Joseph Rodgers Congress

[JohnR]

Lucked into a Joseph Rodgers stag handled Congress this week, 3 3/4", literally never used and as far as know kept in its original oil paper bag. The seller took poor pictures ,no pictures of the blade stamps at all which concerned me some since every vintage Rodgers I have seen is usually stamped in multiple places, sure enough when I actually received the knife it had multiple stamps including one stating Tobacco Blade.
All blades have original edges and some staining from age, I did not even wipe it down before taking pictures. Pretty excited about this one.

[espn77]

Wow. That is amazing

[LongBlade]

Awesome and stunning knife John .. Congrats and enjoy... (PS I haven't had much time to get on the forum lately but had a few minutes and this knife is a great score and no doubt deserved kudos !!!)....

[americanedgetech]

No 6! That is in spectacular shape!!!

It's a score like that one that has me hooked on searching for these old gems.

[edge213]

Very nice.

[RobesonsRme.com]

Beautiful knife and fantastic stag.

Charlie

[JohnR]

Thank you everyone, appreciate the comments. With the Cutlers To His Majesty stamp and the #6 street address, it either dates to 1901-1910 reign of Edward VII or 1910-1936 reign of George V, how it remained unused all these years I do not know.

[peanut740]

What ever reign John that is a home run in my score book.That stag is amazing.I don't have any English knives, i would make an exception for something like that.

[FRJ]

Very special, John. Congratulations.

[americanedgetech]

The No 6 Norfolk Street address was sold in 1929 so I believe that would be the last year of that particular stamp.

https://www.eggintongroup.co.uk/history ... dgers.html
"With increasing business in what is thought to have been exclusively Pocket Knives, in around 1780, the firm moved to larger premises at No. 6 Norfolk Street. Eventually, as Rodgers expanded, it would acquire surrounding property until the famous Norfolk Street Works occupied the entire plot. (The property was sold in 1929, and the site, which is now a Bingo Hall, is marked with a plaque.)"

[philco]

John count me among the admirers of that knife. That is an exceptional find.

[JohnR]

Thank you all again. Ken, thanks for the information, I also found a reference that stated they continued to use the #6 address into the early 30's.

I love the Tobacco Blade stamp as I have read that the Congress was also called a Tobacco Knife, also primarily popular in the south, knife did come out of Arkansas.

[galvanic1882]

Great score she is a beauty!!!

[kootenay joe]

Jos. Rodgers; His Majesty; full size Congress; Stag; never used or handled, --- for a collector of folding knives it does not get better than this awe inspiring knife. Jos. Rodgers was the finest maker of knives ever and the Congress was an expensive pattern. It is as if you were in London in 1920 and went into an upscale cutlery store and bought this knife. About a 100 year time warp.
The Stag is superb but not unusual for top vintage Sheffield knives. Why is it that no one today is able to produce Stag handled folding knives in which the outer surface extends from bolster to bolster ?
kj

[danno50]

Fantastic knife in great condition, John! I also really like the Tobacco Blade stamp. I like the Joseph Rodgers and Sons blade stamp as well.
Dan

[BWT]

Great looking knife from one of the world's best knife makers, good find, thanks for the photos. Bill

[bighomer]

Wow , what a find, don't get no better than that, congratulations. My favorite pattern too. ×10

[JohnR]

Big Homer, Bill,Dan,KJ, thank you all for the comments. Big Homer, the 4 blade Congress is one of my favorites also but finding vintage ones in good condition is not that easy, most seem to have been well used.

KJ, I would think that it is too time consuming to fit stag this way, I do see some custom knife makers do this but for factory knives its probably quicker to throw some oversized slabs on and then grind them down to the bolsters loosing some of the character of the stag.

From what I've seen, Rodgers used a lot of stag, they also had a black dye they used on it. This knife is dyed and a pen knife I have has the same dyed stag, a 2 blade jack I have has a more natural stag, couple pics of the pen and jack.

[kootenay joe]

John are vintage Sheffield knives the focus of your collecting ?
Do you collect makers other than J.R. ?
Are you in Britain ?
kj

[danno50]

Love that jack, John, beautiful stag and near full blades!
Dan

[danno50]

Love that jack, John, beautiful stag and near full blades! Kick on the master is more of an old style, I believe.
Dan

EDIT: Not sure how this happened? That I quoted myself and nothing else in the post? Gone too long to delete, I believe?
Dan

[JohnR]

John are vintage Sheffield knives the focus of your collecting ?
Do you collect makers other than J.R. ?
Are you in Britain ?
kj

I'm in MD KJ, I just really appreciate vintage British knives especially with stag handles, they really used some incredible stag and are also high quality knives,I do have other vintage British makers mainly the large stag pruners.

I mainly collect vintage jacks, pruners and Barlow's, as far as new knives I do like and collect GEC knives, I really feel they are doing a great job on their knives, I have gone to the Rendezvous the last 3 years and have had a great time and met some great people.

Thank you for your questions KJ.

[JohnR]

Love that jack, John, beautiful stag and near full blades! Kick on the master is more of an old style, I believe.
Dan

Thank you Dan, I think that kick is called a top hat kick and is pretty common on old British knives, I have a couple where it is very tall.

[danno50]

I have also heard it called a square kick or a stove pipe kick. My thoughts were that it possibly indicated that your jack was maybe a little older than your congress? I may be out to lunch on this, possibly they used the two kick styles for a period of time?
Dan

[JohnR]

Dan, I must be getting senile, you are right it is a stovepipe kick. I think you are right in the Jack being older than the Congress, all 3 knives are marked Cutlers To His Majesty putting the most likely date range from 1901 to the mid 30's, the Jack could be closer to the 1901 date.