I often find that I have to explain the significance of why Canal Street's open stock knives are "Polished Mark Side" (mirror finished on one side of the blade only) ~ we posted that explanation at the following link of this web site http://droppointhunter.com/node/248.

Look at one of Canal Street's open stock knives (open stock knives either have chestnut wood, amber stag bone, jig bone, or sunset smooth bone handles). These knives have two different finishes. They are mirror finished on the Mark side (side with the Canal Street tang stamp on the blade), and satin finished on the back side (known as the Pile side of the knife). There are several reasons why Canal Street does this. Canal Street makes heirloom knives the old fashioned way, but with some material upgrades. It is a historical reference to they way knives used to be finished when they were only made by hand. You can only get two different finishes on a blade when you do it by hand. Production houses generally place their blades en mass in a vibratory bowl with polishing stones to finish them. When they are finished this way the finish has to be the same on both sides. So a Polished Mark side blade is proof to you that your Canal Street Knife was made by a real cutler sitting at a bench. This is the kind of attention to detail that makes a Canal Street knife so special and satisfying to own. Find a nice handle style to go with their fine heirloom quality workmanship and you have yourself a great knife!