Vintage George Cowen 3 Pc Carving Set Carbon Steel Sheffield Stag Tip ~1890’s-1910ish?

Carving set made by the George H Cowan company in Sheffield England from roughly the 1890’s to teens. George Cowan (1854-1922)was the son of James Cowan (1831-1899), a Sheffield cutler who worked at Joseph Rodgers for 20+ years. 

Knife has been refurbished and is ready to get back to work, sharpening steel and fork are in good used condition without defect but showing their age. A handsome turn of the century set here. 

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.  

Like all other culinary knives this should never go in the dishwasher, carving knife handles will come loose with high heat (dishwasher, stove top etc), carbon steel can rust if left wet or dirty, expect a patina to form with use.