All About Pocket Knives

MB might like this;
Looks hardly used.

Nice one Charlie!

Here are a few that I have. The top one is the oldest, it has Cocobolo wood. See picture for the early tang stamp. The next one down is an Ivory handle one. Later tang stamp. The last one is just like yours, with the last tang stamp miller used before ceasing to make knives. It still has the pasteboard sleeve to protect the blade, and is in unused condition.

Kinda funny how Miller Brothers went out of the knife business to make just fountain pens They made some real nice knives back in the day.

M.B.

I bet Mike will be disappointed when he reads this post.

Here's a few.The most unusual one is the ivory handled short one that has a quill splitter on either side and a fossilized ink eraser on the end.Has a patent date of 1865 on it.Picture #2 on the left side standing vertically.

knife7knut wrote:Here's a few.The most unusual one is the ivory handled short one that has a quill splitter on either side and a fossilized ink eraser on the end.Has a patent date of 1865 on it.Picture #2 on the left side standing vertically.

K7K,
Is that what it is. I have one of these somewhere and never knew what it was really used for. Looks like you have a pretty nice collection of ink erasers

Fran,
Yeah, Mike won`t like this post.


M.B.

You guys take this ink eraser thing too seriously!! The only cure is to send them to me!!
I'll even share them with Mike!!
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

P.S. Nice ones guys!

SORRY CHARLIE.

Remember that one ?

I had one eraser, a Miller Bros., but I gave it and my only real 'pen knife' to an old retired school teacher who is using them to teach kids how to cut a quill and write with a dip pen at the old schoolhouse. She even makes home made ink from pokeberries ! It's sad what kids don't know these days.

I don't even have photos. I guess I should find replacements for my own collection.

Fran

I've always thought that these were ink erasers, although some I've seen labelled as fleems, especially the stlye that have part of the blade at 90 degrees from the handle.

anyone else seen this?

Russell

Russell,

Do you have a picture?




M.B.

Excellent display of erasers. The blades look similar but are oriented differently. This is an old set of veterinary fleams.

Knife7Knut;
The first cutting instrument from the top in your third pic is a surgical scapel, I believe, with replaceble blade.Charlie Noyes

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Knife7Knut;
The first cutting instrument from the top in your third pic is a surgical scapel, I believe, with replaceble blade.Charlie Noyes

I was thinking the same thing myself. s-k

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Knife7Knut;
The first cutting instrument from the top in your third pic is a surgical scapel, I believe, with replaceble blade.Charlie Noyes

Charlie:
Actually it is a craft knife similar to an Exacto.It got stuck in with my erasers as I didn't have room for it in the drawer with other similar knives.I have a bunch of them made by Gillette Razor Co.that are similar.

The photo won't enlarge. What's the brand name on the item I mentioned?
It appears to be much more well made than the Gillettes.
The reason I thought it to be a scapel is that I've seen that blade retention apparatus early in my career. I've been working as a physicians assistant in cardiovascular surgery since 1972.
Charlie Noyes

RobesonsRme.com wrote:The photo won't enlarge. What's the brand name on the item I mentioned?
It appears to be much more well made than the Gillettes.
The reason I thought it to be a scapel is that I've seen that blade retention apparatus early in my career. I've been working as a physicians assistant in cardiovascular surgery since 1972.
Charlie Noyes

The name on it is BEAVER and there is a #7(presumably the size)which would indicate that it is possibly a scalpel.What is unusual is that the rear of the blade is nearly identical to the Gillette;in fact it will lock into place in the Gillette handle but not vice versa.

I have a pretty good assortment of medical knives and the blade shape is not really indicative of a scalpel.The Bard-Parker replaceable blade scalpels have very thin pointy blades as do most of the ones I've seen.Even the rounded end scalpels have a much more pronounced point.

Here's some more pctures of medical intruments and one that I cannot for the life of me figure out it's use.Briefly it consists of a two piece outer housing that is screwed together.Inside a what look to be three needles with 3 sided points on them and have a close fitting tube on their outside.They have a threaded portion on the back that allows them to be screwed onto one part of the casing.These three pieces are of decreasing size and fit one inside the other for storing.If anyone has any ideas as to it's purpose I would be most grateful for the information.

I'm sorry. I asked a question, then lost sight of this thread.

Beaver still makes scapel blades today. They are specifically into little micro-sized blades.

Their little blades used to fit into a two-sided chuck that tightened into a long thin cylindrical handle. Now, their micro-blades come already attached to a plastic, color-coded, base that screws into the same long, thin cylindrical handle.

They probably still make the other larger blades, as well, but Bard-Parker pretty much has the market on those. Beaver, however, has the market on the little micro-blades. The surgeon sticks his hand out and simply says, "Beaver blade". We use them to open the coronary arteries during bypass procedures. I suspect most of the opthomalogical blades are made by Beaver, too.

Your set of needles are, I think, a set of biopsy needles or core sampling needles. Slide the needle with its sleeve into the suspect tissue, then slide the sleeve further into the tissue, withdraw the whole thing, and you should have a core sample or biopsy. Then push the core sample out of the sleeve with the needle.

I've never seen these before, and if they are biopsy needles, they are more crude and probably less likely to procure a good tissue sample than what we use today. I'm just making an educated guess here. They might be something else entirely.

That long black handled knife is either an autopsy knife or an amputation knife, or both. Some of the best early Bowie knife makers were makers of such surgical knives. I believe Searles might have been a surgical instrument maker.

You need a good reference book on old medical/surgical equipment. Or, maybe you should write one.
Charlie Noyes

RobesonsRme.com wrote:I'm sorry. I asked a question, then lost sight of this thread.

Beaver still makes scapel blades today. They are specifically into little micro-sized blades.

Their little blades used to fit into a two-sided chuck that tightened into a long thin cylindrical handle. Now, their micro-blades come already attached to a plastic, color-coded, base that screws into the same long, thin cylindrical handle.

They probably still make the other larger blades, as well, but Bard-Parker pretty much has the market on those. Beaver, however, has the market on the little micro-blades. The surgeon sticks his hand out and simply says, "Beaver blade". We use them to open the coronary arteries during bypass procedures. I suspect most of the opthomalogical blades are made by Beaver, too.

Your set of needles are, I think, a set of biopsy needles or core sampling needles. Slide the needle with its sleeve into the suspect tissue, then slide the sleeve further into the tissue, withdraw the whole thing, and you should have a core sample or biopsy. Then push the core sample out of the sleeve with the needle.

I've never seen these before, and if they are biopsy needles, they are more crude and probably less likely to procure a good tissue sample than what we use today. I'm just making an educated guess here. They might be something else entirely.

That long black handled knife is either an autopsy knife or an amputation knife, or both. Some of the best early Bowie knife makers were makers of such surgical knives. I believe Searles might have been a surgical instrument maker.

You need a good reference book on old medical/surgical equipment. Or, maybe you should write one.
Charlie Noyes

Thanks for the follow up Charlie and some good info there.I think you may be onto something with the needles.The long black handled knife came from an old surgeon's intrument bag I came across in a second hand store.I should have bought everything(the guy wanted $100 for all the instruments and the bag)but instead settled for just the knife.I concur that it is an amputation knife.There is a name on it but I can't read it,The first letter is off the edge and the letters are in English or German Text.It looks like,"-iemann &C-".The handle is a finely checkered horn with a nickel silver ferrule.It is concave ground and holds an incredible edge.I use it as a letter opener and paper slicer.
The dissection set is Bausch and Lomb with an additional stamp of Codman & Shurtleff Boston MA.The handles are riveted ebony.Don't know what the conical brass tube is for(probably draining blood).
I don't normally collect medical instruments but if it has an edge,I'm usually interested.

K7K,

knife7knut wrote:There is a name on it but I can't read it,The first letter is off the edge and the letters are in English or German Text.It looks like,"-iemann &C-".

The company name is G. (george) Tiemann & Co. They made surgical instruments starting around 1826. They were located in New York.

I have several folding surgical instruments with tortoise shell handles from around the civil war era from them.

Hope this helps

M.B.

Thank you so much for that information Charlie!Here are the only two folding scalpels I own.One is tortoise and the other I believe is horn.One marked Codman & Shurtleff and the other unmarked.

Actually, I think Dimitri was due the next expression of thanks.
Charlie

Interesting cutlery. Do any of you folks recognize this NY trademark It is a Block T inside a triangle pointed down, with a N on the left of point and a Y on the right? Thanks for the thread, I purchased this thinking it was a lancet or a fleam. Evidently I was mistaken.
moss

H. Boker & Co. Solingen with ebony handle.

Top notch Roger.

You were right about what you told me Roger. If you collect it (and post pictures ),they will come.

You are living proof. You have the most extraordinary and one of the most comprehensive collections I've seen or heard of.

I would love to spend a day looking at it in person.Fly 'em on up to WV and I'll cook us up something.We might even invite ole Cunningham and Mundek.

That's a nice ivory too,I think I saw that one up close.You probably had to pay way ,way ,too much for it.

That etching seems timeless.If I saw that etch only,I would think of a more modern Boker, those Germans!