Same but different 623597

[bkazz5]

I picked up a nice little 623597 with a Pocket Eze shield. When I got home I realized I already had one but it is significantly different. The one I just picked up has a shield. The one I already had does not. Also, the jigging on the two knives is very different. I notice the one without the shield has the pins as if a shield should have been there. Both have coined liners. Do you think the one without the shield has been rehandled? Did Robeson use both styles of jigging?

[ea42]

The shield on that knife may have fallen off at some point in the past. You see that occasionally on old knives where there probably wasn't enough countersink in the shield pin holes to hold the shield in place. They didn't embed the shields very deeply into the handles back then as they needed the shield to stick above the handles so that when they sanded off the pin heads they didn't gouge the bone. Depending on the jigging sometimes you only see a very small patch where they flattened the bone a bit to accept the shield.

Eric

[RobesonsRme.com]

I don’t have much of a problem with either of those knives.

I had a similar situation with a pair 622416 equal-end penknives. One had a PocketEze shield, the other had none and never had.

I suspect the differences in the bone and the size of the nail ease can be attributed to different time periods.

I agree with Erik re’ the missing shield, it simply fell off.

The only thing bothering me is the first digit in one of the pattern numbers does not appear to be a “6”, but more suggestive of an “8”, which would indicate patterned celluloid as the handle material.

That doesn’t mean the handles are not original.

I have had Robeson knives where the obviously original Robeson bone handles did not match the pattern number.

Both are very attractive knives.

[1967redrider]

It looks like they never cut out the space for a shield, but still pinned it.

[ea42]

It looks like they never cut out the space for a shield, but still pinned it.

I'll bet if looking at the knife in hand you'd be able to see a fattened area where the shield was. Oftentimes they (meaning knife companies, not just Robeson) just flattened the bone a bit without actually cutting a cavity for the reasons I stated above. It all depends on the jigging and the thickness of the shield.

Eric