Fleam knife

[Thomasg]

Was this knife made for blood letting in the early 19th century?

Clauss U.S.A.

[Reverand]

No, that one is an ink eraser, used along with quill pens.
They do look a little similar, but a fleam will have a smaller and more triangle-shaped blade.

[FRJ]

Nice U.S.A. made Clauss.

[Thomasg]

Thank you both for your replies .both edges on the knife are sharp enough to shave the hair off of my arm .when erasing ink from a quill pen was the ink scraped clean after drying?

[Ridgegrass]

Its used to scrape ink off off paper after it dried. Ref: Levine's Guide p. 496 I've seen them advertised in antique shops as Civil War scalpels. "found on the battlefield at Gettysburg" and a shop near me has had one for sale for 6 years as a "smoker's pipe knife" for $22. I told the vendor what it was and he refuses to change the tag. Duh! J.O'

[Thomasg]

Its used to scrape ink off off paper after it dried. Ref: Levine's Guide p. 496 I've seen them advertised in antique shops as Civil War scalpels. "found on the battlefield at Gettysburg" and a shop near me has had one for sale for 6 years as a "smoker's pipe knife" for $22. I told the vendor what it was and he refuses to change the tag. Duh! J.O'

Thank you for your response.I bought the knife to go with my other clauss knifes for less than 20 $ and was curious to how it was used .To the best of my knowledge clauss stopped sell knifes around 1950 -52 so the ink eraser would be at least 70 or so years old .still in near mint condition and appears unused .Thats a cool miller bothers advertisement. Thanks .

[Mumbleypeg]

I had a similar tool that was part of my Dietzgen draftsman instruments set in the 1960s. Used for erasing on ink drawings. Eventually of course manual “drafting” was replaced by computer graphics but that was not until many years later. Not saying your “eraser” isn’t that old.

Ken

[New_Windsor_NY]

Was.....

Fleams.
https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... hp?t=44742

[Ridgegrass]

They are still cool. Kind of "period" pieces. I like the "Spade" pointed ones with white bones handles. The Brits made them like the one at the bottom of Levine pic by W and H. They take a wicked edge too. J.O'.

[Thomasg]

They are still cool. Kind of "period" pieces. I like the "Spade" pointed ones with white bones handles. The Brits made them like the one at the bottom of Levine pic by W and H. They take a wicked edge too. J.O'.

It does have a wicked factory edge .

[Ridgegrass]

Nice condition. Got to be 80-90 years old. J.o'.

[FRJ]

I never thought of them as needing a particularly sharp edge but sharp enough to remove ink from vellum.
I have a few that have been sharpened to a keen edge but I thought the previous owner thought they were for purposes of a fleam or some other odd use.Surgeons scalpel; cigar cutting.

[Ridgegrass]

Or "battlefield surgery". J.O'.