All About Pocket Knives

Lloyd that is a super nice old knife.

Have to share this equal end cattle knife in here!!

Cool old cattle knife Scott ... love the bone on that one with threaded line on bolsters, and shield is nice too !!!

Mark I really enjoyed and appreciated the story and pictures of your Grandpa John Hackney. I knew him very well, bought a rare Case Tested trapper from him once for $1500.00. Remember him selling the Remington Bullets and then he bought more later on. Seems like he had two daughters (your aunts I assume) that also liked knives. Remember making one of them a display case, was her name Gloria? Thanks so much for sharing the story and also the pictures of your OVB made by NYK

Any possibility you fellas could tell me the age on my OVB above?

Knife appears to be an NYK made knife, therefore its latest date is 1931, the year NYK went out of business, probably 1920's.

JMO

toolboy wrote:Mark I really enjoyed and appreciated the story and pictures of your Grandpa John Hackney. I knew him very well, bought a rare Case Tested trapper from him once for $1500.00. Remember him selling the Remington Bullets and then he bought more later on. Seems like he had two daughters (your aunts I assume) that also liked knives. Remember making one of them a display case, was her name Gloria? Thanks so much for sharing the story and also the pictures of your OVB made by NYK

Hey Toolboy, Thanks so much for commenting about my Grandpa,,,I sure miss him so much and you are Correct that he did buy more bullets after that.
He used to sell Tools and antique Coins at the flea market in Bargersville, IN every Sunday for MANY years until he got so old he couldnt make the drive anymore. I remember when he quit driving that Old Bread Truck because My father got it and turned it into a Concession stand for Hot dogs & Hamburgers, LOL. Yes indeed he actually had 4 daughters and My father(Joy, Jody, Julie and Jeanie). Unfortunately none of my aunts associate with me,,Probably because I just a kid to them. Thanks Toolman for bringing back some memories for me,,,If not for my Grandpa, I would not be a knife man today,,This I know for a Fact.
Kind Regards,
Mark

wlf wrote:Thanks for the pictures and the story Mark.

Here is a HSB farmers jack made by NYK I believe.

Hey Lyle, I certainly agree that the knife is NYK made too. I really like seeing the center steel pin and outer brass pins because it was very normal for NYK to do this unlike so many other manufactures. Killer knife bro
Kind Regards,
Mark

Just happened onto this forum and thought hey I got a couple of those. Would be highly pleased if you could tell me any or
everything there is to know about these two. The handle material on the first looks like MOP. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
moss

Mossdancer - I can tell you the first knife no doubt has MOP handles and perhaps is a serpentine pen knife (just based on tip bolsters and shape)... I can't quite tell on the 2nd knife what your handles are based on photos but has the looks of a cattle knife but not sure based on blades which no doubt have seen some sharpening ... that color of handles on 2nd knife can be tricky - unless I see some grain suggesting ivory (but that is not always seen on ivory either making it hard based on photo) I am not seeing signs of haversion canals suggesting bone (which look like small holes somewhere along the handle for lack of a better description - but again not always seen on bone either) - just guessing but seems to be bone and less likely ivory - doesn't seem to have that celluloid (though celluloid was a popular handle on cattle knives from my reading) or French Celluloid look to me - the latter would have horizontal lines very consistent and parallel along the length... other than that I am no expert by far on HS&B knives so don't have much else to add... sorry but hope this is somewhat helpful...

Hey Guys,,I concur with LongBlade also. The minor chipping on bottom liner on the cattle does resemble a more natural material not like celluloid which normally is noted for shrinking instead of chipping.
Kind Regards,
Mark

Here are three HSB & Co. OVB folders. Top is a swell center or Coke bottle folding hunter (NYKC), left one is a dog leg tear drop Jack and on the right is a regular Jack OVB marked on primary mark side blade. Lloyd

3 beauties Lloyd, great knives!

Great knives, Lloyd.

That hunter is a beast.

Lloyd, you buried the lead in the other thread by holding back that coke bottle. Wow!

A trio of treasures right there, my friend.

Nice knives Lloyd and Mossdancer.

Thanks John, Joe, Tony and Lyle for the nice remarks on my HSB knives--much appreciated!

Anyone have any idea what kind of wood the handles are made of on the smaller Jacks? Even a guess?

Thanks, Lloyd

I suspect the swell-end jack is cocobolo.

I really can't tell on that cool little dogleg teardrop of yours, though. Due to color and certain characteristics I'd almost guess bubinga, but that's a scarce-to-rare wood for pocketknives AFAIK. Could just be oak with a little character, but I am surely no expert...

Here is a HSB English Jack; 4 3/8ths-inch; brown bone; filed German-silvery internal liner between pen and master blade; pins, shield, bolster and end cap.

What factory do you believe made it?

The knife is not in my cutlery section reprint of the 1933 HSB catalogue. I have very little reference material on HSB knives.

Except for the pen blade and shield it shares many similarities with No. K2683 in Shapleigh’s 1942 catalogue, section 21, page 73 (a Keen Cutter), making the knife possibly Winchester-made. This is admittedly a tenuously-based hypothesis.

One experienced knife maven looked at it and seemed pretty confident that it was Camillus-made. I do not recall why he believed that.

The number [110] on the pile side of the master blade is intriguing. Has anyone else seen three digit or lower numbers stamped like this on other HSB knives; or maybe even more importantly, on knives made by one of the brands of the known makers of Hibbard, Spence, Bartlett & Co. knives?

Whoops. Looking further in my notes I see that indeed I was told by the knife maven that Camillus did stamp three-digit numbers on it's blade tangs.

Do others agree?

I would concur.

I don't get many knives off ebay, this arrived last week. Faint blade etch " Fort Worth 1902 Cattle Raisers Association"

Another Tulsa pickup,3 blade sowbelly stockman with OVB etch.

Thought I would share my old OVB Box.
Measured 4-¼" wide X 2-¾" deep and 1-¼" tall.
No indication of what pattern it held but on the end of the box in pencil it is marked 657.
Cost is marked 1.75

"Art Nouveau" is an International style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts, that was most popular between 1890 and 1910.
A good example of this time period is on one of my wife's Art Nouveau hat pins, it has a 8-¼" pin shank, with an actual pearl. You will also observe that many knife companies got in on this very popular art form and produced some very interesting "Art Nouveau" knife handles.
I cannot give a exact date of my below pictured "Hibbard, Spencer & Bartlett" Knife, other than between 1890-1910, during the Art Nouveau craze.
Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Co. 1855-c1960 has a vast history of knife manufacturer/contributors:
"O.V.B., True Value by New York Knife, Ulster, Camillus, Utica, etc. Became True Value Co." maybe I have missed others?
Knife measures 3-¼" closed. Both blades have "Half Stops" strong walk & talk. Both blades are marked "Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Co."
My wife believes the handles are Gold. I will purchase a "Precious Metal Testing Kit" to confirm her beliefs.
It never tarnishes, dulls or looses its luster. However there are no Gold markings or symbols.