shell handled knives

[Tideknife]

Bump

[whitebuffalo58]

I was going back through this thread and realized some of the pics I posted were uploaded from photobucket and no longer showing. So, I thought I'd reload them for posterity. This is getting close to being a full representation of all the patterns produced in the shell handles, along with a fair number of the variations on the different patterns.(but nowhere near all of them) The variations range from different shields/no shield, blade combinations and tang stamps, as well as the press button models.

The knife in the top left corner of the second picture was my first. The one grandpa gave me for my tackle box when I was 7 or 8, the rest just came over time.

More to come,

WB

[whitebuffalo58]

Next batch,

WB

[whitebuffalo58]

...and last round,

Most of these knives are not rare, but there are a few that I've never seen another and a few others that don't show up very often. One example is the the large Barlow. It has duel tang stamps. Imperial on the pen blade and an undocumented Hammer Brand stamp on the somewhat unusual (for the pattern) spear blade.

While my tastes have gotten a bit more expensive over the years, I still enjoy adding an occasional 'find' to the collection.

Thanks for havin' a look,


WB

[KnifeSlinger#81]

Excellent collection WB.

There are certainly nicer knives around, but the shell handled imperial/hammer have a certain appeal that I like. They were cheap but highly functional. The congress is really neat. I also really like the hammer forged saber ground blade ones. I got one of those in a stockman pattern recently, it's pretty stout for a shell handle.

[knife7knut]

Here is an unusual shell handled knife I got a week or so ago for 33 cents. A two blade jack stamp Syracuse Knife Co. Syracuse NY. I thought virtually all the shell handled knives were made by Imperial and/or Colonial.

[whitebuffalo58]

Thanks Slinger, not a ton of money in the collection, but a fair amount of time searching out the different variations.

k7k, that's a first for me too. Syracuse is typically thought of as a Camillus 'house brand'.


WB

[whitebuffalo58]

Still adding to the shell handled toothpick collection. I believe this takes the count to over 80 different colors. These are all Hammer Brand, the bottom knife is the larger 5" model with the 1936-'37 "X" sleeve stamp, the others are 4-1/4" from '45-'55.

WB

[LongBlade]

Wow WB - really nice collection of shell handled toothpicks ... never knew that was one of your interests ... I have 4 shell handled toothpicks (all fish knives) including one minty Hammer Brand but never showed them ... when I’m able I’ll try and post them up on the thread ... you may be interested given your collection ...

[bighomer]

WB sum fine old knives, a few that I've never had the pleasure of seeing in the flesh. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for reviving this old thread.

[knife7knut]

I may have posted this before but as my memory is not the greatest anymore I will re-post it.
I have always had a soft spot for shell handled knives and my most favorite is my grandfather's Kamp King that got me started into knives so many years ago. However this post does not deal with that one.
I don't remember exactly how this one came into my possession but it was likely in a pile of other knives. A four blade scout utility it was missing one of the handles and the remaining one was bent up pretty badly. The master blade was still full;albeit a bit pitted and the rest of the blades in decent shape. I tossed it into my tool box with the idea of using it to scrape gaskets and other mundane chores. And for several years that is exactly what it did.
One day after using it I thought to myself: I really should do something about a handle for it as the edges were a bit sharp to use. My first thought was to wrap some electrical tape around it and be done with it but then I spied some scrap Lexan on the bench that was the remains of a recent project and I decided to make some real handles for it.
I removed the remaining original handle and cleaned the surfaces up a bit . The Lexan was pretty thick(1/2 inch)so I took a saw and cut it in half which made it just about right. Using two part epoxy I glued the two pieces to the knife and set it aside to dry.
When it was cured I worked them down to size using my 1x30 belt sander and disc.Finished them with sandpaper and Mother's Mag Wheel Polish.
it looked kind of ugly with all the pins and such showing through but this was still a work knife. It sat this way for several days until I decided to try a little experiment. I had just purchased a Fordom die grinder and wanted to try doing some jigging on the handles using a small ball cutter. I did one side with faux bolsters on the ends and the other all over. As an added touch I cut into one handle and installed a shield made from a Lone Star beer pin.
I now had a work knife with a one of a kind set of handles and it was comfortable to use!

[bighomer]

Neat story and knife

[Tsar Bomba]

Here is a Kamp King I received a few years back for which someone had taken some slabs of burl and glued them on as a shadow pattern. It's not the most professional rehandle job and one of the handles seems to have lost a small chunk where the slot-and-tab would be on one end but it's still tight, has that fine Imperial carbon steel and IMO looks a little classier than the typical shell-handled Kamp Kings.

[whitebuffalo58]

Thanks guys! I doubt there'll ever be a way of knowing just how many colors Imperial used, but it doesn't keep me from trying.

Lee, whenever you're up and around, I'd love to see those shell handled toothpicks, hope you're healing well.

Nice mods on those Kamp Kings fellers! Glad to see they could still be put into action, if needed.


WB

[whitebuffalo58]

I spent a couple of hours going back through this old thread, good stuff!

As near as I can tell, I hadn't posted these yet.

WB

[bighomer]

My latest shell handle, cute little bugger.

[whitebuffalo58]

Looks like a good'n, Bighomer.


WB

[bighomer]

Looks like a good'n, Bighomer.


WB

WB seeing your fine collection inspired me to see if I could add a few to my small pile. I like the old shells, I grew up on them.

[whitebuffalo58]

WB seeing your fine collection inspired me to see if I could add a few to my small pile. I like the old shells, I grew up on them.

Well thank you for that!

I bought my first shell handled toothpicks/fish knives as a kid. The local bait and tackle store had a Sportsmaster countertop display that the owner kept well stocked. Mostly with jigged black or cracked ice, but ever so often he'd get a few colored ones in. The shop was along my first paper route and I was able to keep a close eye on what was coming in. Even though he still had to pay his subscription each month, when all was said and done, a lot of months he pretty much got his papers for free.


WB

[bighomer]

Cool story, I remember the cards of knives at the five & dime,feed store and western auto. I got another one today.

[whitebuffalo58]

There ya go! Another good one!

For Imperial, the half congress wasn't a rare pattern, but it doesn't seem like they made nearly as many as most other patterns. They did however, on rare occasion, make a 4-blade version. I've yet to find one of those in mint condition. Mines not bad, but still far from mint. I've only seen either version with the Hammer Brand stamp, but they may have made them with the Imperial stamp, too.

Those half congress make great Sunday go to meetin' knives.


WB

[Tsar Bomba]

Since I was already sorting knife photos into albums and I realized looking over the results that I had been finding a number of shell knife photos from back in the day, I figured I would contribute some of them here...

[whitebuffalo58]

Nice lot there, Tony! I especially like that Tuf-Nut jack and the Sabre fish knife. Was the Sabre made in Ireland? I don't have one with shell handles, mine was made in Japan and has the hollow bolsters with solid yellow comp. handles.

Thanks for sharing!


WB

[Tsar Bomba]

Nice lot there, Tony! I especially like that Tuf-Nut jack and the Sabre fish knife. Was the Sabre made in Ireland? I don't have one with shell handles, mine was made in Japan and has the hollow bolsters with solid yellow comp. handles.
Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, WB! The Imperial Tuf-Nut advertising jack is probably my favorite shell knife in my pile. Packs quite a snap for such a small serpentine jack.

That yeller Sabre is a Hong Kong knife. I've seen Sabre Japan fish knives but as you observed they were more traditional and of a higher build quality. The Sabre Hong Kong knife isn't anywhere near the quality of the older Sabre Japan knives (we recently had a decent little thread about Sabres to which I contributed this fish knife along with some Japanese Barlows and a unique little peanut), and really doesn't even compare in F&F to the ubiquitous Imperial shell fish knives, which were never "elegant" by any metric (but are highly useful and interesting).

I've never been able to track down the story of the Sabre Ireland knives but I've always assumed some sort of link with the old Jowika factory that Imperial ultimately purchased (from which they ran off a lot of "Stag Ireland" shell knives).

[whitebuffalo58]

I've always thought the Ireland Sabre's were made after Imperial took over. The Jowika fish knives have a whole different look to them. The front bolsters tend to be elongated and somewhat flat.

WB