[Sca-cooks] pantler knife/chaffer knife

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Huette von Ahrens:
>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?

I wonder if, given that A) the knife resembles some of the 
general-purpose huntsman/serving knives on display in places like the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and B) potential resemblance to the 
French verb "chasser" and the noun "chasseur", that this is a 
general-purpose hunter/groom-type knife, and I'd bet money you'll see 
one very like it in the Unicorn Tapestry, or possibly the Bayeux.

Another possibility is that the little spikey end is for handling hot 
items. But I'd call that one a bit of a stretch.

Phlip, this knife should look familiar to you, especially...

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

This is a common misapprehension held by the unenlightened. Many 
things which, at first, superficial glance, appear to have nothing at 
all to do with my pants, actually have a great deal to do with them. 
Edward Norten Lorenz first described this phenomenon in 1963 when he 
said that the pants of a Laurel in New York could eventually bring 
about a tidal wave in China. This phenomenon is commonly known as The 
Pants Effect.

Adamantius, amazed at the what, 36+ hours of pants-related posts?
-- 






"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If they have no bread, you have to say, let them eat 
brioche."
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", pub 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04