[Sca-cooks] pantler knife/chaffer knife

[Huette von Ahrens]

Hi!

On my kingdom's e-mail list, a discussion of
unusual knives came up and one of our knife 
smiths wanted to make item # 25 knives on the
following site:

http://sjaqua.tripod.com/scan000013.gif

They are listed as being "Three knives of the 
Panter - chaffer, parer and trencher knives".

Now I know that a panter is a varient of pantler.
And a pantler is the officer of a household in
charge of bread.  The parer and trencher knives,
to me, are self-evident.  That we are stuck on
is the chaffer knife and what it is supposed to
do.

I have looked up chaffer in both the OED and
Websters, but I come up with only definitions
dealing with removing chaff, a person who uses
a chafing dish, and English slang meaning to
chatter, bargain, or trade.  None seem to be
related to bread or panters.  

I have Yahood and Googled chaffer and pantler
and knife in various combinations, but have
only come up with one website which used
chaffer and knife in a mediaval context and it
apparently references "Fabulous Feasts".  After
twitching a lot, I actually got up and looked
for my copy, but haven't been able to find it.
I am sure it is somewhere, but having not looked
at it in 20+ years, I am not sure where it is
anymore.

So, does anyone know what a chaffer knife is and
does?  Do you have citations where I can look
at for chaffer knives?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Huette

PS: This has nothing to do with Adamantius' pants.

=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.


		
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