Vintage American LF&C Nogent Style 9″ Chef Forged Carbon Steel Antler Re-Handle

A very unusual American stick tang ‘Nogent style’ chef knife 
re-handled with a stag handle and steel ferrule. A set of American stick tang knives with stag re-handles was found in a large collection recently, they are a little bit of a mystery but are nicely done and are excellent late 19th to early 20th century forged blades. Certainly not factory production handles however. While thought of largely as a French style knife (especially after the city of Nogent) the stick tang with collar design was used all over Europe, the UK and the USA. 

This blade is unmarked (and was originally longer) but is definitely by the LF&C company of New Britain Ct who made a very distinctive deeply ground bolster that has a square profile when looking down from the top. This style knife was made by LF&C from the teens to 50’s with the stick tang being a bit on the earlier side. 

This knife has a good deal of height in the heel for it’s length and will do great for those with very large hands or those who like extra height in the heel. It is especially suited for a forward rocking push cut in the heel but is also nimble enough (and the blade is thin enough) for precise work at the tip

This knife has been re-ground and thinned behind the edge on a large 3 foot diameter Japanese water stone wheel (kaiten mizu toishi) and then resurfaced with a medium fine finish, our take on an old style grinding and finishing technique. While the particular wheel used to refurbish this knife is typically used in Japanese knife making it is very similar to the old grinding wheels used to shape European and American hand ground cutlery. A convex face to a blade greatly increases a knife’s performance as there is less sticking as there is on a flat face and the blade does not get thick behind the edge nearly as fast as with a flat faced blade. Being that we are often working with old blades that need re-shaping and might have been rusted expect some minor imperfections, we try to give a fresh start to our re-ground blades with an eye towards their original grind style and keeping as much metal is needed on a blade when ever possible. Check out Bernal Cutlery co founder Josh Donald’s book Sharp to see these wheels in use and more about their history in Europe and Japan.