All About Pocket Knives

Miller Bro`s wrote:Draac,

I have the same knife with the same marks. I don`t know how to date American made Fruit knives. The English had a superior system of marks that, as you know, allows you to date a knife to a specific year. That is otherwise unheard of in the antique knife collecting world.

The closest you can come to finding a date would be to obtain old factory catalogs and see when a pattern appeared and the disappeared. But finding these are few and far between.

D

Thank you Miller Bro`s for your reply. I'll do some research on Gorham factory catalogs, maybe I can get my hands on one. I get lucky looking for things once in awhile.

Draac

Wow some great looking knives here, my grandad carried one like these for years and i remember him peeling apples for us with it, i use my pocket knife for this task now and then for my kids,

Miller Bro's here's ny only two. The top one letter date 1869 maker JB.The second one is dated1873, maker Thomas Marples. The reference I was looking at shows a JB but it was registered in 1906 and the relief around the letters dont't match mine. Any ideas? Slim.

slimpickins wrote:The reference I was looking at shows a JB but it was registered in 1906 and the relief around the letters dont't match mine. Any ideas?

I believe it is a Sheffield maker, Jas. Burbury.

Thanks Miller Bro's for the info. I could only reference to a John Bigins and Joseph and Thomas and Joseph and Edward Bradbury. I also dated the Marples wrong, it's 1876. The real point is these old fruit knives were works of art. Slim.

Miller Bro`s wrote:This is an unusual one I found today.

It is only 2 3/8" long. It is shaped just like a Quill knife. The blosters are Grooved Sterling Silver. The blade is Sterling. The pins are low grade Gold. the handles are firey MOP.

No makers marks on this one.

I have seen a few knives with the long pull extending throught the tang. ITS AWESOME !!
I wish more knives were made like this. Don't know why, but it really does it for me.
Great knife as always MB.

slimpickins wrote:The real point is these old fruit knives were works of art. Slim.

They sure were Slim

IMBand wrote:I have seen a few knives with the long pull extending throught the tang. ITS AWESOME !!
I wish more knives were made like this. Don't know why, but it really does it for me.
Great knife as always MB.

Thanks! From what I have read about the subject only the very best and most expensive knives had the pull extending to the end of the tang, for example, exhibition knives.

This would be true for this knife as it is constructed of Gold, Silver, and M.O.P, all the most expensive materials in the day to use on a pocket knife

Found these all sterling silver Fruit knives, American made unmarked as to maker.

This was posted in the All Metal Knives thread, but it belongs in this one here.

Here are a few old knives.
The first two present some interesting lore.
The DERBY SILIVER Co. fruit knife was the first I purchased. Originally, I thought that it was made in the 1880's in Derby Conn along the banks of the Housatonic. Latter I saw the Holley MFG. Co. and realized my error. It appears that the Derby Silver Company contracted the job out to Holley.
The second pair of fruit knives are from the Meriden Britannia Co. from West Meriden Conn. They might date to the the 1880's or early 90's?
Each knife is 3"

Have any of you seen a book called 'Pocket Fruit Knives'? It was written by an English author. It is pretty good.
My local Half Price Books had 5 or 6 of them. Some of the knives had gold blades as well as silver.

Sounds like a neat read I will look it up, thanks.

Those knives are a nice addition to this thread

My granddaddy's fruit knife, supposedly given to him by his father, before WWI.

Welcome to AAPK DrTom. That is a very pretty fruit knife you have there. Beautiful design, and I really like the unique shape of the seed pick. Are there any markings on it to suggest the maker? Even though it is already beautiful, having it be your great grandfathers makes it all the more beautiful!

Nice to be here, and thanks for your welcome message. There are no markings anywhere. Here's the reverse side, a bit plainer but still decorative. I didn't know about "seed pick". My grandfather said the little pick was for scoring an orange peel into quarter sections you could peel off. Any idea if it's English or American?

Welcome to the forum! I don't know whether it is the background you shot the picture against or the actual color of the knife but it looks almost like it is made of pewter.I have never seen a fruit knife of this color and I have a fair amount of them.
The seed pick looks to be of American origin.There were only a few companies in the USA that made fruit knives and most of them were silver plated or marked,"COIN" to indicate their silver content(.900 fine).I don't have my Karsten's book on silver knives handy or I could give you the makers' names.I have a gold plated one in my collection that has a pick very similar to yours.(see pic).

That's its real color, kind of a dull grey-silver. The pick shape makes it seem of U.S origin?
Thanks for your comment!

DrTom wrote:That's its real color, kind of a dull grey-silver. The pick shape makes it seem of U.S origin?

Some of the U.S. ones were unmarked, all the English ones were marked.

Definitely American made I have one just like it somewhere, If I recall the one I have had brass as a base metal and it was plated with silver.

Interesting! I won't do anything to it to see if there's brass underneath. Where or who in America might have done the lovely artwork?

DrTom wrote:Interesting! I won't do anything to it to see if there's brass underneath.

By all means do not remove any of the plating or surface metal.
Some were plated steel as well, to test for steel, take a magnet and see if it attracts to it.

Another non destructive test would be to flex the blade gently from side to side, if it is sterling it will bend easily, if it is a brass base it will not flex easily.

DrTom wrote: Where or who in America might have done the lovely artwork?

A few possibilities could be Meriden Brittania, Gorham or Albert Coles.

Very interesting. I'll look them up.

I'm a complete newbie to fruit knives. I am a hobby collector of unusual and interesting (IMO) old pocket knives. I picked up this knife in a flea market in NC last week. The guy told me it was a pipe knife- for use with a smoking pipe. I was going to walk away from his $12 firm asking price, but kept coming back to its beauty and gave in. Through research, I now know it a fruit knife. I think Gorham, but there are no identifying marks. I then found a partial picture of the same design claiming to be Gorham with no other real details. It is COIN silver and magnet tested. I do not know the significance of the "2" above "COIN". I've recently seen another that had a "7". Any explanation on that front is appreciated. I will post some pictures of it as well as the partial picture found online. It is in nice condition, but definitely used and previously sharpened. Since I buy old/vintage/antique knives, I think it gives it life and a history even if the value is diminished. I don't sell them anyway.

Let me know what you think and know. All knowledge and opinions are welcome and appreciated.

to AAPK!

Hambone72 wrote: I am a hobby collector of unusual and interesting (IMO) old pocket knives.

My favorite type of old knives to collect, I hope you post more of them

Thanks for the welcome. I'm thrilled to have found this site. More thrilled to have discovered fruit knives. I'm totally hooked and plan to search for more. I told my wife it was a pipe knife (like I was told) and she said, "Why is there fruit on it?" With that thought I started looking around and discovered these gems. The ones posted in this thread are unbelievably beautiful! I can't wait to discover more.
One question, though, - if the knife does not have a seed pick, how do you know it is still a fruit knife? Sorry if that seems dumb, but I stay dumb if I don't ask.

Hambone72 wrote:One question, though, - if the knife does not have a seed pick, how do you know it is still a fruit knife?

Any knife similar that is Silver, Coin, Silver plated, Gold, Gold plated, solid Ivory, etc. were considered fruit knives. The seed/nut pick was added to the later versions

Before the invention of Stainless Steel carbon based knife blades would rust and pit from the acids in fruit, not to mention the carbon blades will give the fruit a bad taste. This is why Silver was used on these type knives.