new york knife co

[old timer90]

how can you tell how old one is thats before the hammer brand

[elbertson]

Not sure, but I don't think it's any newer than 1931.

[Paladin]

OT,
According to our friend, B.R. Levine, they began using the arm and hammer logo by 1880. The only caution I would add is that you need to be sure New York Knife Co appears on the knife in order to be sure it was a product of NYK rather than Imperial. That is assuming you want a NYK as opposed to an Imperial.

Ray

[old timer90]

i not the one who likes nyk a good friend of mind collects them and he has one that dont have on hammer brand on it its

[orvet]

If the tang stamp has USA on it, it is an Imperial Hammer Brand, not a NYK Hammer Brand.

This came from LT.
I have never found this to be wrong.

Dale

[Knife Nut]

Not a big Hammer brand person, but that's interesting to know, Dale.

Paul

[ole_muddy]

how can you tell how old one is thats before the hammer brand

The early ones were only marked New York Knife Co. Walden, NY on any/all tang stampings and the "Hammer Brand" logo was used as a blade etch. IMO, the normal Hammer Brand tang stamp wasn't used until after 1900, possibly in the 1910 range. This also holds true for handle material used, the pickbone examples are usually marked only New York Knife Co. while the later ones with the diagonal-style jigged bone handles will have the Hammer Brand tang mark on the main blade with the secondary blades marked New York Knife Co. Walden, NY.

And, as Orvet says, if it has USA or a patent number on it, it is an Imperial and there are no exceptions to that as far as I know. Also, if a knife just has the Hammer Brand mark but none of the secondary blades are marked New York Knife Co., you can be assured that it is also an early Imperial, made shortly after they acquired the rights to the Hammer Brand trademark in 1936 (re: Voyles' "Antique Knives", c. 1990) This book also has a good section on NYK.

If you can find a copy of Tracy Tudor's "The Old Knife Book" c. 1978, it has a good section of reprints in it from a catalog by the Bigelow and Dowse Company of Boston that shows a lot of early New Yorks in it plus it also has a large section of Hibbard, Spencer, and Bartlett reprints that shows many New York contract knives they offered and they were the largest contract brand retailer for NYK by far. Tudor dates the B&D catalog to 1920 but that is incorrect and 1900 is a more accurate time period to place it in. The HSB catalog shown is from the 1920s and combining the two can give you a good idea of the changes they made over time. For a person who likes old New Yorks (like me), I consider these two books necessities to have in the knife library.

Hope this helps some, Eric