Autumn cutlery 2

The second item was the long running search for knives with short blades, suitable for jobs such as opening up oranges. Despite asking in quite a lot of shops, some fancy, some not so fancy, the best we had been able to do was a vegetable knife made for Kitchen Devils, probably code 602000 at reference 1, which serves well enough but hardly graces the table.

So we were pleased to come across the knives illustrated in the Conran shop in what used to be a tyre wholesaler - back in the days when cars were all the thing and Proust used to spend vast amounts of money on them. Described as oyster knives, the blades were very sturdily made from blanks tapering in two dimensions (three too much to hope for these days) and the finished knives seemed very reasonable at £5 a pop - maybe double what we paid for the devils in the Isle of Wight.

The blades say INOX on them, apparently kitchen speak for stainless steel, so not much help, but they do look rather like the knife decorating the oyster plate at reference 2 - although the knives actually sold there look to have long blades.

Very nicely wrapped in blue tissue paper to avoid being taken in for possession of an offensive weapon, with the nice young lady throwing in a smart Conran carrier bag for good measure. Something to be flaunted next time we visit Epsom market.

We will see how the wooden handles stand up to washing up liquid. The rivets look solid & sound enough, but I dare say the liquid will get in.

PS: this snap and others were caught up in the Windows 10 reorganisation of its photography department, one effect of which has been an overhaul of the way that my telephone talks to my personal computer. I dare say there is lots of fine new functionality, reflecting our collective obsession with trying to capture the visual present as it flashes by, but it is not the same as it was and I have new tricks to learn, with the help of neither manual nor training course. All a bit hard on the older brain, with its only not-so-many quality minutes left to the day.

Reference 1: http://kitchendevils.net/lifestyle/.

Reference 2: http://www.faloyster.co.uk/.