Cattaraugus 22269 Snakeskin

[58chevy348]

[album][/album]Just got this knife in today. I have tried to find references to this Cattaraugus 22269 with snakeskin handles, but have had no luck. Does anyone know if the snakeskin handles are scarce? This one shows it's age, but the handles are in very good condition. I leave knives in their found condition aside from some basic gentle cleaning / ouling. Thanks in advance!

[tjmurphy]

Man, I love those handles, never seen anything like them before. Are they bone?

[58chevy348]

Pretty sure they are bone. If not, a good imitation composition.

[btrwtr]

I have never seen or heard of this type of handle material on an old knife.

[Bamarick]

I've never seen this on a Cattaraugus knife. I believe this knife has been re-handled.
Rick

[patch1]

In my opinion this knife has been heavily reworked. The blades are in the wrong frame.
I will post a picture of a 22289 from Mrs Dewey Ferguson's book.
Patch1

[peanut740]

I have never seen or heard of this type of handle material on an old knife.

Ditto.

[58chevy348]

I may be wrong on the pattern number. 22280 possibly? or 22239? 22230? The last two digits are hard to make out.

[knife7knut]

Just my opinion but I think the knife is original.The number looks(to me)to be 22266. Not sure if that is it or even if it is a valid number.If in fact the blades had been installed in another frame,it was done many years ago and not with the intention of deceiving someone but rather to make a working knife. I doubt anyone would do this in the modern day with blades in such poor condition.
As for the handles: They could possibly be pressed stag or some form of early synthetic.
EDIT: Here is a picture of a carved ivory handle on a Masonic dagger. Not identical but very similar in construction. I have two of these.

[58chevy348]

Thanks knife7knut. It truly doesn't appear to have been altered. Even the pins in bolster are factory flush and have the same patina as the rest of the bolsters. I wish the last two digits were more legible. The "222" is quite clear but the last two digits are not. Here are a couple more shots of the number:

[knife7knut]

Looks to me like the last two numbers are a 6 and a 9. Second pic was better.

[58chevy348]

I think I found the knife in Ferguson's guide, but the handle in her example is stag. The knife frame is correct and I'm just wondering if this might have been a factory variation or possibly experimental knife. Still intrigued.

[deo-pa]

The shield is right for a 22269 but not a 22289. To my eye the shield pin is much to prominent, it should be largely invisible. I'd argue for a rehandled 22269.

What does the handle feel like? Any chance it's tooled leather?

Dennis

[peanut740]

I only see 1 scale pin on the front and none on the back.At the best a rehandled knife.

[ea42]

Definitely rehandled, we used that snake skin acrylic on some Canal Street knives, comes in sheets and relatively new to market. Cracked easily, that's probably why you don't see any pins, whoever put them on probably gave up pinning them and just slathered on the glue.

Eric

[58chevy348]

Could certainly be rehandled, but I would have to say not recently at all. The handle material is quite hard, and under magnification appears to be bone with the pattern impressed into the handle. As for the pins....the photos just do not show them well. All three pins are visible on both sides when viewing the knife in person. The handles also have smooth "depressions" between the black stripes, giving them a kind of "high-low" feel. The handles fit so perfectly that it is hard to believe late production handles were used. If so, those later production handles would have to have been made for this knife specifically--no "whittling" or "shaping" can be found on the handle edges. At the very least, the knife is certainly serving its purpose as a conversation piece! Thanks to all who have commented.

[58chevy348]

A few close up shots of the scales:

[ea42]

OK, that's different from what we used. Couldn't remember it exactly since I don't have any here, but I looked it up on Droppoint Hunters archives since we made a bunch for him:

[58chevy348]

ea42, those are nice looking knives! Thanks for sharing!