Antique Food Chopper

Late 19th century or early 20th century food chopper. A thinner blade than the older hand forged choppers, these choppers work well as slicers as well as chopping.

We purchased a food chopper collection from an antique collector who had many wonderful objects, some of which will appear later. You may hang them on the wall as I did my collection in the 1970s but these are ready to USE if you choose to do so. We have thoroughly cleaned them, oiled the wood (do not varnish or polyurethane the handle for the same reason you never varnish a canoe paddle handle) and sharpened the steel. Food choppers should have a more obtuse angle than knives because a traditional 22 degree knife angle will soon be damaged when using a chopper.

“Cast Steel” or “Warranted cast steel;” blades are not cast the way cast iron is. It’s rather a two step process of melting previously made steel into a mold and then forging the steel. The cast steel process was developed over decades in 17th century Britain and allowed for much improved quality control of the final product. Until then the quality of steel varied greatly. “Cast steel” is stamped on many antique tools to indicate a higher quality product. “Crucible steel” is used sometimes instead of “cast steel” but they’re two names for the same process.