Old Hawkbill Pruner: Age & Country ?

[kootenay joe]

Here is a well worn but still 'neat' old knife. 4 1/4" straight across or 4 1/2" along the curve, looks like iron ? liners and butt plate and the bolsters appear integral with the liners. Has been re-pinned with a nail, and well done, half stop, good snaps and no play unless you force hard laterally.
And, it has a flush & square joint, which i think is 'very neat'.
Blade is forged and with convex surface right to the edge. It is sharp but has no edge grind, or it has worn off but the sides are still close enough to be sharp ? Must have had a lot of blade loss, so cannot figure why it is still sharp ?
No markings. What do you think for age and origin ? British or USA ? I don't think it is German.
kj

[knife7knut]

Looks English to me Roland.Typical with integral bolsters/liners and squared at the front.Probably pre-1900 although that type of construction was used on pruning knives for many years.I have a couple similar ones and they are always fascinating.Bet that one would have some stories to tell!

[kootenay joe]

Thank you Ray. To me this construction looks older, maybe 1850 or earlier but i don't have any other very old knives to compare with. LG4 states somewhere the app. time when integral liners/bolster construction stopped being used. I will try to find it.
kj

[LongBlade]

I would agree old Sheffield Roland and with integral liners and bolsters most likely pre-1860 (though I believe a few old cutlers, not many, carried that post-1860 as well).. lots of character and beauty in that Hawkbill to those of us who love HOKs ... almost impossible without tang stamp to identify maker on those unless there was a specific attribute of knife associated with an old maker...

[knife7knut]

Could very well be mid 1800's although the change from integral bolsters occurred in the 1860's the practice was continued on pruning knives well after 1900 for some reason.Probably thought it would be stronger that way. Here are pics of some pruners that date to the 1860's or slightly before.

[kootenay joe]

Ray do those have a flush & square joint and a half stop ? The bottom one looks similar to my knife.
kj

[LongBlade]

Could very well be mid 1800's although the change from integral bolsters occurred in the 1860's the practice was continued on pruning knives well after 1900 for some reason.Probably thought it would be stronger that way. Here are pics of some pruners that date to the 1860's or slightly before.

Ray - as I noted in agreement with your point a few cutlers carried integrated liners bolsters post -1860 and in particular on Hawkbills but was not aware some even used this in the 1900s - any examples to show or which makers did this in the 1900s??

[knife7knut]

Ray do those have a flush & square joint and a half stop ? The bottom one looks similar to my knife.
kj

Roland:All three have those features although the Samuel Robinson is a bit worn on the half stop.

[kootenay joe]

All these old ones (your 3 + my 1) have flush & square joints which at least by early 1900's was becoming less common. I think this feature along with the integral liner/bolster construction will help to get a date range. Are liners/bolsters iron or steel ?
kj