Your knife seems to be a Sabatier Chef's Knife (Nogent Style) with carbon steel and ebony handles. The Nogent blanks were forged sometime from the late twenties through the mid thirties by one or another or even several of the Sabatiers. They appear to be martinet forgings and are made with full finger guards but no other integral bolster; they have “rat-tail” instead of full or partial tangs. Post war marketing has devalued rat tail tangs unjustly. The tangs are strong enough to resist bending and otherwise last forever and a day as long as you do not use them to pry open metal doors. “Resist bending” means they still bend a lot more easily than a full tang. But if you do bend one you can fix it with nothing more than a padded vise and a little brute force.
I’m not exactly sure why full tangs replaced rat tails, unless it was because rivets work better to keep a poorly fitting handle attached to a knife, or had something to do with changes in forging made during the war. Otherwise, it seems like a solution to something which wasn’t much of a problem. Certainly, not much of a problem with the Nogents.
Nice!
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love those kinds of finds! How exciting and knowledgable you for spotting it!
ReplyDeleteHi Keith,
ReplyDeleteYour knife seems to be a Sabatier Chef's Knife (Nogent Style) with carbon steel and ebony handles.
The Nogent blanks were forged sometime from the late twenties through the mid thirties by one or another or even several of the Sabatiers. They appear to be martinet forgings and are made with full finger guards but no other integral bolster; they have “rat-tail” instead of full or partial tangs.
Post war marketing has devalued rat tail tangs unjustly. The tangs are strong enough to resist bending and otherwise last forever and a day as long as you do not use them to pry open metal doors. “Resist bending” means they still bend a lot more easily than a full tang. But if you do bend one you can fix it with nothing more than a padded vise and a little brute force.
I’m not exactly sure why full tangs replaced rat tails, unless it was because rivets work better to keep a poorly fitting handle attached to a knife, or had something to do with changes in forging made during the war. Otherwise, it seems like a solution to something which wasn’t much of a problem. Certainly, not much of a problem with the Nogents.
Source : http://www.cookfoodgood.com/?p=409
Regards,
Vieuxbois