Old Patch Knife?

[JohnR]

This small fixed blade was in a lot of vintage knives I picked up for next to nothing. Appears to be a patch knife or a bird knife.
Construction is interesting, hand made,no makers marks, light bone one handle, dark bone the other, blade is a repurposed knife or other tool that appears to have some hammer marks, the handles are copper lined and has what appears to be a poured pewter end cap, the guard is also pewter or lead lined.
The dark handle is carved, 17 VA 67 and T. Allen, the light handle has a 7 dot symbol.
Any ideas on this one? Made to deceive? Made for a reenactor? Original? Or just no way to tell?
Last picture is next to 2 other knives to give an idea of size.
Thank you.

[knife7knut]

First of all the term,"patch knife" is a relatively recent way to describe a knife or some other sharp edged item used to cut patches for black powder guns. I think the term was coined by one of them.I have seen them made from broken straight razors and knives of all types.
Your knife is a bit unusual in that the blade appears to have s fuller(blood groove to some)on the left side of the blade and flat on the other.This makes me wonder if it even started out as a knife blade.
The lettering appears to have possibly been done with a small ball mill in a Dremel tool. It may or may not indicate a date or even the years the person who owned was born and died(1917-1967).the age is hard to figure but I don't think it is all that old.An interesting specimen to be sure. The two other knives pictured are much more interesting(to me anyway).

[eveled]

Neat little knife. Looks too big for a patch knife. I think it's a steak knife or pairing knife.

Patches weren't pre cut. They carried a piece of pillow ticking, put it on the muzzle seat the ball into the muzzle then the patch knife would cut the ticking flush with the muzzle.

[LongBlade]

I don't think it is a patch knife either... blade is too long and not wide enough from my background search awhile back - this knife has the look of a very used bird/trout knife to me as well... as K7Knut said there were not any companies which made patch knives back in the day (though today some modern ones may be out there ) and most were made from other knives (kitchen knives for example)... Here's one I have that was made from a Meriden Cutlery Co (ca 1870) kitchen knife along with an original sheath - I believe the blade was approx 4" or slightly less and the handle is ivory but was carved to fit the re-purposed knife...

[JohnR]

Thanks guys for bringing this back up, this knife has always intrigued me. I did get it in a box lot of old knives, every knife was made before 1900 and some were mid 1800's. To me the blade appears to be a broken piece of a sword or bayonet,still shows the fuller groove.

[eveled]

I like your patch knife Longblade. The lanyard hole is a unique one. I like patch knives to have a way to tie it to the possibles bag. To prevent loss.

My patch knife is blacksmith made with a metal handle you can use to strike a flint. The end has a little curly cue to tie a leather thong. I gave it to my dad, and haven't seen it since.