cutlery

cutlery, cutting implements, such as knives, razors, and scissors, used for industrial, commercial, and domestic purposes.

History

Prehistoric implements used for cutting, hunting, and defense were fashioned from stone, especially flint; from obsidian, a volcanic glass; and from bones and shells. Cutting edges were formed by rubbing the implement in the hollow of a stone, a method still employed by aborigines of central Brazil, Australia, and New Guinea. By 1500 bce bronze cutting implements were being used from the British Isles to China. Scissors with blades connected by a C-shaped spring at the handle end also originated at about this time. As various metals became known, the art of forging blades developed in China, India, and Europe. Pivoted scissors of bronze or iron, connected by a rivet or screw between the handles and blades, were known in ancient Rome and in China, Japan, and Korea.

The Egyptians fashioned cutting implements from flints chipped to form serrated edges and then glued into slots in wood that had been appropriately shaped for the intended purpose. Knives served mainly for hunting and as weapons, but the wealthy used small ornamental eating knives. The Greeks produced bronze knives, and the Romans spread blade-making techniques throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. As in Egypt, small ornamental eating knives were used by the wealthy. Steel-bladed eating knives dating from the Roman period have been found in Italy and Britain.

As knowledge of techniques spread, cutlery production was established in areas able to offer plentiful timber to heat furnaces and provide charcoal, in addition to soft water for the hardening and tempering of steel. Medieval grindstones were sometimes hand-operated, but animal or water power was frequently employed to revolve treadmills or wheels. From about 1200 cutlery manufacture began to settle in London and Sheffield in England; in Thiers and Paris in France; in Solingen, Germany; and in many other places where craft guilds were founded. Craftsmen produced elaborately ornamented blades and fashioned handles of such fine materials as gold, silver, ivory, ebony, agate, amber, and marble.

Table cutlery was not provided by innkeepers, and the affluent possessed elegant travelling sets. Others used plain knives with handles of bone or wood and crude molded forks and spoons made by tinkers from an alloy of lead and antimony. In the homes of the wealthy it became usual to provide knives for guests, though most men still carried their own. Serving knives made in pairs, sometimes called présentoirs, were used only for passing food. Sets known as “wedding knives,” consisting of a pair of knives in a sheath, were common gifts from bridegrooms to their brides. Table knives of the 18th century frequently had pistol-shaped handles and curved blades like those of scimitars.

By the 18th century Sheffield, England, had become an international centre of the industry. In the early 1700s Sheffield cutlers and silversmiths were making knives with hollow silver handles that were stamped in two halves, soldered together, and filled with pitch into which the tang, the projecting portion of the knife blade, was inserted. Large-scale production of pivoted scissors and shears began in 1761, when Robert Hinchliffe of Sheffield first used crucible cast steel for their manufacture. By the 19th century scissors with elaborately designed hand-filed and polished bows and shanks were made in Europe.

Steel razors were made with ornamental handles, and blades were individually hollow-ground, producing a concave surface behind the cutting edge. In 1880 a hoe-shaped safety razor, with a guard along one edge, was manufactured in the United States, and early in the 20th century King C. Gillette began to manufacture a model with double-edged replaceable blades.

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Cutlery manufacture

Cutlery steel consists of iron to which from 0.35 to 1 percent carbon has been added. Early methods involved hammering charcoal into red-hot iron bars. In the 18th century Benjamin Huntsman built new types of furnaces in Sheffield for making highly refined steel in clay vessels called crucibles. His process greatly increased both the availability and quality of steel during the first part of the Industrial Revolution.

In the 20th century much cutlery is manufactured from stainless steel. Martensitic stainless steels, widely used for both table knives and trade knives, contain from 12 to 18 percent chromium, imparting corrosion resistance, and from 0.12 to 1 percent carbon, permitting a great degree of hardening by heat treatment. Edge retention increases with higher carbon content; corrosion resistance is increased by higher chromium content but reduced with additional carbon. By 1928 the manufacture of carbon-steel blades was limited to commercial knives and some carving, hunting, and pocket knives.

The many kinds of cutlery all have distinctive uses, the blade being the major determining factor. Retention of sharpness depends on the type of steel employed and the skill with which it is processed. Cost is determined by the quality of the blade steel, workmanship, material used for the handle, and ornamentation.

Processes in the production of table cutlery include: (1) forging the steel into the desired blade shape; (2) hardening and tempering it correctly; (3) grinding the blade to a cutting edge and removing all traces of forging and heat treatment; (4) polishing the blade; and (5) making, fitting, and polishing the handle, a process known as cutling.

High-quality knife blades are forged by mechanical hammers from bars of steel. After heating, a bar is placed between forging dies that rapidly hammer out the rough blade shape desired. The final blade shape is obtained by trimming the forgings. Some knives are made as complete forgings of blade and handle by one stroke of a large drop-forging hammer; others are cut from sheet steel so that a short flat tang without a forged bolster (the part of the knife blade that abuts upon the handle) is left. After forging, the blades are hardened by heating and then quenching in a cooling liquid or between metal plates cooled by an internally circulating liquid. The blades are then tempered by reheating to the correct temperature to give them flexibility and toughness.

Grinding consists of applying the blades to the rapidly revolving periphery of an abrasive wheel, removing the steel until the desired tapers from the back to the cutting edge and from bolster to point are attained. The blades are kept cool with water or a “cutting fluid” to maintain their temper.

After either machine or hand grinding, the surface of a blade is given a finer finish in successive operations known as glazing and buffing, followed, if desired, by mirror polishing, or “satin” finishing. The bolsters are also ground, glazed, and polished to fit the desired handle. The maker’s name is then applied by acid or electricarc etching.

Natural materials used for handles include animal horns and tusks, various woods, mother-of-pearl, and bone; manufactured handles range from gold, silver, and porcelain to stainless steel, silver plate, nickel alloys, compressed wood, and plastics. Some of these materials are processed mechanically and others by the cutler. Cellulose adhesives, cements, or resin mixtures are used to fix the tangs securely in the handles, except for hollow metal handles, which are secured by hard soldering or welding.

Blanks (unfinished pieces) for scissors are made by high-speed forging of red-hot steel bars between the dies of drop hammers. For ordinary scissors, steel containing 0.55 percent carbon is mainly used; for the finest scissors and shears for trade use, such as tailors’ shears and trimmers, a harder steel containing 0.75 percent carbon is preferred. For cutting man-made fibres, harder and more blunting than natural fibres, the blades of tailors’ shears are sometimes made of a composite material consisting of an even harder steel on the cutting side (1.03 percent carbon), backed by tough iron. Many scissors, including surgical varieties, are made of stainless steel, and some specialized scissors and shears are made of nonferrous alloys that will not produce a spark or interfere with magnetism (e.g., for cutting cordite and magnetic tape). Low-cost scissors are made from relatively soft steel wire that is pressed cold and is not hardened.

If scissors are to cut well, the blades must touch in two places only—at the joint and at a single spot along the blades wherever the cutting takes place. The blades are made to twist or curve toward one another, and, when completely closed, their points should touch. Both blades must be accurately tempered to equal hardness. In the finest scissors and shears, the two blanks and the screw, as well as the nut in large shears, are coded with an identification mark early in manufacturing to ensure that the pieces are treated as a set.