Knife-handles are made of horn, ivory, ebony, silver, German silver, mother of pearl, &c. Two sorts of ivory are principally used, the Egyptian and the African; the latter is the more beautiful and transparent of the two, the Egyptian looking more like horn. The tusks are sawn in appropriate lengths, which are then cut by a small circular saw into handles of the required size. The handles are properly filed, and occasionally also carved or fluted in different patterns. A variety of files are used for these purposes, such as flat files, threading files, hollow files, half round files, &c. The handle is then bored to receive the tang. The bolster of the blade having been properly filed, the tang is inserted into the bore, and fixed in by cement in the usual way. It is afterwards farther secured by a German silver pin passing through the handle and tang. The silver and German silver handles are stamped in dies. The mother of pearl handles are carved or fluted in different patterns. [Illustration: Fire-irons. Crooked Tongs. Tongs. Dies.] The knives thus finished by the hafter are now taken once more to the manager, to undergo a final examination preparatory to their removal to the warehouse. The forging of razors is performed by a foreman and striker in the same manner as in making the blades of table-knives. The bars or rods as they come from the tilt and rolling mill are about half an inch broad, and no thicker than is sufficient for the back of the razor. The anvil on which the razor-blades are forged is rounded at the sides; by dexterously working the blade on the rounded edge of the anvil, a concave surface is given to the sides, and the edge part thus made thinner, which saves the grinder a deal of labour. The blade having been cut off the bar, the tang is formed by drawing out the steel. The blade is then properly hardened and tempered. The last and most important process which the razor-blade has to undergo is that of grinding. The difference in the prices of blades, make all of them of the same material, is owing entirely to the circumstance that stones of much smaller diameter are used for grinding the higher priced blades, and much more time and labour are given to the operation than is the case with the cheaper sorts. In making a fork, the end of a steel bar is first made red-hot; it is hammered so as to give a rough approximation to the shape of the shank or tang; it is again heated, and a blow from a die or stamp gives the proper contour; the prongs are cut out by a powerful blow from a stamp of peculiar form, and the fork is finally annealed, hardened, ground, and polished. It is this process of fork grinding which has so often been made a subject for comment; the fork is ground _dry_ upon a stone wheel, and the particles of steel and grit are constantly entering the lungs of the workmen, thereby ruining the health and shortening the duration of life.