Hello Jack Jones, and all you other AAPKers...
This is my first post here. I have no idea whether posting to this old thread will even get noticed, but what the hey, I'll go for it. I cannot come anywhere near matching thee quality and interest inherent in your first posts, Jack. That letter in particular from your 77 year old great grandfather to your father was particularly poignant - a plan for a good man's life all in a few words.
I don't collect knives, but when I found one of Ira's (a boning knife), I had to have it. It was loaded with character, and was super-sharp to boot. I'm writing now in the hopes that we can find more info to fill out the I.H. Anderson timeline, so I'll post some questions and see what comes of them . I found a notice in the March 19, 1946 issue of the Hillsboro (Ohio) Press Gazette that the I.H. Anderson Knife Company plant had gone up for sale, so I presume that sometime prior to that S&S may have taken over production of the Anderson knives. Does anyone know when that transition would have occurred?
Jack, your great grandfather would have been 77 when he wrote that 1939 letter to your father. Was he still operating his business at that time? Do you have the date of his passing? The S&S blurb on the cardboard knife sheath says that I. H. Anderson had been making knives for 35 years, so that would have had him starting production - I'm guessing - somewhere around 1910-1914. He would have been around 50 years old at that time. I presume he must have been a knifesmith for some time before that, but not running his own operation. Do you know if he worked for another knifesmith, or was his own father perhaps a knifesmith? Now...about all those threads suggesting that there was an I. H. Anderson making knives around the time of the Civil War. If that is the case, then I imagine that would have been his father. On the other hand, that could simply be a research error. It would be great to settle that issue once and for all.
Finally...I have just begun to research I.H. Anderson knives. I haven't checked as to whether there are carbon steel knives bearing his stamp, or if they are all stainless. Maybe some of you have a ready answer to that one.
Here are some pics of the I.H. Anderson knife that I have...