BBC 4 French Bread Knife
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BBC 4 French Bread Knife
Last Monday BBC 4 repeated a programme about a Frenchman who, at the end of the First World War, filmed the trenches from an airship. It wasn’t pleasant viewing.
However, near the end, the presenter Fergal Keane interviewed a woman who’d lost virtually everything from her home apart from a wall clock and a French Bread Knife.
For those of you with access to iPlayer it was from about 48 minutes onward, for others I’ll try to describe it. The blade was shaped like a scythe, one part of the handle was held in the hand, but the rest extended up the arm and finished with a curved piece that fitted around the upper arm.
I can well imagine it being used for cutting grass, but does anyone know what type of bread it was used for? Or indeed, is it a bread knife? I’d love to know.
However, near the end, the presenter Fergal Keane interviewed a woman who’d lost virtually everything from her home apart from a wall clock and a French Bread Knife.
For those of you with access to iPlayer it was from about 48 minutes onward, for others I’ll try to describe it. The blade was shaped like a scythe, one part of the handle was held in the hand, but the rest extended up the arm and finished with a curved piece that fitted around the upper arm.
I can well imagine it being used for cutting grass, but does anyone know what type of bread it was used for? Or indeed, is it a bread knife? I’d love to know.
Re: BBC 4 French Bread Knife
I reckon the knife was just for slicing bread. It looks to be made from cast iron (or other heavy metal) as a lot of gadgets and choppers were, so it would be hard to balance that length of blade with an ordinary handle whereas the forearm support iron and loop would facilitate a straight forearm & wrist for even sawing motions, and without getting wrist-ache if using it a lot. As the lady said her father owned a bakery, it's perhaps more a baker's knife?
Such arm supports appear on (or can be bought for) some modern gadgets incidentally. Some breadknives have an upstanding handle like this one: http://liveimageserver.dlf.org.uk/mee// ... 106207.jpg which probably achieves a similar objective.
It reminds me of Mary Berry commenting on the baker Paul Hollywood's biceps when kneading dough and asking if it could be made in a machine.
Such arm supports appear on (or can be bought for) some modern gadgets incidentally. Some breadknives have an upstanding handle like this one: http://liveimageserver.dlf.org.uk/mee// ... 106207.jpg which probably achieves a similar objective.
It reminds me of Mary Berry commenting on the baker Paul Hollywood's biceps when kneading dough and asking if it could be made in a machine.
Re: BBC 4 French Bread Knife
Thanks jeral, that all makes sense, I suppose we forget that when things were made of cast iron they wouldn't be light weight.
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Re: BBC 4 French Bread Knife
Like this?
On French eBay as a bread knife
http://cgi.ebay.fr/ANCIEN-COUTEAU-A-PAIN-ANCIEN-objet-dart-populaire-Cuisine-dantan-/270949897537
Most French bread of the baguettte/batarde shape is lsiced using something like the "guillotine" used for slicing paper when we were at school, and I suspect this might mimic the action when used on a sturdy board?
On French eBay as a bread knife
http://cgi.ebay.fr/ANCIEN-COUTEAU-A-PAIN-ANCIEN-objet-dart-populaire-Cuisine-dantan-/270949897537
Most French bread of the baguettte/batarde shape is lsiced using something like the "guillotine" used for slicing paper when we were at school, and I suspect this might mimic the action when used on a sturdy board?
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