Is This A Head Knife ?

[ade]

My Father gave me his round bladed knife a few years ago,is it a head knife?.

He must have owned it at least 50 years,and it was old when he got it.

It's stamped R Timinson&son cast steel on he blade,Ive done a search on the net but found little.

R Timinson&son were based in Birmingham England,and made tools from the 18th and 19th century.

Thanks

Ade

[Sylvia]

My Father gave me his round bladed knife a few years ago,is it a head knife?.

He must have owned it at least 50 years,and it was old when he got it.

It's stamped R Timinson&son cast steel on he blade,Ive done a search on the net but found little.

R Timinson&son were based in Birmingham England,and made tools from the 18th and 19th century.

Thanks

Ade

Looks like an Ulu to me. But I tend to believe that head knives were based on the Ulu.

http://www.icollector.com/images/174/2671/2671_0270_1_md.jpg

[BearMan]

Hi, That's an old Cabbage chopper. It was used to chop all kinds of veggie. If you notive the stem between the blade & the handle is very slim, & just wouldn't be strong enough to be used on leather,,, plus the geometry wouldn't work very well. But,,, on a good note, you could probably sell it on ebay, for enough to buy a nice head knife.

Ed

[KAYAK45]

Yeh, I got one of those. Not a good head knife, great veggy cutters! Use all the time for onions. Could use it as a head knife if that's all you have.

Looks good on the collection, right next to the ULU.

Kevin

[Tannin]

Saw a knife like that yesterday, perhaps a little smaller: maybe 4-5" across, at the new Heritage Centre in Pewsey, Wiltshire (England). They call it a leather worker's knife. Semi-circular knives, sometimes called "Mezzalunas" (half-moons), were sometimes used in kitchens with hollowed cutting board, for cutting/chopping herbs I think.

There was a big, vintage, 6" head knife by English maker Gilpin or Whitehouse on ebay recently - but with the handle was at 90 degrees to that of a normal head knife, the seller wasn't sure it it was for leather or the kitchen - we suspect the latter.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Tannin

[WyomingSlick]

Looks like an Ulu to me. But I tend to believe that head knives were based on the Ulu.

http://www.icollector.com/images/174/2671/2671_0270_1_md.jpg

Just because things show a similar appearance does not mean that they share a common origin. I would suspect that the shape of the ULU used by the Eskimos, and other native peoples, is derived from the shape of the sea shells originally used by those people as tools for cutting, chopping, skinning, scraping, etc.. and has little relationship to the standard head knife as used by leatherworkers for quite some time now.

I would think that head knives are descended from pikes, war axes. and other such halfmoon shaped implements and probably date back to Roman Times

[Tannin]

...

I would think that head knives are descended from pikes, war axes. and other such halfmoon shaped implements and probably date back to Roman Times

I came across this post which I thought you might find of interest: http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33543

Edited August 15, 2014 by Tannin

[unicornleather]

It's not a double head knife or a round knife, I'm with bear man the cutting angle would be all wrong for leatherwork. My photo (avatar) is a round knife, it's an entirely different handle than the one you have, Oz

(English Saddler)