CUTLERY

( Coutellerie , Fr.; Me erschmidwaare , Germ.) Three kinds of steel are made use of in the manufacture of different articles of cutlery, viz. common steel, shear steel, and cast steel. Shear steel is exceedingly plastic and tough. All the edge tools which require great tenacity without great hardne are made of it, such as table knives, scythes, plane-irons, . Cast steel is formed by melting blistered steel in covered crucibles, with bottle gla , and pouring it into cast-iron moulds, so as to form it into ingots: these ingots are then taken to the tilt, and drawn into rods of suitable dimensions. No other than cast steel can a ume a very fine polish, and hence all the finer articles of cutlery are made of it, such as the best sci ors, penknives, razors, . Formerly cast steel could be worked only at a very low heat; it can now be made so as to be welded to iron with the greatest ease. Its use is consequently extended to making very superior kinds of chisels, plane-irons, .