All About Pocket Knives

A recent local score this week … There’s just something really appealing about the rich color of old stag scales and this was flawless on the mark and pile sides… Blade lightly sharpened and a double swedge that just flows… this blade has lost no length at all as the tip is literally 1/24” from the spring that wraps around… Snaps really well and a lockback… No wobble at all which is somewhat unusual for this Wostenholm pattern from my background reading… all iron liners and bolsters….. To quote Lyle – I GRIN…..

George Wostenholm Sheffield England - English Jack – 4 & 9/16” - Given that England is on the blade it is post-1890 but not much after – after seeing a few other examples (one a pretty dead match) this one is most likely made between 1890 and 1920 but most likely earlier in that time frame based on the same design seen in pre-1890 examples as well… Wostenholm was no doubt a major quality player in Sheffield from the early 1800s until 1971. I believe times started to become abit tough for the company after the Civil War as Bowie sales declined, and continued a downward slide in the years following the depression when I believe quality started to slip as well…
Cheers
Lee

Sweet pick-up Lee, you should be grinning!

Wow!! That's S-L-I-C-K...

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Mike

When I enlarged the pile side, seemed as if I was looking at a painting by one of the Masters.

Thanks Tom, Mike, Roger and Lyle

Now that's I like to see here! A beautiful old knife, and a nice full blade!

Beautiful knife Lee!

Wayne

Yup, I'll have to agree with the others, it is a beauty!

Great Knife

Man What a Nice knife!!!!

Harold

Thanks to all

I've noticed the old English knives like yours had such beautiful stag, different from recent Sambar Stag - I'm guessing they must have used Red Stag from the British Isles. Very nice knife. OH

Beautiful old knife! I have one near identical to it(although the blade isn't quite as full)that just feels great in the hand. Nothing like 100 plus year old stag. New stag doesn't even come close.

Thanks OH and K7Knut ... That Wostenholm sure does look to be almost identical K7Knut... perhaps yours is slightly older with only Sheffield on the tang and your lockback is abit more proud which I read also indicates earlier in Wostenholm production...

Good point about the stag OH... wondered myself what type of stag or what was the source... I think it may be interesting to start a thread on Stag particularly as we have threads on other handle materials in Knife Lore (Ebony, MOP, Ivory etc).... it may be cool to look at multiple knives with stag, and see differences and similarities among the cutleries... in fact based on an estimate of time period and world geographic location perhaps we would see a pattern emerging

What a beautiful knife, Lee. Also nice picture with complimentary background.
I personally think this knife and the Miller Bro. that cato showed on page 5 in your Traditional Hunters
Fifty Years Old thread are two of the nicest knives I've seen on the forum recently.

I have read in a knife forum (grain of salt ?) that the unique Stag on old Sheffield knives came from preserved specimen of extinct "Irish Stag" which was regularly found in British bogs.
In Hampton Court Palace there is the "Great Room" (i think it's called that) that has a full set of Irish (?) Stag antlers and the tip to tip spread is about 30 feet. It was found in a nearby bog about the time of Henry VIII.
Is there a Brit member who can fine tune these names ?
kj

Nice examples Longblade and K7K. This model happens to be one of Wostenholms longest running variations which existed from at least as early as the 1880s, and on up to the 1960s. It also kept the same model number throughout its existence which was 1531. Interestingly towards the end, it was offered with a few different options including carbon or stainless blades, and imitation or genuine stag handles as well as white handles. Enclosed is an early (top) and late model variation for comparison. And yes, the new stag didn't hold a candle to the old stag.

Thanks big M and Roland for the information. To quote GI Joe "knowing is half the battle".

Some great knives have come out of Sheffield and yours is no exception. I am a big fan of stag covers and you are right the more they age the most beautiful they get. Fantastic knife great find I would be tempted to make that a safe queen. Congrats on scoring such a beautiful knife that is also a part of cutlery history.

Thanks again Joe, Kj, Mason and r redden

Mason - Thanks for posting those 2 great examples the same pattern but made years apart... no doubt a long standing pattern by Wostenholm . .. looking at them side by side it is easy to see the changes as time went by... in addition to the stag I think the back spring bar for the lockback no doubt looks to be abit more proud on the older one as I alluded to above... just as I had read...

KJ - would love to know more about the "bog" or "Irish" stag and thanks for bringing it up...

I tried to google up a picture or article on this huge stag rack mounted high up a long wall in this Great Room, but came up blank. My google-foo is weak. But i know this rack exists. I saw it in 1989.
kj

Lee, what a nice old knife! I love stag, especially 100+ year old stag, it don't get any better than that. I make a lot of knives with stag and it is getting really hard to find quality stag. Great find! thanks for showing it. Terry

Thanks terryl308 .... I have to agree - there's nothing like old stag

KJ - is this the stag photo you were looking for from the Great Room of Hampton Court Palace:
Also here is a link to wikipedia on Irish Elk (I'm not a big fan of wikipedia but sometimes it is good for info) - anyway huge beasts indeed and I imagine those racks can make handle scales for a good number of knives!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_elk

LB, thanks. That is the palace & room i was remembering. There are quite a few stag racks as they are on all 4 walls of this huge room. Some are from modern day Red Deer i think hunted by King Henry VIII and other much bigger racks are the bog found Irish Elk.
I'm not sure if the rack in this picture is the giant one. I think not as i do recall the span was so far out of proportion to the rest of the rack. Either way the rack pictured has been there for about 500 years !! and you can make out the surface texture enough to see it being used for knife handles during Sheffield Golden Age. (not this specific rack, many of these racks were found in the bogs)
LB has gooder google-foo. thanks again LB
kj

I just thought about this again: the Irish Elk went extinct some time ago but were still present after extinction of Mammoths. But still the racks found in bogs had been there 1000's of years, preserved by the unique environment of a bog. It is analogous to Mammoth ivory which has been preserved in ice for thousands of years.
If this is what some of the vintage Sheffield Stag handles are derived from, then they are a very special subset of Stag.
A DNA analysis could prove or disprove this.
There's a PhD thesis here; anyone ? younger preferred.
kj