All About Pocket Knives

Being a native Tarheel I am really enjoying reading the history of what my FFV cousins to the north were doing in the cutlery business - great history!

Thanks, guys. I'm glad others are enjoying reading about the history as well.

I actually have some more history to share. This time it's about the C. Leonard knife.

Charles Leonard (1826-1916) came to Petersburg, VA from London in 1830. In 1840 he started learning the gun trade, but eventually he went into the hardware business in 1845. His store was located on Old Street. Around the beginning of the Civil War Leonard’s hardware store was on Sycamore Street. The address for his business at that time was 30 South Sycamore Street.

The last newspaper clip I can find that references Charles Leonard Hardware Company as still being in business is dated May 11, 1946. It gives the store’s address as 20-24 West Bank Street.

I've also found a couple of pictures of the old hardware store. The photographers have copyrighted them so I won't post them here, but I will post the Flickr links to them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethgaines ... otostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbain/2476727158/

Cool history, Dave.

Thanks, John. Unfortunately it's an incomplete history, but it's getting there.

Right now I'm comparing (or trying to anyways, lol) bone jigging to find some possible identities for the company that made the knife for Charles Leonard Hardware. However only a handful of companies were consistent with their jigging so it's a long shot.

It's been quite a while, but I've finally got a couple more to add to this thread. The first is another Kinson Cutlery Co. knife. Someone removed the secondary blade (probably had been broken) and pinched then pinned the bolsters together. This creates tension on the backspring when you open the blade to the half-stop position so it flips out the rest of the way on its own. The second knife is stamped "M Kesmodel Baltimore". It dates between 1901 and 1925.

You are finding some great history Dave. I really like that old Leonard. It reminds me of an old, old Sheffield knife.
Wasn't Kesmodel a fancy bowie knife maker?
That bullhead/moose, whatever you want to call it is a great knife, whoever made it.

Thanks, Bret. Here's a quick and rough history of Kesmodel (various sources have conflicting dates, but I believe the dates provided below are pretty accurate):

Frederick Kesmodel made bowie knives and other types of cutlery in Baltimore starting in 1838. Around 1856 he apparently moved to San Francisco and made knives there until returning to Baltimore after 1865. He ran the cutlery business until 1901 when his nephew, M. Kesmodel, took over. M. Kesmodel probably didn't make knives but instead contracted other companies to make them, including at least one German company. The company also dealt more in straight razors than knives once M. Kesmodel was in charge.

dcgm4, that Samuel Jackson is a favorite of mine
The pattern is very appealing, the large slab of ivory is just wonderful and it has a lot of interesting regional history. Very nice collection and thanks for the history information.

dcgm4, that Samuel Jackson knife is a real sweetheart. I have a similar knife which is a single blade dirk rather than a whittler. When it was found the escutcheon was partially missing, I had it replaced last year and right now it's in the Arkansas exhibit "A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America" (folding bowies and dirks being the pocket counterparts of the better known fixed blade versions.)

Made by a surgical instrument maker, the Jackson knives are the equivalent of a custom made knife in that they were made by a craftsman and maybe an apprentice, rather than in a factory setting. Antique knives of this sort are a great rarity today. I know of a half dozen or more Jackson bowies, but I think just these two folding knives. If you ever want to sell it... I'm not hard to find!

Mark Z

Beautiful folding dirk, thanks for posting a picture of it

Beechtree wrote:dcgm4, that Samuel Jackson is a favorite of mine
The pattern is very appealing, the large slab of ivory is just wonderful and it has a lot of interesting regional history. Very nice collection and thanks for the history information.

Thanks. It's always a pleasure to share my knives and research with fellow collectors here. The Jackson whittler is one of my personal favorites as well. It's one of the jewels, if not the crown jewel, of my collection.

Mark D. Zalesky wrote:dcgm4, that Samuel Jackson knife is a real sweetheart. I have a similar knife which is a single blade dirk rather than a whittler. When it was found the escutcheon was partially missing, I had it replaced last year and right now it's in the Arkansas exhibit "A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America" (folding bowies and dirks being the pocket counterparts of the better known fixed blade versions.)

Made by a surgical instrument maker, the Jackson knives are the equivalent of a custom made knife in that they were made by a craftsman and maybe an apprentice, rather than in a factory setting. Antique knives of this sort are a great rarity today. I know of a half dozen or more Jackson bowies, but I think just these two folding knives. If you ever want to sell it... I'm not hard to find!

Mark Z

Mark, that dirk is just fantastic! Whoever replaced the shield did a superb job.

dcgm4 wrote: Mark, that dirk is just fantastic! Whoever replaced the shield did a superb job.

Thanks Dave! These Jacksons may not be mint or even close, but to me they're really special knives. Gotta love these old survivors.

Mark Z

Recently I acquired a couple of M. Kesmodel knives from some fellow AAPK members. The first is a pen knife that was made for M. Kesmodel in Germany by Wester Bros. Cutlery. The other one is an older American-made congress with steel pins and liners.

The third knife is a C. Leonard pruner I've had for a while, but it somehow slipped my mind to post it here.

dcgm4 wrote: Samuel Jackson of Baltimore, MD

I did not notice this before but what is that mark on the pen blade tang?

Can I see a close up picture of it?

The tang of the pen blade is stamped "SJ," Samuel Jackson's initials. The bottom of the J has mostly worn away (you can still see the end of it if you look closely) so now it looks like a dollar sign.

Thanks Dave

The reason I ask is, your knife and the other one Mark posted, to me just scream "Made in England".

The style, handle material, size, bolsters, etc. My personal opinion is that the knife was made in England on contract for S. Jackson or he was trained there and was a very skilled pocket cutler.

That symbol on the tang of the knife I have seen before and it was the trademark from a company in England whose name escapes me at the moment, when I return to the computer this evening I will look for it and post it.

Mark D. Zalesky wrote:Made by a surgical instrument maker, the Jackson knives are the equivalent of a custom made knife in that they were made by a craftsman and maybe an apprentice, rather than in a factory setting.

Or maybe he had them made on contract with his name stamped on them.

Beautiful folding dirk, Mark. Great showing of nice knives, Dave.

Dan

Thanks, Dan.

Miller Bro`s wrote:The reason I ask is your knife and the other one Mark posted, to me just scream "Made in England".

You may be right about it being English-made. The same thought occurred to me as well. One of the reasons I think this is because Jackson was known for bowies and surgical instruments but not pocket knives. In fact, my whittler and Mark's dirk are the only folding knives by Jackson that I know of. Another reason is because I know 19th-century cutlers (including Jackson) commonly had apprentices make their knives for them or contracted work out.

In particular, here's a link to an elaborate sword with Jackson's stamp on it. I'm pretty certain he didn't make this solely on his own. He most likely made the blade then contracted someone else to make the hilt and maybe do the etching. It'd be amazing if he had done all the work himself, but I think it unlikely.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the ... 5650?img=6

Here is a comparison photo of the stamp I believe is on your knife.

Your knife is worn from age so it is hard to see but I think this is what it originally looked like, what do you think?

I think you may be right about the stamp being the same. They do look very similar. Though the stamp is worn, I think I can see a remnant of part of the symbol that wore away. It looks like it might be the end of the line that is perpendicular to the line that goes through the "S."

Do you know the name of the company that used this symbol and when they were in business?

dcgm4 wrote:I think I can see a remnant of part of the symbol that wore away. It looks like it might be the end of the line that is perpendicular to the line that goes through the "S."

What you are seeing is the top of the trademark and yes it is worn from the blade being opened and closed. The mark is upside down, see the attachment below for the proper orientation of the trademark.

This trademark is from John Sellers in Sheffield England, the information on this maker can be found in Geoff Tweedale`s excellent book. The trademark was officially granted in 1838, they had a sales office in N.Y and his brother ran operations on this side of the pond.

This link has the info from Tweedale`s book if you don`t have a copy; http://strazors.com/index.php?id=449&do ... _sheffield_

If you look at the original ad I posted below you will see they manufactured "Fine Pen Knives, Razors, Surgeons` Instruments" among other things.

No doubt in my mind Sellers made the knife on contract for S. Jackson and probably even made the surgeons instruments he sold as well. Until I see more proof Jackson made his own knives I got to believe Sellers made them.

I love knife history!

Thanks for the info, Dimitri. I'm convinced John Sellers made the whittler. The dates both cutlers were in business match up and the symbols look the same to me.

Finding connections like these between old knife companies is one of the best things about this hobby. There's a wealth of history out there, and it doesn't get much better than when you find out something new that rewrites the history.

I didn't know of this thread; this is terrific stuff. Thanks every one.

PS: Carlin Hulfish Gunstock Pg. 1. is mighty fine!

FRJ wrote:PS: Carlin Hulfish Gunstock Pg. 1. is mighty fine!

Thanks, Joe. That gunstock is a favorite of mine just because it helped me figure out that Tidioute Cutlery was the company (or at least one of the companies) that made knives for Carlin-Hulfish Co.

Here is some better information I have found on the mark.

The first photo below is from an ad published by Sellers it can be found in Tweedale`s book. If you look to the left of the company trademark, that I thought was on the tang of these blades, I now find the exact mark used it is a "S" sideways identified as the "Signal" trademark.

Below is a copy of the ad and a comparison photo of the mark.

To top it all off there is a picture of my knife, which I have had for quite some time and never found the time to research, it has the Sellers trademark on the back tang of the knife blade, the manicure blade is marked Empire Knife Co. I can`t locate the knife at the moment so I will rely on my file photos for now. It has puzzled me why it would have this mark on it as I have never seen another Empire knife with this mark.

Which leaves me with the conclusion that just maybe in the later days of their being in business and not doing well economically they contracted out these knives to Sellers, Empire closed due to the depression so anything is possible the final story is yet to be written on this subject.