L.F. & C USA Pen knife

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espn77
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L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by espn77 »

I picked this up and know you guys know something about it. I do not. Looks to have silver handles? Pretty heavy little knife. Thanks in advance Keith
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Miller Bro's
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by Miller Bro's »

espn77 wrote:Looks to have silver handles?
Hard to say from the pictures usually they were marked if they were sterling it could be plated.

Nice looking little knife and in great condition ::tu::
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msteele6
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by msteele6 »

I have several of these metal handled knives from L.F.& C. and I believe that the handles are nickel silver not real silver. They actually made some as advertising knives for Travelers Insurance using a design from Meriden Cutlery, a company which L.F.& C. had purchased.

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espn77
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by espn77 »

So would you say they made this knife for "universal" whatever that is?
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btrwtr
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by btrwtr »

Universal was a trademark for LF&C and a standard etch on many of their knives.
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by knife7knut »

espn77 wrote:So would you say they made this knife for "universal" whatever that is?
Universal was a trade mark that Landers,Frary,&Clark used on all of their products. Sort of like the I*XL trade mark that George Wostenholm used.
The handles on the ones I have are steel rather than nickel silver. I have two different sizes as shown in the picture.
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espn77
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by espn77 »

Thanks guys for the info. Are they still in business?
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by msteele6 »

If I recall, L.F.& C. went out of business in 1950, bought out by General Electric.
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by SolWarrior »

Yep. Landers, Frary & Clark were in business from 1912 to 1950. They made lots of other stuff like kitchen appliances, etc. Their pocket knife production started when they opened but I believe it stopped years earlier then closed completely in 1950.
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by tongueriver »

SolWarrior wrote:Yep. Landers, Frary & Clark were in business from 1912 to 1950. They made lots of other stuff like kitchen appliances, etc. Their pocket knife production started when they opened but I believe it stopped years earlier then closed completely in 1950.
I don't know what they actually made themselves (perhaps the knives?) but they were huge jobbers like Sears and didn't make any of that other stuff. I think I understand that specialty companies made those fancy frames for all the cutleries and that the cutleries then installed their own blades into them. Maybe. ?
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by SolWarrior »

Tongueriver, You're probably right on that. I sometimes get mixed up with who made what. :) The knives I believe were made by them as Mason once mentioned to me. Here's some of what he said: ::tu::

"Landers, Frary & Clark offered no pocket knives before acquiring Humason & Beckley in 1912. Upon taking over H & B, L. F. & C. basically just continued to produce many, but certainly not all, of the folding knives that H & B had offered. In continuing on with some of the same variations, L. F. & C. also used many of the same model numbers which they modified to give better descriptions of various folders."
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espn77
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by espn77 »

The knife I have fells like a well built, good steel knife. I like it.
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by Mason »

espn77 wrote:I picked this up and know you guys know something about it. I do not. Looks to have silver handles? Pretty heavy little knife. Thanks in advance Keith
Nice example and LF&C did indeed produce their own pocket knives after purchasing the Humason & Beckley company in 1912. Your knife was part of a new line of metal handled pocket knives that LF&C came out with in 1926 which also included the metal handled examples that K7K had shown in this thread. As you can see by the enclosed ad showing your model, these knives had "silver plated nickel silver handles". Quite a few different variations and sizes were offered in this new metal handled line.
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espn77
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Re: L.F. & C USA Pen knife

Post by espn77 »

That's pretty cool. I wonder what kind of volume they produced?
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