Friday, May 12, 2006

Le Knife

basque yatagan knife
Here's a cool knife I got recently. Basque yatagan knife, handle of ebony wood. Stainless steel blade almost four inches long. Ordered it (like an increasing number of my purchases lately) over the Internet.

basque yatagan knife
This knife was produced by French knifemaking artisans, in the town of Thiers, which is the center of French cutlery. Produced by hand, the old fashioned way. Their site has all sorts of cool photos of master knife artisan dudes working over anvil and vise with hammer and file.

The knife has a solid, balanced feel in the hand. Opening the blade feels like opening the door on a Cadillac. You can't beat quality.

basque yatagan knife
And note that decorative design hand filed into the steel back of the knife.

From now on, when I need a knife around the house, I won't have to go running for the carving knife out in the kitchen any more.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice! I'm afraid I have nothing quite like it.

My best is a Cutco that Deb had and gifted me with. Very sharp, folds and locks, lives in a leather sheath and I keep it in a pocket of my briefcase, where it comes in very handy.

Plus if I ever fly and bring the briefcase, I have something to fight back with if terrorists try to take over the plane with box cutters.

Oh wait. I mean, I have something that will be confiscated so if terrorists somehow get on the plane armed, I will be less able to fight back and thwart them.

Friday, May 12, 2006 9:35:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought the yatagan was a Russian sword, but a quick google indicates that it is in fact Turkic. There is some similarity in the hilt of that folder, but normally it is the blade which determines the name.

I have an early, unbeveled, Spyderco Clipit which I have had on my pocket almost constantly for a couple of decades. On those occasions that I am required to go without it I feel less than dressed.

Saturday, May 13, 2006 12:16:00 AM  
Blogger Paul Burgess said...

Yeah, I don't know how it came to be called a Basque yatagan knife. Here it is on their site. And here it is in Google, 394 search results.

I actually ran across the style of knife first (though not with the ebony) in a catalog from another outfit which I received in the mail. I thought, "Boy, this would be some knife if I could find it with ebony on the handle." So I searched around online, and there it was.

Saturday, May 13, 2006 3:20:00 AM  

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