All About Pocket Knives

A W.R. Case & Sons pruner, Schatt & Morgan Tittusville Cotton Sampler, New York made Budding knife and a old stag hawkbill thats stamped Billet across the blade

Great lookin' old knives!
Let's keep this old thread rollin'!

This is an old Schrade Cut Co budding knife.
Missing a piece of the celluloid handle

Dale

Great thread, really enjoy seeing horticultural knives.

Here's a pruner/secateur made by George Ibberson & Co, Sheffield, C 1957. Ibberson's hand forged these pruner blades in house using very high quality carbon steel, the blade on this knife is evil sharp .

.

rigwelder, an interesting "Billet" pruner you have there, what do you know about it ?, looks English..and possibly early(ish).

Mick

Dont know much about the Old Billet stamped pruner, I couldnt find any info on it, But i'm sure its prob. from the Civil War era too the turn of the 20th Century.

I've seen several of those hefty pruners with the folding stem cutters and I really like that pattern.

That Ibberson, however, is by far the nicest one I've ever seen.

What a knife.

Charlie Noyes

Thanks for the compliment on the Ibberson pruner/sec Charlie .

rigwelder, that "Billet" pruner is a bit of a mystery ?, a rare stamping, not Sheffield, but London at a guess ?, can't find any concrete info yet..but looking.

Mick

Hey Mick,

Not only is the Ibberson in miraculous condition, your photography is equally wonderful. (I may have a syntax problem here) I wish I could take photos like that. You have an advantage in finding such a jewel living across the "big pond". Or did you buy it new in 1957? Are those wooden handles?

Semper Fi,

Don Franklin

BigDonDon wrote: Not only is the Ibberson in miraculous condition, your photography is equally wonderful. (I may have a syntax problem here) I wish I could take photos like that. You have an advantage in finding such a jewel living across the "big pond". Or did you buy it new in 1957? Are those wooden handles?

Don Franklin

Hi Don, the Ibberson is in great shape, it's dated (SS-57) inside the web, totally untouched from new, I bought it via eb-y from the US, lucky !. The scales are rosewood.

I only have an old mobile phone/camera and a coat for background, pretty basic, good light (overcast daylight) I think is most important.

Mick

wellington03 wrote:

BigDonDon wrote: Not only is the Ibberson in miraculous condition, your photography is equally wonderful. (I may have a syntax problem here) I wish I could take photos like that. You have an advantage in finding such a jewel living across the "big pond". Or did you buy it new in 1957? Are those wooden handles?

Don Franklin

Hi Don, the Ibberson is in great shape, it's dated (SS-57) inside the web, totally untouched from new, I bought it via eb-y from the US, lucky !. The scales are rosewood.

I only have an old mobile phone/camera and a coat for background, pretty basic, good light (overcast daylight) I think is most important.

Mick

Doesn't the SS make it a Stan Shaw, Mick??

Hi upnorth,

Well spotted, yes the Ibberson pruner/sec was made by Stan Shaw in his early days, by 1957 he was the top double ended man (premier cutler) at the firm,and he was turning out good stuff.

Mick

Man, a knife that nice, and made and dated by Stan Shaw, to boot. It doesn't get any better.


Several years ago, someone listed on Ebay, two pearl handled, three blade, Ibberson serpentine stockman knives with worked backsprings and blade backs.

I wrote and asked if there were any markings on the inside of the liners. He wrote back that one was marked, "S.S.-76" and the other "S.S.-77". (I might be wrong on those dates)

And, he wanted to know what that meant. I tried to explain it without divulging my excitement.

I ended up with both knives, but have long since sold them.

Charlie Noyes

Bighead's knife (previous page) reminded me of this one I have. No marking anywhere I can find.

Phil

philco wrote:No marking anywhere I can find.

Phil,

The blade on that knife has been completely replaced. It was done long ago and has developed a patina over the years to match the rest of the knife.

The knife was most likely made in England and before 1900.

Very attractive stag handles, still a very nice old knife

Here's a Simmons Keen Kutter with cocobolo handles. It is 4" in length, and dates to 1905-1920.

The other is a G.H. Richards? It says "G. H. Richards 234 Borough S.E." on the tang. I don't have any info on it (Help!!) It's a big ol' heavy knife - almost 5" closed. If you carried it in your pocket, you would need both a belt and suspenders.

Both of these have a tapered backspring as discussed earlier in this thread.

Unk

Here are a couple more oldies...............

A Thomas Turner and a Holley.

DGW or S. Kunde and Sohn, they have a website and they are still working but it looks like they are completely focused on pruning shears. I found some information on the Messerforum, but I couldn't register there. But there are additional hallmarks here "WFR" "O" and there may be a beginning of the previous stamp "T"

I picked it up at a local market, it was covered in dirt and some kind of fuel oil. I washed it, it looks like part of the scales was restored with epoxy and sawdust. The sharpening showed soft steel, but not too soft. Another sign of soft steel is that the spring has eaten away the metal in the shank and a groove has formed. This is the first time I've seen a tapered spring on a garden knife. I always wanted to ask collectors, or active gardeners, why on some garden knives, especially German ones, which have a one-sided sharpening, a flat bevel on a straight line, but diagonally? Does this give a more precise cut of the stem or does it help with further sharpening? It is difficult to describe in words, it is better to draw. But first, a photo of this grafting knife

This is the question I wanted to ask. The blade is made so that the flat side is inclined towards the opposite scale. This is usually done on thin multi-piece knives to fit more blades on 1 spring (like this small Linder). Why do this on a single blade garden knife? I have 2 assumptions, the first is that it is somehow connected with the work itself, maybe such a blade grind improves the quality of the cut or ergonomics. Second assumption - these companies had models with 2 blades on 1 spring and these blades were made this way for unification, with the possibility of installation in a multi-blade handle, if necessary. I would be very grateful if someone could tell me something about such a blade grind

Assumption #1 is correct , at least according to the makers.

Since I'm here. This is an etched Peter Henderson, who was said to be the father of American horticulture.

Peter Henderson was an expert horticulturalist of repute,writing several books,articles . In 45 years of business,he personally sent out 175,000 letters,answering every letter written to him. Two-thirds of them were written by his own hand,all after work. Amazing! Henderson’s contemporaries called him “the father of horticulture and ornamental gardening” in the United States.

I believe this first knife (item 6889) in this 1924 Henderson catalog to be the knife , making it's appearance years before being shown in the Schrade catalog E 1936 supplement.You will notice the thickness of the pruner is like the one I posted.The later Schrade pruning blade on farmers jacks were like the upcoming GEC #38,a little slimmer and seemingly more elegant,staying a little more covered in her nest.

Page from 1924 Peter Henderson catalog(item 6889). Mine like this is one of my favorites,I like it a lot,,and it also has some personal history to me.

Here's the different pruning blade shape in this 1939 Henderson catalog ( knife is item k-7). It has the flat blades.

This is not a farmers jack by definition, but what I called a farmers whittler.
It is known in reality by the name given it for a UK horticulturalist and architect named Joseph Paxton, who designed the Crystal Palace of The Great Industrial Exhibition of Nations in 1851. I have only seen Joseph Rogers examples of this pattern, but this being a high end retailers knife it could be made by others.

A J W Wood example that someone tried to "shine up" unfortunately. This one was by a different Sheffield maker, it's not Joseph Rodgers made. I've seen two and both were Rodgers. Checkered horn with an ivory spud ( used to separate the bark without injury or contamination when bud grafting), at 4 9/16" a big knife . It's almost a gun stock frame that has a slight congress-like bow.

A Paxsons Knife and the Crystal Palace

The original Paxtons knife by Joseph Rodgers.

Here is my Schrade 175 modified recently in stag for me by Glennbad!

Miller Bro's wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:47 am Here are a couple more oldies...............

A Thomas Turner and a Holley.

That Thomas Turner is beautiful, a truly awesome looking knife!!!

wlf wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 10:08 pm
Since I'm here. This is an etched Peter Henderson

Very nice knife, Lyle, and interesting info, good post!!

An old Challenge Knife Co. and an unknown German maker. De Van Koek is a Dutch horticulture company so I presume it was made for them. Interesting on the stamp as Solingen West Germany.

chickenman62 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 11:42 pm An old Challenge Knife Co. and an unknown German maker. De Van Koek is a Dutch horticulture company so I presume it was made for them. Interesting on the stamp as Solingen West Germany.

Very nice pair!