CUTLERY.
FIG. 1.
Table cutlery is made in the following way. The blade is first rudely fashioned from a flat bar of steel by the hammer and anvil, and this is then welded to a bar of soft iron half-an-inch square, and cut off, leaving sufficient to form the “shoulder” or “bolster,” A, and the “tang,” B, [fig. 1], which is first made by the hammer and then beaten into a sort of mould or die. The blade is finished as far as can be done with the hammer, made red-hot, and thrown into cold water, which hardens the steel, and then “tempered” to a full blue color (see “[Steel]”) after which it is fit for grinding. Razors and penknife-blades are made of fine steel, and are forged and hardened as above, but the tempering is effected by arranging them in rows with their backs downwards on a plate of hot iron till the color appears on their surface indicating the temper they have received, which for razors is a pale straw color.
Cutlery is ground upon stones of different sizes, according to the kind of article; for saws, and table-knives, which are to be ground to a flat surface, very large stones are used, while razors, which have a curved surface, and penknives, whose blades are very narrow, are ground upon very small stones. These stones are driven by machinery with great rapidity, and are arranged over a trough of water, so that their lower parts dip into it, by which plan the stone is kept wet; if it were used dry, the steel would get too hot to hold, and the temper of it be injured. The article to be ground is held at the top of the stone. When ground, the goods are “glazed” by means of a wooden wheel the edge of which is smeared with emery-powder, and finally, if they are to be polished (which is only in the case of the finest steel instruments), they are held to the edge of a wooden wheel covered with buff-leather, and charged with “crocus”—this crocus is a red oxide of iron much used for polishing all sorts of things, as it is both fine, free from grit, and sufficiently hard.
FIG. 2.
What are called “balance-handle” table-knives are those which when laid on the table, will rest with the blade elevated so as not to touch the cloth ([fig. 2]). The object sought in this arrangement, is to keep the cloth from being soiled, and the manner of attaining it is simply by making the shoulder project a little and running a small quantity of lead into the hole of the handle before the “tang” of the knife is introduced. The blade and handle or “haft” are united by means of rosin, which is put in powder into the hollow of the handle, and the tang, being made hot, is forced in, melting the rosin, and fixing when cool.