All About Pocket Knives

Steve, Knifegirl,

Thanks for posting that info! I had no idea these were sold by Sears either. They are also older than I thought - I figured they dated to around 1920. Nice to have it confirmed they are all hand-made, too, although I kinda suspected that by the look of them. The rough, hand-made look is why I like them.

I may not have the most expensive knife, or the fanciest knife, or the sharpest knife....but now I can claim to have not one but two of the ugliest knives!

I wish i had seen this thread before. I passed up one of these over here. It was in bad shape but I thought it was some kind of French or German export knife.

I copied the text from the copy because I thought it was hard to read in the picture. This is just awesome stuff!

This knife is made entirely by hand, and for this reason it is probably the ugliest looking knife on the market. No attempt is made to make this knife look attractive, but it contains the very best material and the finest grinding that can be produced. The blade of this knife is hand hammered from a bar of the best crucible steel forged out on an anvil, the same as you have seen your blacksmith forge a bar of steel. The marks of the hammer show plainly on the blade. The handle is made of Beachwood, not stain or varnished. The linings are of heavy steel. It has but one blade, 3-3/8 inches long. Length of knife when open, 7 1/2 inches.

That's a really cool knife David I see your still searching for tgem

What wonderful new info concerning Chris Wolf. Sears? Who would have guessed it? In my earlier post from 2007 I stated that Wolf must have been a senior employee at S&M since we know that Crouch was plant superintendent and Sec/ treasurer until his death in 1921… this was also a conclusion based on the fact that this Wolf knife in identical to the Crouch knife except for the lanyard hole. I have been looking for Wolf, of and on, for some time now but found nothing about him in the Titusville newspapers, the US census, the Gowanda newspapers or the cities directories of these towns. It is almost as if he did not exist. The search of the U S census of 1900, 1910,and 1920 did turn up several Chris Wolfs and Christopher Wolfs but most were farmers, laborers, painters, plumbers and a couple of merchants. None were associated with cutlery.
I have the old Sears catalog and found the Chris Wolf knife, it was posted twice. I scanned the ads and they are shown here.
So, could it be that a S&M salesman, maybe even John Schatt, called on the Sears buyers and together developed this Wolf stamping as a Sears stamping, much like Wilbert Cutlery being a Sears trademark?
BTW – does anyone who made the Wilbert knives?
I recently took another photo of the Jess Crouch blade stamp still at the Queen factory - see below also.

BL4 states Wilbert was made for Sears Roebuck by Napanoch & Empire. Here are a couple of Wilbert's that we have.

Sold for a whoppin 46 cents huh?

I paid close to 50 times that for mine a year or two back and thought I stole it.






That ad was right about 'em lookin crude. LOL

Hell of knife and sure enough a handful. Snap is not a descriptive enough word for the blade action. Slam would be more appropriate. I beleive it would take a finger or a large piece of one if you got it in the way when that blade goes home. No nail nick makes 'em real interesting to open too.

hey everybody!

i happen to own a CHRIS WOLF knife...JESS CROUCH i do not.... the sears info is new to me...

but here is one i wanted to show that recently went either under the radar or folks didnt realize what they were looking at...or just didnt want it...or listened to the seller...

this knife is not a repro. at all.... it was a good guess on the sellers behalf ..i guess ..he goes on to say it was REPRODUCED by a man named CHRIS WOLF ...well here take a look for yourself.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... true&rt=nc

obviously what really happened was someone got tired or breaking their nails and added
and easy-open.

these WOLF knives are not that actually hard to find......it seems that searching chris wolf doesnt help to much.... i found mine i think under OLD JACK KNIFE was the search i used....but OLD JACK KNIFE....brings up 1000s...got lucky..very! ... my point is...that these knives are mixed in with batches,folks think becuase they arent all purdy folks wont like em...plus most just dont know what they are....

anyway hope i helped at all.... THE SEARS INFORMATION IS FANTASTIC.

I have been looking for a Chris Wolf knife for a few years to go along with my Jess Crouch knives. Finally picked one up.....(new one in the middle)

I discovered this afternoon that Ancestry.com has all the Sears catalogs scanned and available from 1888 to about 1993. I found the Chris Wolf knife listed in their catalogs pretty much every year from 1905 to 1916......then nothing after that.

I didn't find anything in their catalog for the Jess Crouch knife. I wonder if the Jess Crouch knife was made for a different store? maybe Monkey Wards or some other big mail order store in that time frame?

First one of these I ever seen with a nail nick.

Gotta admit that is a first for me too!!!!!!! I question if it is original to the production. Looks kinda odd?

PA Knives wrote:Looks kinda odd?

David,

These knives are odd to begin with!

I would bet a $1.00 it is original to the knife

Interesting that they put the nail nick all the way to the end of the knife for best leverage. A testimony to the strength of the spring on these old knives

I picked up a second Chris Wolf a while back. Finally took some pics of it today. It's the 3rd one down, with the stains on the blade.

Unk,

These knives are pretty rare to find & for you to have 4!! That's one impressive group!

Unk wrote:I discovered this afternoon that Ancestry.com has all the Sears catalogs scanned and available from 1888 to about 1993. I found the Chris Wolf knife listed in their catalogs pretty much every year from 1905 to 1916......then nothing after that.

Thanks Unk,that is great information for all with Wilbert or other Sears knives.I will have to get a trial membership and look through them for farmers jacks or rooster combs.

I agree with Kathy ,amazing collection of a rare knife.

Unk,
Do you remember the Chris Wolf knife I auctioned off that was part of Johnnie Fain's collection?
I auctioned it off in December 2009, as you can see it sold for $80
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... lf#p123058

It was the nicest looking Chris Wolf I have seen, the only one I have actually held in my hand.
The spring was so incredibly stiff I had almost needed pliers to open it.


I thought I would add the pictures here so they would be in the same thread as the other Chris Wolf knives for the sake of those doing research in years to come.

Fascinating thread.

Good thread on an interesting knife. I managed to acquire one a few years back. Mine has a fair amount of blade loss, has been well used. Picture shows it next to a vintage S&M pruner.

I love old heavy "working" knives so these two are just what really gets me excited when I find them. I also like that I have a full collection of them, which unfortunately is only two. They are both in really nice condition and I don't buy the old Sears Roebuck ad that says they are the ugliest knife in their book, and neither did the guy I bought the Wolf from based on what I paid for it.____Dave

Thanks guys.

Dale, I do remember the knife from Johnny Fain. I was kicking myself for missing it in the auction. It appears in better shape than either of my Chris Wolf knives. The new one seems to have a nail peened over as the main blade pin. Still works ok, though. It shows that someone thought enough of this knife to repair it when it wore out, and probably just kept on using it.

Might as well post my pair on this thread too.

Unk, I am catching up to you!

Looks like excellent examples Dimitri.

Dave it seems fame does bring fortune in the knife world.

Thanks Lyle