Large Knife found while cleaning out grandpa's garage

[harryk387]

Found this knife while cleaning out my grandpa's garage a couple days ago. Anyone have any ideas what type of knife it is? Also if I took it to a knife place would they be able to determine what type of steel it is?

I cleaned it up with 60 grit sand paper first, then 320 grit. Sharpened it on the 320 grit. Stained the handle with some wood stain. Still need to sharpen the blade a little more, its not hair shaving sharp yet, but sharp enough to slice through paper without effort.

On to the pics;

Before:


After:

 

[roughedges]

You'd most likely have to bring it to a metallurgist to find out what type of steel it is specifically. I'd say it is almost certainly some sort of medium-high carbon steel. Reminiscent of an Old Hickory, but I doubt it is. Cool find!

And welcome to Bladeforums.

 

[Sharpnessis]

Looks like old hickory but they only have two rivets for the handles. Maybe tramontina?

 

[harryk387]

Thanks for the welcome! The Old Hickory is one of the first knives that came up during my google search looking for what this could possibly be.

 

[Cutty73]

Definitely high carbon steel, probably a butcher knife. I have an old one similar to yours passed down through the family that was used for everything from killing chickens to yard work to work in the kitchen over the years. It resides in my kitchen now and is used for heavy slicing and the like.

 

[Mack]

I'd be betting on Foster Bros. They made a ton of them and their steel was really good in my opinion. Probably 1095 or something really similar.
The handles certainly look right.