Supposedly a first confederate pig sticker

[Blasty]

Anyone chime in and tell me anything about this

[btrwtr]

Guard and handle is typical of a large oval profile honing steel that has been shaped into a pointed tip. Not a Confederate pig sticker.

[1967redrider]

That's what I was thinking, Wayne. Could a blade be forged from a knife steel? I'm not sure what metal was used for knife steels.

[Ridgegrass]

I replied to your post above. Now that I see the other pics I agree it appears to be a reshaped honing steel .The "I" is interesting. I found info on "I.Wilson" of Sheffield who specialized in steels but no reference to that mark. Maybe its a skewer to use with a meat carving set to hold the roast for slicing?? Good luck with it. J.O'.

[1967redrider]

I tend to shy away from anything claiming to be Civil War or Confederate, I think over 90% are fakes.

[dsutton24]

That's a better photo than the other thread. The term 'pig sticker' is a slang term that basically means any long bladed knife, it's used when people are trying to be folksy, and it doesn't describe a knife pattern. You wouldn't bleed hogs with a round handled knife, and the blade needs to be broader than that blade.

I doubt it is Confererate era, the Confederacy only lasted about four years, and to a lot of extraneous manufacturing wasn't done then. As others have said, it's probably a modified steel.

[Gunsil]

Actually dsutton, a pig sticker is a packing house knife meant for bleeding pigs, cows, sheep, etc. In your neck of the woods it may refer to any long blade knife but pig stickers are usually double edged with a dagger type blade and usually blade is about six inches long. During WW2 some were carried by soldiers as a side knife.

The pommel cover on this "knife" appears to be a confederate infantry two piece button that is missing it's back. It is definitely a sharpening steel that has had the confederate button put on the back to deceive the buyer.

[Blasty]

Thanks for all your input. It’s still a nice knife

[zzyzzogeton]

IMO, NOT a pigsticker, Confederate OR Union or anything else landlubberly.

It more resemble non-officer naval dirks from the late 1700s to 1840s. In other words, a side arm used during boarding actions. I've got 3 of them, none EXACTLY like the OP's, but close enough to be kissing cousins, with different handle styles, but the same length double-edge blades.

During this time frame, the only personal firearms aboard a ship were flintlock rifles or muskets, shotguns and muzzle loading pistols. The muzzle loading pistols were songle shot, highly inaccurate at ranges over 5 to 10 yards. During boarding actions, the rifles/muskets/shotguns were fired as the ships came alongside each other. The riflemen/musketeers were often in the rigging, firing down at the opposing ship's crew or at the other ship's men in ITS rigging.

The boarders would carry cutlasses and dirks. An officer might have 1, a pair or more muzzle loading pistols for use during action. Crewmen?? Probably not, unless they had liberated one from a previously boarded vessel and the Boatswain hadn't confiscated it yet. Couldn't have pistols running around not under lock and key. The infamous pirate, Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, was known to carry 3 braces (pairs) of pistols in a shoulder harness with slow matches stuck in his hat.

The cutlasses were relatively short, usually have blades no longer than about 26 inches. The dirk was carried in the left hand for stabbing the opponent while the cutlass was used for slashing and blocking. Shorter was better as longer blades would hamper your buddy next to you.

Dirks began to go out of style in the 1830s/1840s, about the same time close-combat ship boardings with the advent of reliable exploding shells (invented 1822/1823 by the French) AND with the development of multi-shot pistols (revolvers).

Why was the small Texian navy able to hold off the Mexican navy from 1839 to 1845?

One - they fought like hell.
Two - they were led by a man who was able to out think the enemy
Three - were the first adopters of revolving cylinder pistols for Naval boarding actions

Whoa, what???? Yep - the Texian navy was the first major commercial purchaser of Sam Colt's model 2 Paterson Colt, so named because they were made in Patterson NJ. Were it not for Texas' purchase of 180 Paterson's, and a like number of revolving shotguns and rifles, old Sam would have gone out of business a long time before he did in 1842.

The US Army had rejected the Model 1 during trials in Florida as being too complicated for field use, almost impossible to reload in the field. Colt came out the Model 2 about the same time as the 2nd Texian Navy was being stood up. The Paterson Colt became famous as the "Texas Colt" only after Sam Houston disbanded the 2nd Texas Navy in 1842 and Captain John Hays, Texas Rangers, snitched at least 2 pistols for each of his 30-someodd Rangers to carry.

Oh, and why did Houston disband the Navy? Commodore Moore was too effective at warding off the Mexican Navy, thereby hindering his efforts to get the US to annex Texas.

[dsutton24]

Actually dsutton, a pig sticker is a packing house knife meant for bleeding pigs, cows, sheep, etc. In your neck of the woods it may refer to any long blade knife but pig stickers are usually double edged with a dagger type blade and usually blade is about six inches long.

Up the road is a Smithfield plant that kills 10,000+ a day, in the short time I worked there I probably bled 100,000 hogs. That knife, whatever it is, is not a 'pig sticker', the handle is wrong, the blade is wrong. A sticking knife has a parallel edged blade about 1 1/8" wide with a spear tip and it has a blade about 6" long. It has to have a handle that is, at least, rectangular for control.

The terms pig sticker, frog sticker, toad sticker, and the like are more slang usage than anything.

[treefarmer]

dsutton24,
I'd say you have plenty of experience bleeding hogs!
A little over 50 years ago, I worked for my father-in-law in his custom kill butcher business. As low man on the totem pole, one of my jobs was dispatching the cattle and hogs. Grandpa gave me special instructions concerning the "pig sticking". Since it was so long ago, I don't remember the particular knife we used but it was very critical to plunge perfectly between the shoulders/picnic hams at the point of the breast bone to insure a perfect bleed.
What a job that was! Always wished I had stayed with him as the business grew into a booming operation. You had to be a cowboy, a hog catcher, a mechanic, hog scalder, a cow skinner and a truck driver in the early days of that operation! Brings back good memories!
Treefarmer