John Sanderson Carving Knife Shear Steel Nickel Hardware & Stag 1879-1920s

There are several John Sandersons of Sheffield but there was one established in 1879 who was a manufacturer of nickel ferrules, caps etc. of which this knife sports nice examples and must be the one. 

While not marked ‘shear steel’ it most likely is made with shear or ‘cast steel’ (shear steel melted in a crucible then re-worked) it shows a ‘puddle weld’ near the bolster at the beginning of the blade opposite side as markings, almost looking like a thumbprint, this is where hard shear steel is forge welded to the mild steel or iron bolster and tang. Forks were forged in a small mold and ground by hand and knife blade forged by hand to shape and then hand ground on a saddle grinder to finish the geometry being finished on smaller buffing wheels. Many of these process were in use for hundreds of years in Sheffield which really held its strength through the massive amount of low priced skilled labor available in Sheffield. 

Shear steel was a 19th and early 20th century steel that was made by case hardening bars of iron in ceramic boxes packed with charcoal, large numbers of these were heated for days on end at high temperatures and the resulting bars were broken up (it would break or shear rather than bend once carbon added hence ‘shear’ steel) and forged welded into a larger mass. This process was done twice on double shear steel creating a steel with a higher carbon content. 

Never put old carving knives in the dishwasher, they are held together with ‘cutler’s cement’ or ‘rozzil’ a mixture of brick dust, bees wax and rosin. Rozzil is hard at room temperature but soft and liquid when hot.