All About Pocket Knives

Nice boxes being added.

May as well add this one. It's not mine. It sold on Ebay this month, March, 2013, for $54.00.

It held 1/2 dozen New York Knife Company BS-1 Official Boy Scout knives.

Charlie Noyes

Here are some more.

Not mine. Pics taken from Ebay auctions.

I thought that Robeson long box was very interesting.

I think that metal tab on top of the Robeson short box was hooked over the edge of the box when the lid was overturned revealing the velvet display area and kept it in a slanted position for display.

I did bid on the two Robeson boxes, but did not win them.



Charlie Noyes

This is a late 1950's and 60's Robeson box used up until they went out of business in 1965.

Cutler Federal continued using these for the Robeson marked knives made for them by Camillus.

I have a couple dozen of these.

Charlie

Nice one Mike, any chance we would get to see the salesman sample knife to go along with that beautiful box?

Nice Charlie. That is a great old Empire box. I like the B&A (Beardsley & Alvord) mark, maybe someone might be able to come along and help date it?

Well, to answer my own question, Goins' states that in 1890 the B&A was dropped in favor of just Empire Knife Co., although the April 1996 issue of The National Knife Magazine mentions that the use of dual nomenclature was dropped by the turn of the century. So, at the latest the Empire box is 1900, but sometime before 1890 is likely. Thanks for posting these Charlie.

Sorry it took so long but here is a couple of pictures of the etched Walden salesman's knife.

This Hatch Cutlery Co box sold on Ebay a week or two ago. It went high.

Charlie Noyes

Pleasant surprise with this rare box Look what I found under the cover paper. Both names are an awesome fine. I have a good idea why and how it happened

That is really cool! Are you going to tell us your suspicions or make us wait for the article?

Very nice PA, so cool! I will be checking back and hope to hear more about this tid-bit of history.

If you like old New England made cutlery like I do, then this old box is a real prize to have in your collection.

It is from one of the oldest N.E. knife companies, American Knife Co. when they were located in Plymouth Hollow, Ct. circa 1849-1875.

So this box is anywhere from 138-164 years old! Amazing it lasted this long

MB, you know I love to see those old boxes. That is a super old one for sure. Great condition too.

Here are a couple of more pics of the PENN Cutlery/ W.R. Case & Sons Box.

The story is this. When I was researching my first book about Tidioute Knives. I had the honor of speaking at length with Zeb Martin, grand daughter of Vern Atkins. He owned and operated the Penn Company in Tidioute. She told me, (and it never struck home until now) about how her father Bill and said about getting materials from other knife companies. She mentioned boxes, wrappers and handle material. Well if you think about the time period all this was happening the story unfolds. Penn didn't last to many years. The Great Depression was coming and it did in more than one cutlery company. Penn was running very lean as I reported in the book. The ability to buy boxes cheap and place your label over them was certainly a good deal. But even better, think about the CASE story. During this exact time period CASE was switching boxes from the what you see here to the Tested XX blue boxes. So it would appear that CASE had left over stock and found a place to sell them. My discussions with Zeb confirms this did happen. Also my good friend Dimitri in NH got one of these boxes as well and indeed it to is actually a W.R.Case & Sons box.

I am not sure which box is more valuable, the Penn or the Case. A pretty darn good problem to have if you ask me.

Yes sir David, and here are the pictures of my knife box.

I peeled the Penn label back and sure enough the Case label is underneath!

Great story David and great boxes to you and Dimitri. I am glad you were able to find documentation to reaffirm what your friend said. This is the kind of thing which is so powerful, and makes me really value being an AAPK member. As for which one is more valuable, the case or the Penn cutlery box, I would say that having both on one box is more valuable, at least for a collector of historically related stuff. This tells more of a story then simply one box or the other, it tells about the difficult times of the cutlery industry during the early part of the 20th century as well as the respective histories of the Case or Penn brands. Very cool.
And Dimitri, that is one fantastic American Knife Co. box. That is a really special one. I find the outside to be quite interesting, almost like the wallpaper in the house in which I grew up, dated to the early eighteen teens.

Well, here's another Penn Cutlery box with a Case label peeking out at the edge.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-vtg-PENN-Ti ... 27d2da845b

Buy-It-Now $25.00 in round numbers.

Charlie Noyes

Great boxes with some very interesting information about these past few, Thanks.

KA-BAR box found in junk store. Any ideas on age of box?
Nice box

Stockman

Good Lord Stockman,

It looks very old and in crazy condition........ BH

That's a great box.

Surely, somebody here knows when Union started using the "Ka-Bar" logo. That would be the earliest possible date.

Those metal reinforced corners are the bomb. I have a Robeson box with similar reinforcements and consider it to be quite old.

Charlie Noyes

Not Knife Boxes, however, I believe these were the labels that Ulster Knife used for their boxes. Someone please step up and correct me if this is not the case.

The larger ones are approximately 2-1/2" wide x 3-1/2" tall and the smaller one is approximately 2-3/4" wide x 1-1/4" tall

Thank you

Tom

Nice old labels Tom

Tom,

Those are sweet

Keith

A couple of old boxes. Not in the best of shape.

A.F. Bannister & Co. Newark NJ 1884-1915

Hartford Cutlery Co. I'm not sure when or where this is from as there were mutiple Hartford Cutlery Co.'s Looks to be old due to the 'Hand Forged' Indication.
As per Goins....
' ' Prussia -prior to 1914 (Marshall-Wells)
' ' Duluth Minn. -1914-1939 (Marshall-Wells)
' ' Hartford Conn. 1900-1920
' ' Tariffville Conn. 1880 - pre-1886

Nice old boxes

Thanks Dimitri