melon knives

P

PB Wilson

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Jul 17, 2006
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I was thinking about the knives I've owned and recalled finding a melon knife (I think that's what it's called) under a desk in the back of a classroom in high school. It's one of those long, slender, single bladed knives with a yellowish celluloid handle. It's probbly at my parent's house with tons of stuff I accumulated through my earlier years.

The problem with the knife I found was that the tip is slightly dented and the blade has a curve along the length so that it touches the liner if you snap it closed. I think a student jammed it into something immoveable and left the damage. Do you think it could be bent back or will it probably snap if I put it in a vise and do some gentle pulling?

Anyway, I'll see if I can find it after so many years. In the meantime does anyone have any in their collections to show off?
 
Melon Tester is I believe the correct pattern term but you were close enough. :) I have none of these patterns in my small accumulation but I do think they are a useful pattern with a bit of history to them which is always cool. As far as the damage, its hard to say.. I might tinker with it myself, after I got an accurate appraisal on how old it was and what its origin is first, just in case.
 
I think there's room for a some great wordplay here:

"New from GEC - the Tidioute Melon Tester!"

:D
 
I have several including stag, celluloid and micarta? handled one and two blade second blade being plain or serrated. You can find them by doing an epray search for melon knife. I'll try to find my daughters camera and get a picture.

Most of the melon knives were made of some type of generic stainless and won't hold an edge for a darn but the curve can probably be fixed, the tip is another matter I would imagine that it would probably break off if you tried to bend it back.
 
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Also known as as SAUSAGE TESTERS:eek:
I have a Schrade 105
I only need one sausage tester!!!:cool:
 
I have a cheap all-stainless one with a small fork opposite the blade. I think I got it free as a promo from Knifecenter.
 
I have two. The older one is from Hoffritz, made in Italy, with the long spearpoint blade, a long serrated sheepsfoot bread blade, and a short two-tined fork. Generic stainless.

The other is A.G.Russell's, airweight Micarta construction, one 6" long spey blade in ATS-34. GREAT picnic knife. :)
 
Well I found the melon tester I had as a teenager at my parent's house. It's a Romo from Japan in stainless steel. I was able to get some of the bend out of the blade by gentle prying in a vise. The tip wasn't as bad as I remembered but the knife could stand to be sharpened a bit. It's not something to carry as it's about 5 1/2" long when closed. Maybe I'll take it for a spin this summer when local melons are ripe.

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A lot of them are about 4 inches closed. The 4 inch ones are my favorite size to carry around.
 
a lot of these were advertising type give-a-ways i think. i've bot some of hem at flea mkts. and gave them to family members to use as letter opener/desk knives. :)
 
Interesting looking knives, kind of like a Doctor's knife on an Acid trip....

Actually, a Doctor's knife would make a fairly good melon or cheese tester as well.
 
I have the same stainless one with the fork on the other end. My son had deemed it the official pumpkin carving knife. I have a couple of melon testers which get used every halloween.
 
I gave my father a Schrade stainless melon tester last year. Nice little knife, definitely not for pocket carry ;).
 
kamkazmoto said:
The long slim blade is used for cutting a plug in a melon. This is done by making a triangular inverted pyramid cut and removing it for tasting.
Click to expand...

The reason they plug watermelons is to see if they are ripe.. I guess you could taste it if you wanted to, but they usually just put the plug back..

Plugging melons is for armatures,:D you can tell if they are ripe by thumping them and knowing the right sound produced by the thump..;)
 
How does one use a melon tester?

You use it to cut sausage :)

But then only when your melon tester is called a sausage knife. Same pattern. I've seen them with advertisements for sausage companies on the scales, but never with an advertisement for melons. However more people call them melon testers than sausage knives. Which came first the sausage or the melon? :)
 
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