments to their pieces he is superb. He has cleaned up my blades, fixed grips, replaced parts, re-shaped points, made new scabbards and I have never been disappointed. I may just be unlucky my my collection requires maintenance. If I have a piece for years upon years it ends up needing something done and I will always go to Josh for that kind of thing. Plus, he makes beautiful custom pieces as well.

Anyway, back to the original subject- I have a number of pretty nice weapons but I just love this piece. It's so original and so- in my mind, authentic in presentation.

It's hefty and solid in the hand and works well with eating- though does require periodic sharpening as the shear steel doesn't seem to hold an edge like modern steels- which is just because it's a more historically constructed material.

And sorry about the color in the pictures. They definitely are on the "yellowish" side. In person it doesn't look this yellow- especially the bone. Plus, the sheath looks brown here when it is actually a dark red/burgundy sort of color.

[Dan D'Silva]

Starting to look like a real museum piece.

In your post on the subject last year, you mentioned that olive oil formed a "gummed-up" residue. Have you found this to be a problem since then? Does more frequent use, wiping and re-oiling seem to make a difference?

[Jeremy V. Krause]

I think I was putting a little much which caused the gumminess

I wonder how different fats would act though I know some have stated that the fats from the food has been enough to prevent red oxidation but when I tried that it paginated very quickly and dark spots showed up

Using the oil how I have been seems to result in a very slow build up of a kind of blackish or multicolored patina.

[Victor R.]

Very nice! I got the 14th/15thC Medieval Eating Knife from Tod Cutler a couple years ago. Much simpler with 8 or 9 pins, bronze bolsters and wood scales. I was looking at a couple of the others ahead of it (kind of wanted one with a horn handle), but they used stainless while this one is plain old high carbon, which is much to my preference.

Love that shear steel look, too, but can't justify that shear steel price right now.

The sheath thong of mine hangs from the multi-tier basket above my sink and the knife gets used almost daily for something or other, from steak knife to paring knife, it has great versatility. I just rinse and dry with a flour-sack towel, and occasionally wipe down the scales with olive oil or the mineral oil I used on my butcher block style cutting board. Beautiful patina that matches that on the high-carbon cook's set I have from Tod. Between the "eating" knife and the old style cleaver, I'm using a Tod product every day.