THE CUTLER.
1. Under the head of cutlery, is comprehended a great variety of instruments designed for cutting and penetration, and the business of fabricating them is divided into a great number of branches. Some manufacture nothing but axes; others make plane-irons and chisels, augers, saws, or carvers' tools. Others, again, make smaller instruments, such as table-knives, forks, pen-knives, scissors, and razors. There are also cutlers who manufacture nothing but surgical instruments.
2. The coarser kinds of cutlery are made of blistered steel welded to iron. Tools of a better quality are made of shear steel, while the sharpest and most delicate instruments are formed of cast steel. The several processes constituting this business may be comprised in forging, tempering, and polishing; and these are performed in the order in which they are here mentioned.
3. The general method of forging iron and steel, in every branch of this business, is the same with that used in the common blacksmith's shop, for more ordinary purposes. The process, however, is somewhat varied, to suit the particular form of the object to be fashioned; for example, the blades and some other parts of the scissors are formed by hammering the steel upon indented surfaces called bosses. The bows, which receive the finger and thumb, are made by first punching a hole in the metal, and then enlarging it by the aid of a tool called a beak-iron.
4. The steel, after having been forged, is soft, like iron, and to give it the requisite degree of strength under the uses to which the tools or instruments are to be exposed, it is hardened. The process by which this is effected is called tempering, and the degree of hardness or strength to which the steel is brought is called its temper, which is required to be higher or lower, according to the use which is to be made of the particular instrument.
5. In giving to the different kinds of instruments the requisite temper, they are first heated to redness, and then plunged into cold water. This, however, raises the temper too high, and, if left in this condition, they would be too brittle for use. To bring them to a proper state, they are heated to a less degree of temperature, and again plunged into cold water. The degree to which they are heated, the second time, is varied according to the hardness required. That this particular point may be perfectly understood, a few examples will be given.
6. Lancets are raised to 430 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature is indicated by a pale color, slightly inclined to yellow. At 450 degrees, a pale straw-color appears, which is found suitable for the best razors and surgical instruments. At 470 degrees, a full color is produced, which is suitable for pen-knives, common razors, &c. At 490, a brown color appears, which is the indication of a temper proper for shears, scissors, garden hoes, and chisels intended for cutting cold iron.
7. At 510 degrees, the brown becomes dappled with purple spots, which shows the proper heat for tempering axes, common chisels, plane-irons, &c. At 530 degrees, a purple color is established, and this temperature is proper for table-knives and large shears. At 550 degrees, a bright blue appears, which is proper for swords and watch springs. At 560 degrees, the color is full blue, and this is used for fine saws, augers, &c. At 600 degrees, a dark blue approaching to black settles upon the metal, and this produces the softest of all the grades of temper, which is used only for the larger kinds of saws.
8. Other methods of determining the degree of temperature at which the different kinds of cutlery are to be immersed, a second time, in cold water, are also practised. By one method, the pieces of steel are covered with tallow or oil, or put into a vessel containing one of these substances, and heated over a moderate fire. The appearance of the smoke indicates the degree of heat to which it may have been raised. A more accurate method is found in the employment of a fluid medium, the temperature of which can be regulated by a thermometer. Thus oil, which boils at 600 degrees, may be employed for this purpose, at any degree of heat which is below that number.
9. The grinding of cutlery is effected on cylindrical stones of various kinds, among which freestone is the most common. These are made to revolve with prodigious velocity, by means of machinery. The operation is therefore quickly performed. The polishing is commonly effected by using, first, a wheel of wood; then, one of pewter; and, lastly, one covered with buff leather sprinkled with an impure oxyde of iron, called colcothar or crocus. The edges are set either with hones or whetstones, or with both, according to the degree of keenness required.
10. Almost every description of cutlery requires a handle of some sort; but the nature of the materials, as well as the form and mode of application, will be readily understood by a little attention to the various articles of this kind which daily fall in our way.
11. A process has been invented, by which edge tools, nails, &c., made of cast iron, may be converted into good steel. It consists in stratifying the articles with the oxyde of iron, in a metallic cylinder, and then submitting the whole to a regular heat, in a furnace built for the purpose. This kind of cutlery, however, will not bear a very fine edge.
12. The sword and the knife were probably the first instruments fabricated from iron, and they still continue to be leading subjects of demand, in all parts of the world. The most celebrated swords of antiquity were made at Damascus, in Syria. These weapons never broke in the hardest conflicts, and were capable of cutting through steel armor without sustaining injury.
13. The fork, as applied in eating, is an invention comparatively modern. It appears to have had its origin in Italy, probably in the fourteenth century; but it was not introduced into England, until the reign of James the First, in the first quarter of the seventeenth. Its use was, at first, the subject of much ridicule and opposition.
14. Before the introduction of the fork, a piece of paper, or something in place of it, was commonly wrapped round some convenient projection of the piece to be carved; and, at this place, the operator placed one hand, while he used the knife with the other. The carver cut the mass of meat into slices or suitable portions, and laid them upon the large slices of bread which had been piled up near the platter, or carving dish, and which, after having been thus served, were handed about the table, as we now distribute the plates.
15. The knives used at table were pointed, that the food might be taken upon them, as upon a fork; and knives of the same shape are still common on the continent of Europe. Round-topped knives were not adopted in Paris, until after the banishment of Napoleon Bonaparte to Elba, in 1815, when every thing English became fashionable in that city.
16. In France, before the revolution of 1789, it was customary for every gentleman, when invited to dinner, to send his knife and fork before him by a servant; or, if he had no servant, he carried them himself in his breeches pocket. A few of the ancient regime still continue the old custom. The peasantry of the Tyrol, and of some parts of Germany and Switzerland, generally carry about them a case, containing a knife and fork, and a spoon.
17. The use of the fork, for a long time, was considered so great a luxury, that the members of many of the monastic orders were forbidden to indulge in it. The Turks and Asiatics use no forks, even to this day. The Chinese employ, instead of this instrument, two small sticks, which they hold in the same hand, between different fingers.
18. The manufacture of cutlery is carried on most extensively in England, at Birmingham, Sheffield, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and London. London cutlery has the reputation of being the best, and this circumstance induces the dealers in that city, to affix the London mark to articles made at other places. In the United States, there are many establishments for the fabrication of the coarser kinds of cutlery, such as axes, plane-irons, saws, hoes, scythes, &c., but for the finer descriptions of cutting instruments, we are chiefly dependent on Europe.
