All About Pocket Knives

I have also seen older tortoise shell scales with cracks like that. And I have to agree with Lee with regard to celluloid being more likely to shrink than crack. After looking closely at all your pics I would bet on it being genuine tortoise shell.

I appreciate the encouragement towards Tortoise shell. Your points are well taken and they make sense to me.
I think the covers were very highly polished.
What really bothers me is I hate to be so undecided about the covers on my own knife. But it's just because I don't have a lot of exposure to known Tortoise shell. Inexperience lands another blow!
I really appreciate all the thoughtful comments about the knife.
Thanks to all.

Fantastic knife, Joe, very elegant! Great find! I would tend to agree with Sheffieldguy and Lee and cast my vote for real tortoise shell.

Thank you, Dan, I appreciate your thoughts on the knife.

With three respected members leaning towards Tortoise shell who am I to argue.

I'm not sure I have this maker pegged in Tweedale's book but I think they go back a long way and the knife could have been made in
the late 1800's. With that history I guess it's shell.

I was thinking that the "William, John & Robert Wright" is the Tweedale entry most likely to fit your knife. Which makes it quite old.
I have never been able to smell the camphor by the finger rubbing method. I have used 2000 grit automotive wet/dry sandpaper to confirm celluloid. A brisk rubbing with the sandpaper always produces a chemical smell for me and really does no visible harm to the surface of the material. However, I still don't think I would use this on anything I actually thought might be real tortoise shell.

I believe I have only seen one piece of real tortoise in person. I have an old surgical implement that I believe is real tortoise. The poor pictures below show the layering, visible in the edge grain.

OK, so I decided to try the sandpaper method on my surgical instrument. I used the sandpaper on two spots along the edge of the instrument. I was expecting a burning hair or sawing bone type of odor. The sanding produced a fine powder, and a very faint sawing bone type of odor. Definitely no smell of camphor. It also did no harm to the finish other than to shine it up a bit.
A couple of pics of the sanded areas.

Thank you, Dan for taking the time to show the photos and for your comments.
I agree, I think it's the Wright boys.
I would not disturb their long earned peace by abrading the covers.
I see that layering in the shell.
If I get a chance maybe I can get better pictures. I have to finagle that.

Totally agree, Joe. That is too nice a knife to risk doing anything to the covers.

danno50 wrote:Totally agree, Joe. That is too nice a knife to risk doing anything to the covers.

Absolutely could not agree more. A little mystery about the scales is no bad thing imo, but I would not mess with a piece like this. What a catch! On principle I would go with genuine tortoise shell until proved otherwise, but that's just my way of doing things. If it was mine I would do a very gentle clean and then use Ren wax to hold off any further corrosion.

I've been away from this forum for a long while, but expect to be back frequently now. Still so much to learn after all these years.

Enjoy the knife.

David

Take a look here -

http://www.wwrightsilverware.com/about-us.html

David

Thank you, David, for the post and the interesting link. Much appreciated.

but wheres the cap lifter?

seriosly though W Wright is new to me I will have to look into them that looks stunning

Thank you, Corso, I hope you find one ............ with a cap lifter.