All About Pocket Knives

As Joe said - quite a great showing of celluloid handles of all patterns ...

For what it is worth Lyle - I heard dark celluloid is more stable because of additional binders added to the mix.. the exception for a lighter celluloid is French Ivory which I underand is also very stable - that’s good news for that lovely Remington FJ ...

Owd Wullie wrote:
Interesting that some company's celluloid lasts forever, while other company's stuff self destructs with frightening regularity.

Can the good ones be considered safe and stabilised or are they still too unpredictable to trust?
Some pre-1940 cell. looks so good I'm tempted to take a chance.

My opinion - there are no guarantees with any celluloid because of the chemicals involved in the production - though I mentioned dark celluloid and supposedly French Ivory are stable I wouldn’t take the chance of storing them with other knives nor buying a very expensive celluloid knife. I hope Charlie doesn’t mind but he shared the story on AAPK of a very very expensive celluloid Robeson that he bought and eventually offgassed - I think there is something to be learned from that story. Personally it doesn’t matter if a knife has been stable for 100 years as it can still be set off to self destruct and the reasons for why are not clear. I guess storing them in the dark and cooler stable temperature may help but one never knows. I believe there are some here who stored celluloid with their other knives in safes that are dark and temperature controlled including humidity and yet there are reports of the celluloid going bad.. as pretty as it is sometimes I still will not buy it with few exceptions... the above is my opinion but based on the experience of many who collect celluloid.

Lee, you can share that horrid tale anytime you want.

I think sometimes, outgassing can be precipitated by the handle coming into contact with an antagonistic material, such as that sometimes used in storage or display cases that we see marketed.

Charlie

Thanks for the opinion, LongBlade. Knowing Charlie's experience will save me (and others) similar heartache because this thread was starting to break down my resistance to celluloid. No wonder it was such a popular material. Hopefully they can do as much with acrylic.

I picked up this 3 1/2" Imperial Jack over the weekend at a gunshow for a few bucks. It has what I would call green swirl celluloid and the 1930-1936 tang stamp.

OC...

KAW wrote:Wow Joe... Neat lookin' knife & thanks for bumping up a thread on one of my favorite subjects...
Lyle... super cool lookin' knives... too bad having to rehandle the one... I really like the swirl effect it originally had...
...and that goes for yours as well OC...

... and speaking of favorites... an old (altho it doesn't look like it) Schrade Cut Co stockman:


another old Schrade... this time a jack...


a couple of Schrade butter & molasses including a fishtail button knife...


A NY Knife Co. whittler...


One of their other brands... the Electric Cut Co:


Not sure about this one altho it is definitely some form of plastic, but is totally flat...
NYKC's Wallkill River Works (1928 - 31)...


...and while I don't have any Ulsters with celluloid handles... I do have this Kingston...

Love the Wallkill. One of my favorite brands and, from what I've gathered, pretty rare to come across.

Just to show a few..

Great Celluloids being posted.
Many color configurations I've never seen before. Love the "Snake Skins"

A few others.

Here is a schrade cut with nice orange marbled looking celluloid handles.

Great looking knives posted. I really like so of the fantastic colors of celluloid knives that were made early on. I am also not too afraid about gassing out. Never had one do that actually plus I store mine, mostly Utica's, in their own cases just in case.

Nice butter & molasses celluloid on this schrade cut.

Henry Sears

Voos

Clear cut
Geo Worthington

Western States

Wyeths
Warrented

Shapleigh DE

Cattaraugus

Challenge

Unknowns

Couple of more unknowns

These golden pearl celluloid handles are very attractive.