"The Early History of Cutlery"
Knives! Although not the most expensive piece of equipment in the kitchen, knives are the most valuable! Think how often not only you, but everybody in your kitchen picks up a knife to dice, slice, filet or split each and every day! Now imagine how difficult, labour intensive and costly it would be to do these tasks if today's quality and assortment of knives were not available.
The very beginning...
The very first cutler must have been an early primitive who fashioned knives and spearheads from stone so that he and his family could feed and defend themselves.
The importance that has always been attached to cutlery appears to be a result of the fact, that cutlery has, in a sense, served to measure the progress of mankind. From the Stone Age, with its axes, knives and spearheads made of fragments of hard stones such as flint; through the Bronze and Iron Ages, and up to the Steel Age of today the type of cutlery used has furnished an index to the era.
The Stone Age...
The first knives ever used by man were splinters of the particularly hard stone silex, or flint. The sharp edges on these splinters formed a sort of cutting implement that made skinning and hacking up animals killed in the hunt an easier chore. Flintstones were also excellent for scraping pelts used for clothing.
Scientific research and archaeological diggings have brought to light the tools used by early man in their daily struggle to survive. Early man made Flint knives (or stone splinters) in a great number of shapes. Sizes varied from that of a small pocket knife to the considerable length of a scrub-clearing scythe. Edges were usually straight, but in exceptional cases, curved. Some blades thickened out into triangular or rounded handles while others were cemented with a black mastic into wooden hafts.
Ancient man overcame extreme difficulties and required great practical experience to skilfully craft these early flint knives. The job began with the selection of a good flintstone. Next, the stone had to be fractured and sharp-edged strips knocked off. To do this, a piece of stone was held in the left hand, and a pebble in the right hand. This pebble was used to hammer the flat edge of the stone fragment to loosen a long chip with two sharp edges - this formed a rough blade which then had to be carefully finished.
People of the late Stone Age used flint more than any other material for making weapons and tools. Artisans knew how to choose the best-suited types of stone to fashion weapons and tools and went to great efforts to do so. In fact, in parts of France, earth-works worthy of being called "mines" have been found; they feature proper excavation shafts and subterranean galleries. When diggers came across a lump of rock that was too big to deal with, they cracked it by heating it with fire. Occasionally, flint was worked right at the mine, normally, however, blocks of stone were brought from far and wide and worked on flat stretches of ground near the dwelling of a clan.
It is known that flintstone was traded during the late Stone Age. Grand-Pressigny in France had an abundant supply of good quality stone that were sold to distant tribes. The huge amount of chippings found at the work site of the Grand-Pressigny community indicates that this was where stone was worked on a scale large enough to support trading flintstone.
People of the Stone Age preferred to work with flint because it was very common. In regions whereit was in short supply, whatever hard stones (quartz, hard limestone etc.) could be found, were used.
The end of the chipped stone in Europe and Asia was characterised by a great surge in man's craftsmanship.
The Bronze Age
Metals replaced stone slowly, hence, even though Bronze was available, stone continued to be used for a long time. However, once the merits of bronze knives became known, they took hold and far surpassed the capabilities of their stone forerunners.
In fact, iron was known before bronze, but it was scarce and only available in small amounts, consequently, bronze gained preference. Because bronze was easy to work, the technique of iron extraction lingered for a long time in its infancy.
The Iron Age
The many sagas about this era all tell us that the first skills in metalworking, originally deemed holy, came through the islands from the east, or more exactly Phrygia in Asia Minor, to Greece.
The chronicle of Paros even sets the date for the discovery of iron as the year 1432 B.C. Findings in Mesopotamian burial sites have proven that metals were familiar as far back as 2500-3000 B.C. because found along side the stone implements were also some of copper, bronze, iron and gold. In those days, iron, like all precious metals was only used for small objects such as rings and buckles, knives and tools were not yet made from it.
It appears that iron was first used for weapons, knives and tools after 1432 B.C. It is in and around this time that mentions of this practice are recorded. Iron allowed knife blades to be far superior to any of their predecessors.
The Etruscans were working iron ore mines on the Island of Elba in 600 B.C. They seem to be the first people to have extracted iron-ore from the Island of Elba and it was they who supplied iron to the Romans during the early centuries. During this period the number of tools and weapons made from iron swelled immeasurably, and they replaced those made from bronze. Cutting and shaving knives, scythes and sickles, then ultimately scissors with springs, completed the list of cutting implements manufactured.
With the end of the era called the Iron Age, prehistoric times were left behind and the Middle Ages began. Aren't you glad to be a Chef in 1998 and moving into the next millennium?
"The Early Middle Ages to the Beginning of Mass Production"
As noted in the previous article in this series, iron emerged as a raw material before copper. However, for centuries it was a rarity and found in such small amounts that it was considered of minor significance while copper and bronze were widely used.
Because it is important to understand iron and steel production as a key component of the evolution of the "Cutler's Craft", a brief history on the production of iron is provided below.
Iron is obtained from iron-ore through smelting, which is the dissolving of iron out of the non-ferrous elements of the iron-ore and the chemical bindings. By burning off unwanted side elements, especiallysulphur and phosphorus at temperatures of up to 2000C, and at the same time reducing the carbon content to 0.3-1.7%, steel fit for hardening is obtained. Steel blades are heated to about 800 and quickly cooled in water or oil to temper them.
The simplest type of smelting was done in a pit filled with iron-ore and charcoal. Natural draught was improved by setting up a system to blast air through the pit. The iron that ran out of the ore formed a doughy mass. The oldest form of iron-ore smelting was done in a Renn or Bloomery furnace. Later on, bricked-up shaft kilns were used as Renn furnaces. Oxygen was force-fed into the kiln by means of bellows that were initially pumped by manpower, then later driven by water wheels. Shaft kilns were followed by lump furnaces, then flux furnaces, and finally by blast furnaces.
The Cutler's Craft
The beginning of the cutler's trade as it is understood today dates back to the 10th and 11th centuries. Steel production started to develop around that time in Germany and England.
It took men a long time to learn their craft, as not only did they make an entire knife, they also made their own tools - hammers, tongs, files and the like! To give you an idea of how time consuming and difficult this was, just imagine, having to grow every vegetable before you prepare it!
Items from the Early Middle Ages that have survived to our time have ornamental handles. Many included precious materials such as gold, silver, enamel, amber, gems, rock crystal, marble and mother-of-pearl, and were made more precious with artistic carving, engraving and inlaying. These knives, and later forks, were owned by the wealthy and titled and not the common man.
Cutler's could be found extensively throughout the world during the Middle Ages. Due to space constraints, this article will focus on the Cutler's craft in Germany.
Cutlery was made in Germany back in the mists of antiquity. The "Ceremonial of Cutlers" records that the craft was taught in Cologne by a master of Roman birth, Marius Marcus Aurelius. The breakaway of cutlery from weapon manufacturing is thought to have occurred between the 10th and 11th centuries.
The development of trade routes and the flourishing of commerce during the 15th century meant that pig iron was easily transported to the major centres of trade and craft. In the 16th and 17th centuries "knifers" worked in many cities through Europe, however the real fame and reputation for quality knife-blades only stuck to a few places which have a long heritage in the craft - the town of Solingen in Germany is one of these, another is Sheffield, England.
It is an old frequently debated question as to when the first blades were actually made in Solingen. Those that are particularly loyal to this town would like to set the beginnings in the depths of prehistory. It is known for sure that in the 12th and 13th centuries, skilled craftsmen were attracted from Flanders, Brescia and Steyr, lending the cutlery trade significant impetus if not having been its actual founders.
Solingen's main attraction was the availability of water power initially. In the early days iron quarried from close-lying sites was used, in later periods it had to be brought from Siegland - a distant 100 kilometres away.
The Solingen cutlery trade went through difficult times during the Continental Blockade erected by Napoleon in the later part of the 18th century, as export contacts were broken off. After Napoleon fell from power there was a surge of production and trade at first, but soon - from 1820 on - competition from England started to make itself felt, particularly in overseas markets. The Blockade had enabled Sheffield to gain a technological advantage over Solingen as well. To stimulate business, Solingen cutlery traders had books of samples compiled, displaying all the tableware available in water paintings. These books were used until printed catalogues started appearing in the mid-19th century. Traders and travelling salesmen would take these sample books with them to fairs and show them to wholesale clients, to try to obtain contracts and orders.
By the late 1820's Solingen seemed to have taken up the threads of its export trade again. Whereas the customs policy and trade barriers of the Napoleonic period had been so daunting in their impact, the law disbanding the old privileges of the guilds soon proved a highly favourable development. There was now extensive freedom to exercise trades, and every industrious master acquired the possibility of developing his business in the most profitable way. The practice of partitioning trades was still largely maintained, and manufacturing a knife would involve the smith, the grinder and polisher and the handle maker as before. In keeping with the structure of Solingen's industry, these craftsmen were self-employed, primarily working at home. Articles being manufactured would therefore be hauled from one place to the next, until they reached the final stage and were ready to be delivered to the salesmen.
In the 1830's and 1840's, increased efforts to concentrate the industry were made. This gave rise to factories and complexes where cutlery could be made in a series of matched processes at one and the same place by salaried workers. Productivity and employment escalated. Steam power by the middle of the 19th century broke the old dependence on water power. By 1852 there were ten steam-driven grinding mills in the area and steam hammers made the forging of blades far easier and more rational.
Thus Solingen moved into the Industrial Age and mass production.
"Knife Manufacturing in the 20th Century"
This is the third in a four part series of articles on the history and future of cutlery manufacturing.
The very early history of cutlery throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages was explored in the first article. Article two discussed the cutlers' craft as we recognize it today and focused on the development of a major cutlery centre: Solingen, Germany.
This article focuses on the impact modern technology has had on the cutlery industry.
At the turn of the century, methods and materials were still primitive by the standards you and I know today. However, this was to change very quickly with the widespread application of electricity to the industry, the invention and refinement of stainless steel, and recently, computerization.
By the early 20th century, the bulk of the cutlery trade had moved from self-employed home workers to large scale factories operated under the leadership of master cutlers. The requirements of the First World War, coupled with strong competition, brought about phenomenal advances in techniques, as well as volume. The invention of stainless steel was one of these advances.
Believe it or not, "heat-treatable stainless steel" was not developed until 1921! It may be hard to imagine, but carbon steel was used for almost 3,000 years before Stainless Steel was developed. Unfortunately, the cutlery industry was not able to simply take stainless steel as it was invented and use it. The first stainless steel did not produce blades that held an edge nor could edges be put onto blades easily. It took about 30 years of expensive research by the large cutlery manufacturers to develop the right combination of alloys to produce stainless steel for today's knife blade production. As a result of this refinement to stainless steel, stainless steel knife blades have dominated the market for almost the last 50 years; carbon steel blade knives are available, but account for a very small percentage of the market.
Today, steel manufacturers have fully integrated operations and control procedures that allow them to produce the best cutlery steel ever. New methods of steel production for the cutlery industry reduce the volume of steel ground away in the grinding operation, resulting in a more economically finished blade.
Since the Second World War, the cutlery industry has undergone major structural changes and attracted new global competitors. Some famous brand names disappeared as management did not adapt to the new technology and processes necessary to stay competitive. For this reason, Sheffield, England is no longer a leading cutlery centre. In Solingen, some large manufacturers underwent massive modernization and rationalization and consequently are leaders in numerous markets around the world. Other Solingen manufacturers rationalized their cutlery operations by subcontracting their production to smaller, more efficient firms, similar to those that existed at the turn of the century.
At the same time, worthy competitors from other parts of the globe have added a new degree of competitiveness to the quality cutlery market.
Today, quality knives can be made almost 100% by machine or they can still be made using the skills of a master cutler. The two manufacturing processes are discussed below.
Hand Forging
The hot drop hand forging process is the ultimate production method used to produce high quality cutlery - it combines the best of the old and new; the old being the master cutler's skill and expertise with the new being the latest in advanced steel processing. Master Cutlers must hammer raw cutlery steel into the desired blade shape. This is just the beginning - the knife will go through more than 60 different processes before it is finished. These operations involve almost 100% hand work and the dedication and skill of a true craftsman able to blend his skills with modern technology.
Stamped
With this process, cutlery steel is prepared at the steel mill rather than being hammered out by hand.The steel mill simply manufactures steel to a certain formula and delivers coils of this steel to the knife manufacturer. Automation is used to cut the shape of the knife blade from the coil of steel, and complete the various finishing processes, such as grinding, tempering, polishing and finishing.
Numerous advances in this century have provided us with what we judge to be excellent quality cutting tools. Perhaps our descendants will look back and wonder how we ever managed with such crude tools!
"Where Do We Go From Here?"
This article looks to the future. It is predicted that advanced materials like titanium alloys, carbon fibres, new polyethylenes and plastics, synthetic fibres, composites and ceramics will reshape our lives in ways that we cannot even imagine. Many of these new materials will eventually find their way into your kitchen in one shape or another. It appears that the applications of these advanced materials will be limitless. To my knowledge, "ceramics" are the only advanced material currently used in knife manufacturing. Consequently, the focus of this article is on ceramics.
It appears that ceramics suffer the same fate as iron - they have been around for thousands of years but have lingered in infancy as a result of a limiting weakness. In the case of iron, man had to learn the technique of iron extraction; in the case of ceramics, it is how to overcome brittleness.
Like iron, today's new headline material was discovered long ago - in fact, some 13,000 years ago. Villagers in Japan discovered that if they cooked a clay vessel it hardened into an entirely new substance - ceramic pottery - and retained its hardness ever after. Unknowingly, these early ceramists caused atoms in the clay to lock tightly together in what chemists call covalent and ionic bonding.
Today ceramics are riding a resurgence of interest that some call the New Stone Age. Enthusiasts point out that compared with steel, ceramics can be harder, lighter, stiffer and more resistant to heat and corrosion. All of these things are true, but go back again to that ancient pottery: Drop it and it shatters. Ceramics today behave somewhat the same - the problem is brittleness.
The crystalline structure of a properly tempered metal allows it to deform under stress and still do its job. Ceramics are a different story - they cannot bend to absorb an impact and instead they fracture, in fact, they shatter - instead of simply deforming. The atomic bonding present in ceramics prevents the crystalline planes from sliding over each other and simply deforming. Although billions of dollars have been spent developing useful ceramic devices, in most cases they have failed because of brittleness.
Before ceramics are accepted as reliable, they must be made so they can fail gracefully. Finding the solution may not be easy, but ceramics offer too many advantages to discourage trying to solve the brittleness problem. To date, defences such as "stress toughening" and "toughening ceramics with fibres" are being used to try and combat the problem. It appears, however, that these defences are still in the experimental stage.
Recently published information indicates that the greatest advances in ceramics are being made in Japan. Here, where pottery began, government and industry have poured money into ceramics development. Also, the Japanese have kindled intense grass-roots interest known as ceramic fever. This ceramic fever traces, in part, to the relentless drive of the Kyocera Corporation, a leading maker of ceramic packages for computer chips and (to the best of my knowledge), the market leader and innovator in the production of ceramic cutlery.
Today's advanced materials will become tomorrow's commodities. Tomorrow can be a long time off as was the case with iron and stainless steel - but one thing is certain - advancements take far less time now than in the past. The problems of today's advanced materials may be solved in as little as 10 to 15 years.
From the Stone Age through the Bronze and Iron Ages, to the Steel Age of today, the type of cutlery used has furnished an index to the era. Alchemists today have a greater understanding of the structure of matter than ever before; consequently they are creating new materials that are revolutionizing our times. It appears certain that the progress mankind will make with advanced materials will also serve as an index to an era.
The remainder of this article will focus on the benefits and limitations of ceramic knives.
Benefits of a Ceramic Knife
- A ceramic knife has a cutting edge smoother than that of a top-rated stainless steel knife made in West Germany.
- The blade is keener than a conventional knife blade and seldom needs sharpening (when it does, it must be sent back to the manufacturer).
- A ceramic knife does not change the taste or colour of foods - even when cutting acidic foods like lemons or tomatoes.
- Ceramic knives are non-magnetic, lightweight, durable, and extremely resistant to abrasion.
- Ceramic knives will never rust or corrode and will remain stain-free with a minimum of care - simply wash with water and wipe off.
- Ceramic Zirconia (the proper name for the blade material) is second only to diamonds in hardness.
Limitations of a Ceramic Knife
Some of the restrictions for the care and use of a ceramic knife are the same as those for the proper care of a good steel knife - and are based on common sense. Things like not; a) cutting into the bones of meat or poultry b) using the blade as a prying tool and c) washing the knife in a dishwasher. However, there are limitations specific to a ceramic blade - these are listed below.
- A ceramic blade is brittle and cannot bend (this shortcoming is the subject of continuing research).
- If dropped on a hard surface, the knife blade will, in all likelihood, shatter.
- At present, the use of a ceramic knife is limited to slicing. Because the blade does not bend like a steel knife blade, ceramic knives should not be used to carve meat or fish.
- To limit the possibility of breakage, the ceramic blade should only be used on plastic or wood cutting boards and never on stainless steel surfaces.
A ceramic knife would probably crack or break under the following conditions;
- If used to chop or cut hardened food such as frozen meat, fish, etc.
- If used as a scraper on food or cutting boards.
- If it comes in contact with other hard materials such as chinaware, forks, spoons, other knives, etc.
- If put into an open flame.
- Ceramic knife blades cannot be sharpened with a sharpening stone - the knife must be returned to the factory for resharpening.
Will it be improved steels, titanium alloys, carbon fibres, new polyethylenes and plastics, synthetic fibres, composites, ceramics or some combination of these that find their way into the professional kitchens of the future? The tools of the future are going to be exciting and may well make today's tools look like implements of the Stone Age. Canada Cutlery Inc.'s goal is to bring the best of these exciting new tools to you.
Written by Mary Louise Huebner
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