Joe Demko
Member
Please excuse the crappy picture, my wife is in NYC and has our camera; this one was done with my computer's webcam.
What you are looking at is a G. David laguiole. This particular specimen has sheep horn handles, a carbon steel blade, corkscrew, and punch. I purchased it circa 1988 while living in Laredo, TX. There was no world wide web or ordering stuff online in those days, so I'm guessing I probably bought it from a catalog.
I lost track of it in the ensuing years and today it turned up in a box full of random junk that has been moved a couple times and never sorted out. It was still in its original packaging, but_alas_had some fingerprints etched into the blade and was speckled with corrosion. The bolsters were badly tarnished too.
I polished it down pretty good with some Nev-R-Dull, degreased it, and gave it a bath in a mixture of hot coffee and vinegar. The blade took a somewhat mottled patina, the corkscrew a beautifully even one, and the punch paid it no attention.
Next stop was the Spyderco Sharpmaker and the back of a legal pad. It is now screaming sharp. We'll see how it holds an edge in the next few days.
One of the interesting things about this knife is that it is about half way between being a slipjoint and a lockback. The tang of the blade has hump or notch in it that the backspring snaps down into like on a common lockback. There is no unlocking mechanism, though. You just have to carefully overcome spring pressure until the backspring slides out of the notch. The notch is slanted a bit, though, rather than the ninety degree angle a lockback would have.
What you are looking at is a G. David laguiole. This particular specimen has sheep horn handles, a carbon steel blade, corkscrew, and punch. I purchased it circa 1988 while living in Laredo, TX. There was no world wide web or ordering stuff online in those days, so I'm guessing I probably bought it from a catalog.
I lost track of it in the ensuing years and today it turned up in a box full of random junk that has been moved a couple times and never sorted out. It was still in its original packaging, but_alas_had some fingerprints etched into the blade and was speckled with corrosion. The bolsters were badly tarnished too.
I polished it down pretty good with some Nev-R-Dull, degreased it, and gave it a bath in a mixture of hot coffee and vinegar. The blade took a somewhat mottled patina, the corkscrew a beautifully even one, and the punch paid it no attention.
Next stop was the Spyderco Sharpmaker and the back of a legal pad. It is now screaming sharp. We'll see how it holds an edge in the next few days.
One of the interesting things about this knife is that it is about half way between being a slipjoint and a lockback. The tang of the blade has hump or notch in it that the backspring snaps down into like on a common lockback. There is no unlocking mechanism, though. You just have to carefully overcome spring pressure until the backspring slides out of the notch. The notch is slanted a bit, though, rather than the ninety degree angle a lockback would have.
