Cretan Traditional knife

[Carlos Lara]

Recently I ordered a Cretan polishing stone from this site:

 

www.cretanknives.gr (The server isn't working for me at the moment)

 

They say it's an oil stone, but I've been using it with water and it has been working well! You do need another stone to make the slurry for it though. Anyway, when I bought the stone, I also decided to get a Cretan traditional knife. It's got several interesting features I didn't expect, so I'd thought I'd share. One is that the knife is held in the metal scabbard by friction fit on the blade. There's a plate top and bottom inside the scabbard seams the knife holds onto. The scabbard doesn't feel like steel, so I'm guessing it's probably tin or some kind of similar soft alloy. Aside from the blade, all the fittings are the same soft alloy, and look cast. Still, even if the metal on the scabbard is soft, I'm wondering if such a scabbard wouldn't dull the knife over time? I wanted to get the traditional bone handle, but they wouldn't ship it out of Greece! So I got the plastic alternative. For such a strange handle, it's actually pretty comfortable to hold. The only problem is I feel like the knife is pointing in the wrong direction! I would have preferred it to be in line with the handle, but maybe I'm holding it wrong? On the blade is engraved a picture of Crete and a number of words in Greek. Attached to the scabbard are two copies of what looks like a coin, dated to 1900. They sharpened the blade with a double bevel, not sure why they would have done that? Anyway, it's an interesting piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alan Longmire]

As long as the sheath holds the edge away from the metal it's not a big deal, but I have a Tibetan one with a similar sheath in which they lined it with a bit of wood veneer.  Given that yours is a decorative piece I wouldn't worry about it.