Stag Horn Hand Forged Steel Laguiole Steak Knife Handmade Pocket Knives French Knife Steak Knife USA Made | BMK-614

Description

Pale bone-cream horn blotched with dark bark, a slim polished blade, and the upswept tail of the classic pattern.

Bought for: steak, specifically. This is the folder people order when they have decided their table deserves better than a serrated block knife, and it is the one we photograph beside a ribeye because that is what it does. Ten inches from end to end, 4.5 of those an edge, all of it under four ounces.

Cutting a rested steak

A good steak is rested so the juices redistribute, and a bad knife undoes that in one stroke. Serrations puncture and drag, breaking the cut face open along a line of small tears, and the plate fills. A plain edge this thin severs cleanly, so the slice comes away with a smooth face and holds what is in it. You will also find you stop pressing. Let the weight and the edge do it and the meat parts under the blade rather than under your arm.

The handle

Natural horn, pale as old bone across most of the scale with irregular dark patches where the weathered outer surface has been left in place. It is a hard, slightly porous material with a faint texture you can feel with a thumbnail, and that texture is what keeps the knife in your hand once there is butter on your fingers. It ages: the pale areas warm toward ivory over a decade of use and the polished areas under your fingertips take on a low shine. The dark patches are the hardest part of the material and the pale ground is fractionally softer, so with enough years the surface develops a very shallow relief you can feel with a fingertip before you can see it.

The spring, and the bee at its end

One flat spring runs under the spine and does everything. It holds the blade firmly open, it pulls it firmly closed, and its rear end is forged into the small bee that identifies the pattern. There is no lock and none is needed for table work. Close it with your fingers behind the spine, out of the path of the edge.

Care: towel the blade off at the end of every meal, and dry the horn by hand instead of letting it air. Do not soak it and do not put it in a dishwasher — heat and detergent are the two things natural horn will not survive. A drop of oil in the joint twice a year is plenty. Put it away shut and dry.

FAQs

Does the handle vary? Yes, considerably. Every piece of natural horn is patterned differently.

Does it fold? Yes, it is a folding slip joint, not a fixed blade.

Is a sheath supplied? Yes, stitched by hand in leather.

Read our blade shapes guide, keep it running with the right knife oil, or browse knife gifts if you are buying for someone else.

Model: BMK-614