All About Pocket Knives

Barry, thanks for posting your little Ulster knives. Especially the MOP one , that is quite nice. Ken your tuxedo is intriguing. I hope it is ivory. I can’t see any Haversian canals when I zoom in to say the handles are bone. Nice little knife.

I’ll share some pics of a couple of my favorite Ulsters. The larger knife is a moose type with a swell center, 4 1/8” closed with steel liners, bolsters and handle pins. The center spring pivot pin and shield are nickel silver. Both tangs are stamped [ULSTER KNIFE CO NY]. No pattern # stamp.
The smaller knife is a 3 1/4” equal end pattern # 02100 with a nice [ ULSTER BRAND] etch on the master blade. Steve B.

The consensus is pachyderm tooth Ken. I remember Mommy carried a tuxedo knife in her purse.

Nice addition to the now trio Joe.

Great condition on the pen and a nice pattern in beautiful old pick bone Steve.

Joe... that's a great ensemble you have gathered there.

Steve... nice pair of Ulsters... I really am intrigued by the "Ulster Brand " etch... have not seen that before... thanks for posting.

wlf wrote:The consensus is pachyderm tooth Ken.

Thank you Lyle & Joe for identifying the handle material for me. Would have never had thought of that, but would seem to better explain the different shades of color when comparing one side to the other... and yeah... finally some sun today... so I took some more photos... still not a great shot of the tang stamp... but it is the same stamp on both blades... again... no Hammer Brand logo on either tang... so I'm hoping this means it pre-dates the 1878 introduction of the Hammer Brand logo?

Sweet tuxedo Ken ... no doubt the natural I handles - these were fancy carries back in the day - I’ve seen jigged bone on some but not sure I ever saw smooth bone!

OK... so I googled "pachyderm tooth" a little while ago... and I think Lyle & Joe are having some fun with me...
since an elephant's tusks are its incisors... the "long" tooth... another words... ivory.
Gee... and I was beginning to think I had sumthing unusual here...

An old New York - Hammer Brand. Used but not abused. 3 3/4" closed.

If I'm learning the terminology at all... I'm guessing that is what is called a dogleg jack?...
I'm really oogling over the blade etching ... I wish I could come across one of those... but then it probably would be beyond my budget... Thanks Barry for posting... this way at least I can gander from afar...

I like that pattern , and I wonder why, I guess it’s the curves. That is a great example Barry.

Great knife Barry!

This knife ended up in my pile because it is a 4 1/4" large cigar. I looked up Curley Cutlery Co New York in the Goins reference and it looks like an early knife from late 1800's to about mid 1920's. It is a well made knife with strong snap and strong half stops on both blades. The handles are pocket worn, but blades are still mostly full.

Just wondering if it is a "little sheffield" knife and who might have made it? Many thanks in advance for any insight that can be provided.

I would say Ulster, only because of the bone jigging and color. Holley, and Southington also have similar jigging styled handles. The Hatch English jack John posted in June, in the Hatch thread, also has some resemblance.

Might this be from a common early bone company?

That is a beautiful big knife Jerry ... lovely bone and blades - you have exquisite taste in knives ....

Lyle - I think Jay had posted some info about a Walden Handle Co which supplied the local cutleries - it doesn’t look like Rogers bone - my other guess would be Salisbury Handle Co ... I do see similarities to others - the one that comes to mind for me is American Shear and Knife where I have also seen that lighter colored bone with jigging..,

Great knives posted lately by Barry, Joe, Ken, bladebuddy and RalphAlsip! The NYKC dogleg jack with the Hammer Brand is especially special. Also the Curley moose is a great knife. There is specifically shaped file blade that was used on some early Keen Kutters (and likely many other brands?) called a "curley" nail file. I wonder if there is any relationship between the Curley Cutlery Co. and the curley nail file?

Take your pick for a look a like to Jerry's Hatch.
1.Holley
2.Southington
3&4. Ulsters

Nice Lyle ... I’m usually not that good on ID of jigging BUT in this case I see the similarities for sure - long jigging strokes for lack of a better description on my part - all similar but especially #2 (Southington?) looks identical in jigging but not so much in color... the pile side of Jerry’s knife almost looks like basket weave as the strokes crossed ...

LongBlade wrote: I do see similarities to others - the one that comes to mind for me is American Shear and Knife where I have also seen that lighter colored bone with jigging..,

Here are two American Shear and Knife knives.

Thanks for posting those Joe ... I see my new terminology for the pattern called long stroke jigging .... seriously the 2nd knife and the 1st Lyle posted are very very similar..,

Jerry.I think Lyle may be right that several companies used very similar bone.I have a Phoenix that is close to that bone also.

Sometimes internet searches lead you down the strangest "rabbit holes"...
found these tidbits about Curley Cutlery Co in the May 24, 1899 issue of the Jewelers' Curricular...

The Curley Cutlery Co., New York city, have been incorporated with a capitol of $4,000, all paid in. T.F. Curley, 6 Warren St., and P. Whitehead, 50 Wall St., New York city, and John H. Hilton, Hotchkissville, Conn.,are the incorporators.

The Curley Cutlery Co., formed under the laws of New York State, have taken charge of Hilton’s knife shop in Hotchkissville.

So it seems to me... Curley Cutlery branded knives were made in Connecticut... btw... wasn't the American Shear & Knife also in Hotchkissville during the same timeframe?

I apologize for changing the subject again... but ever since Greg (gsmith7158) posted his NYKC Timber Scribe way back on page 3 (over a year ago)... I've been hankering to find me one... well it finally arrived yesterday... very close to Greg's... but the cutting edge is a bit more beat...

Like how stamped the "Hammer Brand" logo on the pile side...

There are some really nice knives posted in this thread. This is another Ulster pearl I found this past year.

KAW wrote: So it seems to me... Curley Cutlery branded knives were made in Connecticut... btw... wasn't the American Shear & Knife also in Hotchkissville during the same timeframe?

Yes they were, Ken.
This sway back jack has the name etched on the main blade.

Beautiful little whittler, Barry.

Barry... That's a great lookin' Ulster... I like everything about that knife!
... being a serpentine whittler... from the blade selection... to those wonderful MoP handles... being an Ulster is just icing on the cake!

Thanks Joe for posting that cool knife.
I luv seeing those etchings on the old knives...sweet lookin' bone & I really like that shield... seems pretty unique.

I will echo comments of others regarding the fantastic knives being posted here.

Thanks to all who commented on the Curley Cut Co New York knife I asked about. I'm inclined to believe the Curley knife was made by American Shear and Knife after seeing the other knife examples and the search results linking American Shear and Knife and Curley via Hotchkissville, Connecticut.