All About Pocket Knives

Every time I see a Wintertbottom bone handled knife I wonder why they call it “winter bottom”? I know what winter is and I know what the bottom is or “a” bottom is, but I can’t figure out how they came up with that name. Anyone know?
SSk

I think it was some guy's last name.

From msteele6 back in 2009

Winterbottom bone is bone manufactured by the Winterbottom Bone Company, it is always bone with long parallel grooves cut into it. I have never seen any where the grooves are not parallel to the handle. Generally there are only five or six of these grooves per handle.

A look at almost any old Queen knife will give you a perfect example of Winterbottom bone (not all are Winterbottom bone but most are). Even the imitation Winterbottom bone which is used on the later knives will give you a good example of what the real thing looks like.

That would explain it. I know my bottom gets kinda wide in the winter, but it doesn’t look like that. Couldn’t figure out how they came up with that name. Thanks
SSk

Here is an interesting and informative article about Winterbottom: https://www.traditionalpocketknives.com ... ne-history.
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote:Here is an interesting and informative article about Winterbottom: https://www.traditionalpocketknives.com ... ne-history.
Treefarmer

Interesting article. Seems like I learn something new on here everyday.. Than you for posting that.
SSk

I recently bought an old Queen 2-blade folding hunter, and the WB handle was a uniform yellow/ivory color. Was it brown on ivory when new, and the brown just wore away?

treefarmer wrote:Here is an interesting and informative article about Winterbottom: https://www.traditionalpocketknives.com ... ne-history.
Treefarmer

Excellent

I've noticed that the winterbottom bone on old Case knives mostly seems to come with the lines in a crossing pattern. I wonder if that came from the same company?

tallguy606 wrote:I recently bought an old Queen 2-blade folding hunter, and the WB handle was a uniform yellow/ivory color. Was it brown on ivory when new, and the brown just wore away?

Here is one I have tallguy, It's hard to say what a knife has gone through by previous owners and all bone is different.
I'm sure you know this. I'm just trying to contribute.
I had a picture of Mr. Winterbottom and his employees in front of a boxcar with the floor heaped with bone. I guess I deleted it.

treefarmer wrote:Here is an interesting and informative article about Winterbottom: https://www.traditionalpocketknives.com ... ne-history.
Treefarmer

Good one Philip.

FRJ wrote:

tallguy606 wrote:I recently bought an old Queen 2-blade folding hunter, and the WB handle was a uniform yellow/ivory color. Was it brown on ivory when new, and the brown just wore away?

Here is one I have tallguy, It's hard to say what a knife has gone through by previous owners and all bone is different.
I'm sure you know this. I'm just trying to contribute.
I had a picture of Mr. Winterbottom and his employees in front of a boxcar with the floor heaped with bone. I guess I deleted it.

treefarmer wrote:Here is an interesting and informative article about Winterbottom: https://www.traditionalpocketknives.com ... ne-history.
Treefarmer

Good one Philip.

That might be the nicest Winterbottom bone handles ever. Very nice.
I also learned that Winterbottom is one word and not two. Auto correct doesn’t like that as one word, unless it’s capitalized.
SSk

Thank you.

Here's an old Case and Son's knife. The lines intersect on it.

That's very creative jigging, Greg. Have you ever seen jigging like that before?

In response to tallguy606's comment on the color of a Winterbottom handles color, here is a picture (my avatar) of identical Queen Pattern #49s, both have the '58-'60 stamp, one of course is almost mint and the other well used. I suppose "pocket time" polishes out the dark lines down in the grooves. I don't know if the real Winterbottom bone was dyed or scorched to create the dark lines. Maybe somebody can help with that information. Treefarmer

Joe, that Copperhead(?) is sweet! I think that's the best example of Winterbottom bone I've ever seen. Very nice.

As for coloration, check out these two Queen 51's.
Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with Winterbottom bone; so, half the time I can't tell the difference between genuine WB bone and imitation WB Delrin. (Both of my 51s look like Delrin to me.)

What year did Queen begin using Delrin instead of bone for WB handles? Did they use both bone and Delrin concurrently?

~Q~

We all know Queen used WB but so did Schrade for a very short run....Here's the factory, and a 1930s Gearge Schrade automatic.

QTCut5 wrote:Joe, that Copperhead(?) is sweet! I think that's the best example of Winterbottom bone I've ever seen. Very nice.

As for coloration, check out these two Queen 51's.

P7190003.JPG

Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with Winterbottom bone; so, half the time I can't tell the difference between genuine WB bone and imitation WB Delrin. (Both of my 51s look like Delrin to me.)

What year did Queen begin using Delrin instead of bone for WB handles? Did they use both bone and Delrin concurrently?

~Q~

Q, check out that article posted on the first page of this thread. It says they transitioned over to Delrin by the late 60’s. It reads like they were having handles made in both for over 10 years, and started using Delrin in the 50’s.
That’s very helpful article, I’m going to bookmark that one.
SSk

These pictures show Case's use of Winterbottom. The gold Winterbottom 6165 is a Tested XX era knife (~1920 - ~1940). The three equal end patterns are all W.R. Case & Sons (~1905 - ~1914).

Some more ladies. bottom one is faux bone or plastic if you prefer.

Case has a new fence row jigging that looks like a new take on Winterbottom. I kind of like these. Haven’t seen many olive green bone knives I didn’t like.
SSk

I've been watching and looking at all the fine samples you folks have been putting on display. Can't say that Winterbottom really does anything for me.

But that's me. More for you guys!! Ain't gonna stop me from lookin'. Maybe it'll grow on me.

The last time I ordered from Culpepper, I got this pair of Winterbottom slabs. I agree that they are not for everyone or every knife, but they have their moments. Now to find a good candidate for these.

The closest thing I have is this little Whitetail. I don’t know what the scales actually are. They are unusually thick anyway.

FRJ wrote:That's very creative jigging, Greg. Have you ever seen jigging like that before?

Yes Joe, I have. If you will look Jerry's(RalphAlsip) post you will see that his Case and Son's knives have similar jigging.