All About Pocket Knives

A great find. Love that bone.

I bought this old and abused jack for it's stamp.

PAULS BROS.

I find Paul Bros. in Goins. 1887-1905

It's a shame how people treat their knives.

Joe,
Nice old ebony jack.

Thanks, Dale!!

I suppose this is as good a place as any for this Waterville.

For all the Waterville knives I've seen pictures of I'm yet to come across another one quite this large with two full sized blades. The rear blade looks to have originally been a sheepsfoot based on how far the swedge goes. Most of the meat is left on both blades although it seems someone took the spear point to something disagreeable at one point given all of the chips. Stock is 1/8" thick and the springs are still ferocious. Opening those blades feels mildly dangerous even under normal circumstances. Tough to get good purchase when they both sit so high, so close to each other, with pulls on the same side. Anyway, just thought I'd share this one.

This Napanoch, at four inches, is a beast. The snap makes a GEC feel like a wet noodle. The top bolsters are unusual. I really like this knife.

Wow, superb knife tongueriver. That is a beauty . Great stag, and I agree I really like those bolsters as well. Not to mention that it is 4 inches, phew.

Never seen anything like that on a bolster. I like the deep clip on the main. It offers a fairly acute point for piercing to a broad blade.

That is a spectacular old knife

Hows bout an early O. Barnett Tool Co.


....... Joe

Awesome Joe. Amazing, my grandfather has one nearly identical to it.

That Napanoch is fantastic.

I had an identical knife years ago that I picked up at a Trade Day in Collinsville, AL, a knife Mecca at the time, not so much now.

The blades were as full, but the overall condition was not nearly so good as the OP knife.

I traded the knife to Joe Seale for a Robeson with a value of $350.00.

I got the Napanoch in a three knife deal and had very little in it.

It is a fantastic pattern. What a knife.

I love seeing those O. Barnett's in that kind of condition. Most of these have been used up and many have had the master blade replaced with somebody else's mark.

Great knives showing up in this thread.

Charlie Noyes

tongueriver wrote:This Napanoch, at four inches, is a beast. The snap makes a GEC feel like a wet noodle. The top bolsters are unusual. I really like this knife.

Lots of nice ones in this thread, but that one is stunning. Love the bolster detail.

toungueriver
WOW That is one fiiine knife. You really scored a home run.

edgy46 wrote:toungueriver
WOW That is one fiiine knife. You really scored a home run.

Well.... maybe not. The knife is on its way back to the seller. Turns out that at least the master blade is not original, and does not even fit into the frame properly. The bolsters and liners are spread a bit to accomodate a blade that is wider than the spring which it rides on. Actually looks like a Brett blade. Too bad. I had a girl friend like this once. Btw, thanks everyone for the positive comments.

Very old Union Razor Tidioute Pa. toenail,both blades stamped,with long pull on small blade and long match striker pull and small pull on main blade. Bill

Nice one Bill.

CASE BROTHERS LITTLE VALLEY, NY 6250. Both blades stamped. Mainblade pile side tang is stamped "TESTED XX". Seen better days but still a nice old toe.

Bill that is a fine old Union Razor.zp4ja that Case Bros. ain`t bad either.

Those old toenails are pretty slick Jerry ,Rodger,you had some great ones at Titusville,thanks for the comments. Bill

I don't get to add to this thread too often, but I think this one fits.
Robeson Permalube #323617 w/bail.
I'll be honest, when I bought this one, I had no idea what I had. Until I posted it in the Robeson thread, and a couple of the pros filled me in.
We sure are lucky to have a place like AAPK to come to and learn!!

WB

An A. F. Bannister & Co serpentine gunstock. What makes this even rarer is the bone handles were dyed blue. I've yet to see blue bone on another knife this old (1915 or earlier).

Wow that is bizarre, those are some odd blue bone handles. Could they have been "after market" customized? Great old pattern knife from a rare company dcgm4.

Dave those handles look authentic to me. Celluloid?

Beechtree wrote:Wow that is bizarre, those are some odd blue bone handles. Could they have been "after market" customized? Great old pattern knife from a rare company dcgm4.

Thanks, Beachtree. I suppose it's possible, but I don't see any evidence of the knife ever being messed with. The wear on the bone is consistent with its age and with the rest of the knife in general. It could be the bone was dyed by a previous owner around the same time the knife was manufactured, but as far as I know it came out of the factory with blue handles.

singin46 wrote:Dave those handles look authentic to me. Celluloid?

I think they're authentic too. They're definitely bone. The lighter areas on the bone look to be where the dye faded over time. You can see it faded a lot on the front, but if you look down at the knife with the closed blades facing you, then you can see the edge of the bone still has some blue color to it.

This is just a guess on my part, but I think maybe early blue dyes weren't as stable as brown, red, or green so it wasn't used on knives very much. Or maybe it was just more expensive to make blue dye so it was cost prohibitive. I've tried finding information on when blue bone handles first came about, but no luck so far. Someone more knowledgeable on the dyes used for bone handles during the late 1800's and early 1900's may have the answer.

A weird thing about when I bought the knife is I thought the handles were dyed black. I got it off eBay and the seller just said the handles were bone and they looked black in the pictures. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when I opened the package and saw the bone was blue.

OK gang, you'll know that I am die hard Pennsylvania related cutlery man, but when I saw this old girl streaming across the head of my computer screen while pontificating about old knives on AAPK, something screamed out that I needed it.

This is a LUKE FIRTH celebrated cutlery jack. Needless to say, the handle/bolster design is extremely interesting to me and quite a work of art. The black portion is horn and bolster design is all one piece on each side. I would love to know how they did that. This would be one for the modern day companies to recreate for sure. I thank "Historical Knives" for selling it to me. If you like OLD knives like me, this one is extraordinary in my opinion. I have never seen anything even close to it before and I have been a knife junkie for more than 40 years now. I am glad to know that something like this still gets me excited about knives.