Vintage A J Jordan 9.5″ Bullnose Butcher Hand Forged Double Shear Steel 1871-1926

Marked AaA1 A.J. Jordan Sheffield England (1871-1926), made at the East India Works with Sheffield made double shear steel and Persian boxwood.

Knife has seen lots of use, but no abuse, the blade has been sharpened in and there are some gaps in the handle where some rust in the tang has spread it out. That said this is still very usable and a fine example of a great 19th / early 20th C maker’s work. 

Andrew Jackson Jordan was an American from St Louis who set up a knife manufacturing business in Sheffield (the East India works) and imported knives to the USA made at the East India Works and on contract for A J Jordan by other Sheffield manufacturers, this is a knife made at the East India Works with double shear steel and ‘seasoned Persian boxwood’

Double shear steel was a 19th and early 20th century carbon steel that was made by case hardening bars of iron in ceramic boxes packed with charcoal, large numbers of these were heated for days on end at high temperatures and the resulting bars were broken up (it would break or shear rather than bend once carbon added hence ‘shear’ steel) and forged welded into a larger mass. This process was done twice on double shear steel creating a steel with a higher carbon content. 

A J Jordan in the marketing style of the times declared his knives made at the East India Works as ‘The best in the world’ and they are indeed arguably one of the best coming out of Sheffiled in the 19th and early 20th centuries.