Queen Schatt & Morgan harness jack, 3rd release
This revival series was commissioned by a collector with a passion for the old patterns. The harness or farmer’s jack is a simple tool with a definite purpose: making quick adjustments to horse and mule tack. In the days when draft animals were common this knife, with a leather punch as its secondary blade, was easy to carry, affordable, and indispensable to a farmer.
The previous run followed a 1911 Schatt & Morgan pattern as closely as possible, but for this latest (3rd) release features traditional details taken from more than one knife. The equal end pattern is pocket and hand friendly, and its symmetry is appealing to the eye. Pinched, threaded bolsters make it special. The punch is Seymour Alvord’s design for Empire cutlery, patented in 1906. The cutting edge leads the cut slightly and this makes it the most versatile because you can easily adjust the hole size and cut it cleanly. Queen achieved this by forging the edge over, and carefully hand grinding the back into an effective curve. A sharp point allows one to “wiggle” the point in to the desired depth without risking a cut to the fingers.
Handle materials available are ebony, Sambar stag, candy-stripe celluloid, greenbone, strawberry bone, and even a very few pieces in mother-of-pearl. Blades are marked with the total number of knives produced in that handle material (greenbone 73, strawberry 40, stag 36, ebony 35, candy-stripe 16, pearl 6). The steel is 1095, a very traditional high-carbon material.
