All About Pocket Knives

I
Want to Be
Anarchy

Incredible knives and history you guys are putting up. This thread is like the color illustrations for David's book.

Thanks Slim....thats very nice of you.


Trail.....that was my favorite song for years!! .....my way of life also.

Da Dum Da Dum Monster movie sound please!!!!, just when you thought it was safe, Pa Knives comes from the depths of Knifedom with another Pennsylvania related Pocket knife!!!!

Before clicking on the link I have attached. READ this knife and see if you can guess what it is really all about!!!!!

These kinds of things interest Me to no end. The real story is surprising.

Come now, test your knife reading skills. What is it? Why is it the way it is?

Click on the pics to enlarge.

I have photographed both sides of it and the stamps.

I will enjoy your responses.

Once you have reviewed and thought about it, click on this link to see what experts think. It is a great learning experience.

Enjoy.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... ife-Kanter

David very interesting i would of bet on a salesman version. now you got a great find with history

Here's a recent snag that i'd like to know more about. It's a sweet little 3" half whittler. Both blades are simply stamped "Brown Bros." with no other designation. Handles are Buffalo horn with a nice fat bomb shield. PA can probably tell me everything right down to the day it was made.

JUNE 15, 1897 around 1:14 pm give or take a minute or two.

Nice example of an Early Brown Bros done in Horn. These were made in Germany. My suspect is by the Argyle Cutlery Company, but German was polluted with Cutlery firms at that time and its nearly impossible to tell without seeing the Brown Bros Records. Gosh if I only could find them!!!!!!! That is an AWESOME shield on that knife. When they say that they just don't make em like that anymore, they weren't kidding when it comes to this knife.



Check out the Knife Box thread on Knife Lore thread. I just got a very RARE Brown Bros box.

Thanks PA, wasn't sure if it would have been German made or not. You've probably answered this question before, but were Brown Bros. strictly importers in their early days? Do you think this knife would pre-date the tariff act, say early 1890's?

Awsome box PA! You must be doin' cartwheels! LOL! Congrats! Is 8059 a pattern number and are you familiar with which one it is?

They started out as Brown Razor Co. John Brown the father helped start it. He married two different CASE women. Younger Brother Emmerson wanted in on the action so the name was changed to Brown Bros. They never manufactured until they bought the first Tidioute Cutlery Company in 1902. Just prior to that move, they became Union Razor. I have a Union Razor Little Valley NY. They kept the Brown Bros name well in to the Olean NY era, mostly imports.
Be careful with the Tariff idea. The only guarantee if it is stamped with the country of origin it means after the act. If not, it means it may be before or (they choose not to do it for money reasons) that happened alot. I have researched that and did an article for Knife World on the subject of the early cutlery tariffs.

Hope this helps a little.

LOVE those Kanters!!!!

Yes it does PA. Fascinating history. I know in "reading a knife", nothing's set in stone. Just trying to narrow it up a bit. I have, and/or have had a few related knives over the years, (Union/Kabar) but this is my first Brown Bros. Neat little knife. Thanks for sharing your time and knowledge.

We picked up this Mason & Sons yesterday. It may or may not be PA made, but it is PA related, so I am putting it here.

NICE Kathy

I have one very similar. Mason & Sons Canton OH. Samuel moved there after a falling out with Beaver Falls Cutlery. I have some docuementation on this. Samuel then returned to England and gave Kudos to the superior cutlery being produced in the states even though the states didn't treat him that well. He was a very learned person. I don't beleive his son carried on in Ohio, but another son did work in NJ and other New England areas.

VERY collectable for those that LOVE antique cutlery.

Thanks for the nice words! Even if its in relic condition, its a cool one to have.

I thought I would add to this thread & hopefully everyone else will post some new beauties also!

I really love this old Queen. When I see one that has an odd shield or this kind of bone, I always try to snag it up.

Here is another one. A sterling silver Baldwin Cutlery Co.

Knifegirl - you are something else. Keep it up.

Nifbuf,

Last but not least, a Coleman Cutlery Co. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to buy it from you!

Sincerely,
Kathy

Nifbuf,

Do you think the Queen City might have been made from leftover Schatt & Morgan parts? It just doesn't look to be the typical Queen knife..

Knifegirl,
From my research it appears that all of the patterns and most of the handle material the Queen City used during the early 1930’s came from old inventory after their acquisition of the SXM cutlery in 1933. Queen City primarily did contract work during the 1920’s for companies like Shiman Manufacturing Co. of New York. Queen City stamped the Shiman knives “ESEMCO Stainless” and Shiman covered them with 10k and 14k gold. These were key fob knives. April 4, 1922 (The Titusville Herald). Queen City Co. Gets Big Order for Jackknives -- Order received from the Shiman, Miller Company of New York and calls for the delivery of 300 dozens of pocket knives every week for a year. That is over 187,000 for the one year contract.
I think after QC worked through the SXM old inventory they continued to used the SXM patterns but started using the early Winterbottom bone and the Rogers bone handle material through the later 1930 years. I really don’t think they added any new patterns till after WWII (1946) when they changed their name to Queen Cutlery, published their first catalogs, started using the amber celluloid and the Winterbottom bone we all are familiar with, and started using almost exclusively stainless steel for blades and springs. They added the Barlow patterns and the cast aluminum frames which included some Barlow patterns and well as the #45 and #45M patterns; and a few others. They added kitchen cutlery, a large selection of hunting knives, table cutlery, and shears. This was also the tine when they made the floor and counters knife display cabinets.
That is probably more that you wanted to know.
I have more on ESEMCO if any is interested.

nifbuf wrote:I have more on ESEMCO if any is interested.

I am

Miller Bro`s wrote:

nifbuf wrote:I have more on ESEMCO if any is interested.

I am

I will second that!

David,

I also wanted to add that your Queen collection is awwwesome! Those are the kinds of Queen knives that I search for.

Kathy

I contributed to the Levine Knife World article posted below. Hope you can read it. These knives were made in PA but sold by Shiman of New York. What I found very interesting was that Queen was using stainless steel in the early 1920’s, dropped in the 1930’s and started using it again in the 1940’s.

That's a great article! I will have to be on the lookout for these knives in my travels now. Thank you so much for sharing that.