All About Pocket Knives

RalphAlsip wrote:Dave, beautiful old Winchester cattle knife.

Thank you! It's my first Winchester. I've waited on picking one up, until I was sure it was not a fake. I had heard that Bernard Levine had said that 9 out of 10 Winchester knives on eBay are fakes. I got my 3950 from a knowledgeable collector and have confidence that it is real. And I'm a Winchester rifle aficionado, so this brand of collectible knife, really appeals to me. This whole fake/counterfeit knife dilemma really bothers me. I've decided that, until I get a lot better at understanding the details, I'm avoiding eBay and only going to buy from legitimate knife experts that can authenticate a valuable knife.

Nice IXL cattle! Here is another one with a surprise in the third pic.

Cal, beautiful IXL. Looks like it's a cattle knife AND a whittler.

That's unusual Cal. I like it!

Cal, very interesting, good surprise, nice knife!
Dan

RalphAlsip wrote:Cal, beautiful IXL. Looks like it's a cattle knife AND a whittler.

Case also made a Cattle / Whittler variation with a split backspring. The pattern is 6345 1/2 SAB. This is the rarest configuration of the Case 45 Cattle knife. The 6345 1/2 SAB examples I have are very susceptible to blade rub and don't open and close as smoothly as the typical 45 pattern blade configuration. Maybe this is the reason why they didn't make very many.

tongueriver wrote:Nice IXL cattle! Here is another one with a surprise in the third pic.

A cattler! Very nice.

Great cattle knives all. It is interesting to see SK's 4 blade then toungrivers cattler as Tsar Bomba calls it

Pretty Case, Ralph. Thanks for sharing it.

Also, KJ that one is a dandy!

Beautiful whittler, tongueriver, as is Jerrys.

I was able to take some better pictures today, of the Winchester 3950 Cattle knife...

Dave, regarding ebay: i spend some time most days searching various knife brands and patterns on ebay. It is a source of learning as over time you will have seen a wide range of knives & knife patterns. The more you see, the more opportunity to learn.
Also there are many honest, helpful, knife collectors who are also ebay knife sellers. I have obtained many fine knives on ebay often for a price strongly in my favor. Moreover, all these sellers will accept return if you don't like the knife once it's received. These sellers want happy customers and give much better 'service' than you would get in a 'bricks & mortar' store. With this type of seller obtaining a knife on ebay is as safe as it gets.
If you want a list of a few of these top notch knife sellers, pm or email me.
And even the most experienced collector gets fooled at times, so while buying from other collectors(directly, not ebay) is 'safe', it is still not quite a 100% guarantee of an all original knife.
kj

kootenay joe wrote:Dave, regarding ebay: i spend some time most days searching various knife brands and patterns on ebay. It is a source of learning as over time you will have seen a wide range of knives & knife patterns. The more you see, the more opportunity to learn.
Also there are many honest, helpful, knife collectors who are also ebay knife sellers. I have obtained many fine knives on ebay often for a price strongly in my favor. Moreover, all these sellers will accept return if you don't like the knife once it's received. These sellers want happy customers and give much better 'service' than you would get in a 'bricks & mortar' store. With this type of seller obtaining a knife on ebay is as safe as it gets.
If you want a list of a few of these top notch knife sellers, pm or email me.
And even the most experienced collector gets fooled at times, so while buying from other collectors(directly, not ebay) is 'safe', it is still not quite a 100% guarantee of an all original knife.
kj

Duly noted kj! Thanks!

Still, every time I look at Case knives on eBay, I think they're fakes. I think I've been reading our Counterfeit Watch sub-forum too much.

With Case knives there are quite a few fakes, knives that have been altered. Lots of other fine old USA brands to look at.
kj

CheckSix wrote:Still, every time I look at Case knives on eBay, I think they're fakes.

Dave, if you've got the stomach for collecting Winchester knives, then collecting Case knives should be duck soup for you. (lol)

RalphAlsip wrote:

CheckSix wrote:Still, every time I look at Case knives on eBay, I think they're fakes.

Dave, if you've got the stomach for collecting Winchester knives, then collecting Case knives should be duck soup for you. (lol)

Good point!
On the Cases I have, one came from Nevada Jerry and the other 4 came from Steve Pfeifer. Impeccable sources, so far. I've got a new one in the mail from 313Mike, which I'm sure is going to be great!

Here is an old Griffon Bridgeport, CT from 1893-1919 or so.
It is a junior cattle knife at 3.25"

I like everything about that knife!

Beechtree wrote:Here is an old Griffon Bridgeport, CT from 1893-1919 or so.
It is a junior cattle knife at 3.25"

That is a cool knife!

I just got my first Griffon recently but it is a Carbo Magnetic moose, in celluloid. Yours is the 2nd one I've seen now.

I used to want to collect that pattern B, but you can't get 'em all. As usual, you have another very desirable knife.

Thanks for the nice comments Greedy, CheckSix and Wlf.

You see a ton of Griffon razors but very few pocket knives, nice find

This is an old Robeson that is marked "The Robeson Cut. Co Rochester NY" on the main blade. All blades are marked and 2 of the blades are long pull. I have not studied Robeson very much, but I believe it dates from around 1900.

Thanks for looking.

That's a rare one

Tom Kalcevic in Knives Can Talk!, dates the stamp on the master blade 1896 - 1899, which would put its manufacture to have taken place in the Sherwood - Bingham cutlery factory in Camillus, New York.

Robeson moved its manufacturing to Perry, New York in 1900.

Whether Tom is correct in those dates is not something I can confirm. He did the research for his books and had access to old records, etc.

It's a nice knife. Any Robeson with long pulls are old.

I had a four blade cattle knife very similar to that one at one time. It had been heavily cleaned and I eventually sold it to a dealer/collector.

Charlie Noyes

That Robeson is stellar. I love it.