All About Pocket Knives

these 2 today

richard, I especially like your German Barlow. I can make out Solingen but not the company on the tang. What is the brand?

Quick Steel wrote:richard, I especially like your German Barlow. I can make out Solingen but not the company on the tang. What is the brand?

Stamp says "Hy. Kaufman & Sons, Soligen" - not familiar with that maker. Very nice wooden handles - I really like the grain showing on the mark side. Do you have a guess as to the age, Richard?

Tsar Bomba wrote:You know how Stevie Ray Vaughan had his "number one" Stratocaster? The late '50s axe with his initials on it. The one he always went to first, the one that always called to him? Beat up, well-loved, sweatstained and ugly but just so good at what it did?

This ten-dot Barlow is my "number one".

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(A friendly neighborhood cat was sunning himself on my back porch so I made use of him for a backdrop.)

I really like that Ten Dot Tony. I need to find one of those bone covered Case Barlows. The one I have at the moment is Delrin.

Barlow's are hard to beat, I like them a bunch.

richard, I agree the wood makes your Barlow stand out. Kaufman & Sons was a long time tack shop in NY. Very upscale, right on Park Ave. They provided saddles, bridles, etc. to the horsy set. I suspect your knife is a special factory order from Germany for their shop. I suppose Olbertz is the most famous of the German knife factories, but I have no way of knowing what factory actually provided the knives; or if in fact I am right about the origin of the knife. I know they were around in 1975 but I understand they closed not long after with the death of the owner.

If anyone else has knowledge of this interesting knife, I am sure they will contribute.

Went with a Case pen knife for light duty Sunday carry. OH

thank you for your comments. this is the stamps the other side. k 55 reverse k germany. it has aluminium bolsters. i know nothing about it. i thought the 55. maybe ment 1955?
a freind gave it to me. holds a good edge. i use it as a e.d.c.

Tsar Bomba wrote:Thanks, QS, I actually wish it were original! I copied the idea...from myself, a couple years ago. Back then the setting was my own cat. She wasn't as thrilled from the look on her face.

Great steel in those barlows, I have a couple of them.

Voos USA pre-sixtiesish

DM11 wrote:I really like that Ten Dot Tony. I need to find one of those bone covered Case Barlows. The one I have at the moment is Delrin.

The best thing about that is you still have the famous CV steel which was pretty much still at its peak. I freshened up the edge on the pen blade almost effortlessly while watching the game earlier. The Delrin ones really seemed to be ubiquitous by the mid-70s but I still see lots of red bone clip and spear Barlows (along with the occasional one-armed version) on fleabay and in vintage knife shops, and the prices are still reasonable.

This one was my very first Case Barlow.

Old Hunter wrote:Went with a Case pen knife for light duty Sunday carry. OH

Love the Appy bone, OH. Is that an A6208?

richard wrote:thank you for your comments. this is the stamps the other side. k 55 reverse k germany. it has aluminium bolsters. i know nothing about it. i thought the 55. maybe ment 1955?
a freind gave it to me. holds a good edge. i use it as a e.d.c.

While I know of "K55K" as synonymous with the famous Mercator metal-handled folder, it seems your knife might be from the cutler who owns the K55K mark and unrelated to the pattern usually associated with it.

See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_K55K

The designation "K55K" with the inversed second K is a code for the original producers main office in Solingen and the knife model designation. The correct code deciphering according to the website of the current manufacturer would be: "K" for "Kaufmann" (the name of the original producer), "55" for "Hochstraße 55" (the address of the original company residence in Solingen, Germany), and the inversed second "K" (for "Katze" which translates to "cat" - the knife's main emblem).

Still doesn't help date the knife to inside of more than a 100-year span.

ken98k wrote:Great steel in those barlows, I have a couple of them.

The carbon steel Colonials always made for great edges. I bought one of those big Barlows to show off with the rest of my Colonials and one specifically to tote.

Ivoryman wrote:Voos USA pre-sixtiesish

I think either you're psychic or I am, I-Man. I'm taking a dinner break from putting a new bevel on the master blade of one of mine so I can tote it tomorrow, and this isn't the first time we've both gotten the Voos bug in the same week (or even day).

Yes, it is an A6208, 1980 mfg. OH

Old Hunter wrote:Went with a Case pen knife for light duty Sunday carry. OH

That's a beauty OH!!

Great minds think alike Bomba, just felt like time to give it a ride again. Always satisfies.

Ya'll doing a great job. Keep 'em coming.

A pair in Sambar stag on a cold, windy Monday,

Dan Graves and Todd Davison

SAK Small Tinker.. I go this on Nov 7th and it has been in my rfp every day since.. I am on a SAK jag and am surprised how many times I have reached into the rfp for this knife..
John

Voos again

Montanaman wrote:A pair in Sambar stag on a cold, windy Monday,

Dan Graves and Todd Davison

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Very nice!

Stockman and a Bull Nose.

Beautiful Ulster, Chris, a fistful of knife judging by that #44 next to it.

geocash, loving the bones on that stockman. Is it German? The jigging looks a lot like a newer F.A. Bower I have.

Montanaman, caught myself drooling over that red stag on the Graves fixed-blade... That TD is no slouch either.

David, I take it all the good peachseed goes through Kansas.

At one point I noticed that I was just coincidentally carrying a bunch of Barlows in a row at the same time many of you fellas were, but now I'm thinking why not go for 2 weeks in a row? I was walking a little tilted today with Big Red in the LFP...

Same this week so far

Voos here, Voos there, Ulster, on & on. Love it.

And, Tsar Bomba, that little stockman yesterday has "Fight'n Rooster" etched on the master blade & "Solingen Germany" stamped on the tang & that's all I know about it. I dig the thick slabs & the jigging but the master & spey blades sit so low that I wish the handles were scooped out for the nail nicks on both sides. I'm sure there's a term for that, maybe it's a "notch hollow"? I can see myself screwing it up if I try to do that but maybe someone else...