Sorry the thread on the mohel knife was closed......

yitz

yitz

Joined
Mar 5, 2000
Messages
435
I'm sorry the thread on the mohel knife by Mr. Tichbourne was closed. Specialty knives with ritual uses are an area of interest for me. I have a mohel's knife made in the late 1700s with an agate handle, sculpted golden snakes with diamond eyes. I also have folding "challah" (Sabbath bread) knives, and animal slaughtering knives. At every custom knife show in the NY area, there are always a group of Hasidic men who are interested and knowledgeable in developments in new steels and other knife related issues. In circumcision and slaughtering, the knives have to be very sharp and hold an edge well without developing any nicks. By the way, the reason Jews circumsize their male children is because G-d told us to. It represents our covenant with him.
I would love to hear about others of you out there who collect blades with ritual uses.:)
 
Hiya Yitz. You could just use that Fowler bowie from your picture in Blade magazine for circumcision,no? :)
Could you imagine having to put mohel down on a resume for a new job? I can see the prospective employer cringing :eek:
It would be fun to have business cards made up though.
Dave-Mohel. Fancy trimmings a specialty. Try our second cut, it's the nuts! :D
(sorry, couldn't resist)
 
I have a business card in my file that reads "Have bris-will travel", a take off of the old Palladin television show "Have gun will travel"
Who says that mohels have no sense of humour.
 
(Sung to the tune of Have Gun, Will Travel)

...Mohel-man, Mohel-man, where do your roam?
A Knight snipping foreskins in a savage land...

(You can tell I watched too much TV as a kid. ;))


Blues
 
Yits -- I'm glad you posted this. I've always wondered what sort of knives were used by rabbis, or whomever, who kill the beasts in kosher slaughterhouses. I do know that they are expected to be extremely sharp so that the animal feels little/less pain, and the bleeding out happens very quickly. Do they have special forms like the mohel/bris knife. (I may be mixing up terms here.)

Also on your antique bris knife, it sounds beautiful. I'm curious as to the quality of the steel or whatever metal is used for the blade. Could it be made as sharp as today's steels?

Thanks in advance,

Edit: Re-read your thread. Guess the person who performs the bris is the mohel? Knew I was confused about something. If the mohel performs bris ceremonies, what is the person who kills the kosher beasts called? I thought it had to be a rabbi, but maybe not.
 
Yitz- any chance you could show us a picture of the knife you described? It ain't fair to us knife knuts to tease us and not show a pic!:D
 
Hi guys, the rabbi who does ritual slaughter is called a sochet in Yiddish and the knife is called a chalif. Here is one for killing chickens, 1/16" blade thickness full taper grind from spine to edge, blade size 1 1/4" X5" ATS 34 RC 56.
View
 
:) Thanks for all of your responses. It's great to see people reaching out and meeting the needs of special needs groups (great work, George!). The guy who slaughters animals is called a "shochet" and doesn't have to be a rabbi. He just needs to be specially trained in the laws and techniques of ritual slaughter.
I'd love to be able to show you a picture of the mohel's knife (and my other blades as well) but am not technologically advanced enough to do it. I'm hoping to get the necessary equipment and software set up soon.
 
Yitz,
If you would like to email them to me, I would be glad to post them.
GusK
 
Thanks Gus, but if I could email them, I could post them. The problem is getting them from the pictures in my album, onto the computer;).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top