America's "Little Sheffield"

[JAMESC41001]

In 1915 Schrade purchased the Walden Cutlery Handle Co
This was a company the had been co-owned by Schrade, Walden and NYK. Attached is a pic of my Schrade cut co knives with jigged bone from 1904-1916ish. These have the curved stamp. I have seen a few straight line tang stamps with this bone but very few. Also attached is a NYK example with the same bone. Not my knife. I do not remember seeing a Walden or keen kutter with this style bone. Lots of changes happening during this time though.

[LongBlade]

What a great collection of Schrades Jay ... the jigging is not doubt recognizable across each one of those knives - very cool ...

[danno50]

Ditto what Lee said, very nice Schrades, Jay! Here is a Keen Kutter and two EC Simmons knives with, what looks to me, like very similar bone to your Schrade Cut Cos. You are right though, I believe this KK is the only one I have seen with that type of bone.

[JAMESC41001]

Thanks Lee. Dan that’s a great example. So many things were happening and changing during that time period it is a very iintresting time to research. I will post a few things that I have found concerning jigged bone and the Hudson valley.

[wlf]

Nice knives James and Dan, and even better conversation. One of my favorite topics is the handles on knives.

An old man told me once this might be my oldest farmers jack, that statement surprised me. I don't think it's the oldest, but it's a lot older than I presumed.
Here's my contribution, a NYK,unused,to which whose pruning blade is a mystery to me.

[danno50]

Very nice, Lyle! Another good example of the Walden Cutlery Handle Co. bone. I must be missing something, how about a bit more explanation of why the pruning blade is a mystery?

[JAMESC41001]

Lyle, that is an amazing knife my friend. I don’t know enough about it to commentt on the blade but it sure looks like a NYK etch. That’s a keeper. Thanks for posting it.

[wlf]

It easier to show you,and although the NYK appears unused and is etched, albeit scratched; it should look like this HSB on top, which was made by NYK. It's dubbed off.

[LongBlade]

Nice additions Dan and Lyle ,.. real beauties!! Lyle - no doubt different blade swedges- different cutler perhaps that made the two??

Thanks Lee. Dan that’s a great example. So many things were happening and changing during that time period it is a very iintresting time to research. I will post a few things that I have found concerning jigged bone and the Hudson valley.

Your point Jay about lots changing at that time is interesting - particularly to me because that was the period that many companies were heading downhill especially in CT with many ceasing to exist in the 1920s.. yet Schrade continued on for many more years ....

[JAMESC41001]

Timing is everything I guess Lee. As far as Schrade, they obviously were able to stIck around through some tough times after WW1 and through the Great Depression. Luckily Albert Baer came along and was able to take Ulster who were having thier own troubles, and turn things around. He was the right man in the right place at the right time. There is a great explanation of this subject in Rich Langston’s new book which I believe is available here on AAPK. Albert had not just the brains but the guts to pull it all together and capitalize on the opportunities the Second World War presented and beyond. One of those rare people that could make it happen. The problem with studying edged cutting tools is deciding where to start. Cutting tools preceded our use of fire. You can say the Stone Age but I was reading Henry Hudson’s journal from his first trip up the Hudson River. They discribe an incident where they anchored near Kingston NY. There the Indians “slaughterd a dog to cook in their honor. He said they went to the water to gather some shells to skin the animal with. I found that very interesting. One of the big questions is wether the natives had the technical ability to make iron. But stories like this suggest they really didn’t need to. Henry left some knives with the boys before he split. I bet they still used the shells.

[wlf]

No Lee, it should look like the other, it wasn’t made the way it is now.

[danno50]

Thanks Lyle, I was wondering if the depth of the swedge was the problem. Must of been a user modification, but why?

[wlf]

It doesn't look used . I thought it might have been in some accident , where the pruning blade got scuffed and bent.

I really have no idea.It's too nice otherwise to have had much , if any use.

[danno50]

Yep, another mystery not likely to ever be solved? Still a beautiful knife!

[BWT]

In 1915 Schrade purchased the Walden Cutlery Handle Co
This was a company the had been co-owned by Schrade, Walden and NYK. Attached is a pic of my Schrade cut co knives with jigged bone from 1904-1916ish. These have the curved stamp. I have seen a few straight line tang stamps with this bone but very few. Also attached is a NYK example with the same bone. Not my knife. I do not remember seeing a Walden or keen kutter with this style bone. Lots of changes happening during this time though. D9F49333-6C3D-48FB-B00D-B2AD1F405AC9.jpeg1B60CEA6-843B-4C05-BFC2-8713A34DCCCE.png

That's a beautiful collection James, very nice!!!

[BWT]

Ditto what Lee said, very nice Schrades, Jay! Here is a Keen Kutter and two EC Simmons knives with, what looks to me, like very similar bone to your Schrade Cut Cos. You are right though, I believe this KK is the only one I have seen with that type of bone.

Very nice Dan,love the handles!!!

[BWT]

Nice knives James and Dan, and even better conversation. One of my favorite topics is the handles on knives.

An old man told me once this might be my oldest farmers jack, that statement surprised me. I don't think it's the oldest, but it's a lot older than I presumed.
Here's my contribution, a NYK,unused,to which whose pruning blade is a mystery to me.

Very nice Lyle, I got a little behind here. Just saw the Ulsters you posted last week or so ago. That's a really nice NYK. Enjoying looking at everyone's postings

[LongBlade]

No Lee, it should look like the other, it wasn’t made the way it is now.

Very strange Lyle as the etch looks original and I agree the hawkbill blade looks abit thick/different?? - I'm totally baffled - must have been a top notch cobbling job !!!

[KAW]

Lyle... after just reading thru the "Old Pruning and Horticultural Knives" thread... if there is one thing I took from there... it's that there are more variations in the shape of the hawkbill blade than in any other blade produced... even with the same manufacturer... and well before the customers gets their hands on them... resharpening them, etc... It would seem to me... with the complex curve... it took a lot more experienced cutler to produce a hawkbill blade with a consistent shape by hand and with the amount of time it took to hand make each blade, that if it wasn't shaped just right, I suspect that as long as a blade was considered functional it was still sold.

Great discussion about the bone handles... Thanks Jay for bringing it up...

also thanks to Jay... I'm the proud owner of my first Honk Falls knife made in Napanoch, NY (1921 − 1929):

[wlf]

Great rare stamped knife Ken.

[JAMESC41001]

Looking at a pic that Charlie (upnorth) provided I notice that the jigged bone on the group in the top right corner matches with the rendering shown on George Schrades patent for his bone jigging machine, dated 1923. Here are some pics.

[LongBlade]

Lyle... after just reading thru the "Old Pruning and Horticultural Knives" thread... if there is one thing I took from there... it's that there are more variations in the shape of the hawkbill blade than in any other blade produced... even with the same manufacturer... and well before the customers gets their hands on them... resharpening them, etc... It would seem to me... with the complex curve... it took a lot more experienced cutler to produce a hawkbill blade with a consistent shape by hand and with the amount of time it took to hand make each blade, that if it wasn't shaped just right, I suspect that as long as a blade was considered functional it was still sold.

Great discussion about the bone handles... Thanks Jay for bringing it up...

also thanks to Jay... I'm the proud owner of my first Honk Falls knife made in Napanoch, NY (1921 − 1929):

Ken - Hawkbills did differ slightly in shape and no doubt some had more of a pointy "bill" than others... something hard to tell from many knives because Hawkbills were hard used knives and often sharpened... Personally I think the blade grinders had an easier time making them on the belts than did folks who needed to sharpen them with a stone which is where many lost their hawkbill shape ...

Lovely Honk Falls Equal-End Jack Ken ...

[BWT]

Looking at a pic that Charlie (upnorth) provided I notice that the jigged bone on the group in the top right corner matches with the rendering shown on George Schrades patent for his bone jigging machine, dated 1923. Here are some pics. A3D59A1B-9F50-4652-B667-B8240DA02B25.jpeg6C49B5E0-9CF5-4B4B-A869-C07482E27ECE.jpeg1F15EF61-57CD-4516-86CC-60DBB1831C8F.jpeg

That's some beautiful bone, thanks for sharing those

[LongBlade]

Forgot in my above post - long day

Jay - I can see the similarity you note for the upper right hand jigged bone to the rendering for the jigging machine... Do you think the peach seed jigging (which to me was classic Schrade) was done on a jigging machine as well?? I really don’t know how a jigging machine works - is it programmed to produce a certain pattern of jigging? All interesting to me as I thought jigging was a hand crafted skill and wasn’t aware of an automated machine !!!

[JAMESC41001]

Lee, so far if we look at Charlie’s pic the top left is circa 1904-1915. This bone was from the Walden Cutlery handle Co. I’m guessing hand jigged at the “stag shop”. The lower left with the basket weave was likely hand jigged at Schrade. We know that during the war the cutlery co’s were busy doing military contracts and likely did not need much bone during that time. Although the patent shows 1923 it’s likely that bone hugging machine was in use well before that. So that is when the knives in the top right were being produced. There are a heck of a lot of peachseed knives out there so I would think they were machine done. They are very consistent. I reached out to Herman Williams recently. He told me he learned the art of hand jogging and dyeing bone from Dave Swinden. Dave’s association with Schrade started in the fifties I believe. There would have been some old timers still around to pass along that skill but I’m sure it was quickly becoming a thing of the past. The two other larger jigged bone suppliers at the time were Salisbury, who sure plied Holley among others and Rodgers who seems to be everywhere. There are a lot of variables but this begins to narrow it down at least a little.