All About Pocket Knives

Here is a great example of the blade damage that will be caused by the out-gassing of Celluloid handles:
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-Hibbard-Spe ... 20ba229d7e

Must be valuable to get that high of a bid in that shape...

That's crazy outgassing!

Glenn

The blades are full. Someone is probably going to put new handles on and clean the blades. We will probably see it restored on ebay in a few weeks.

Bad thing about it, the backspring is probably ruined too. I sent paknives an old Schatt & Morgan pen knife one time, un-sharpened but was gassed out. The mainspring was in 2 pieces.
...CCBill...

I got one of those H S B 's laying around somewhere.
It is much smaller than this knife. A pen knife I think.
It has some crazy designed plastic like handles.
I'll have to look for the knife and see if this type of reaction is happening to it.

That unbelievable. What a shame.

J W

OMG what an amazing example of celluloid breakdown.

knives-are-quiet wrote:I got one of those H S B 's laying around somewhere.
It is much smaller than this knife. A pen knife I think.
It has some crazy designed plastic like handles.
I'll have to look for the knife and see if this type of reaction is happening to it.

That unbelievable. What a shame.

J W

Here is the knife I mentioned.
Doesn't look to be effected by this type of reaction.
I am guessing this knife isn't that old and the handles aren't celluloid.
I don't know much about these brand knives and this is the only one I have in my collection.
Is this wild looking patterned handle material original to this knife or was this knife re-done?

J W

Your H.S.& B. is celluloid. Many knives from the '20's and '30's and even before that are made of celluloid haven't gassed out. Celluloid will gas out, no question, but many of the knives like Fight'n Rooster have really given celluloid a bad name. I'm not sure exactly why (maybe a lack of curing time, maybe a slightly different formulation) but I've seen modern celluloids gas out seemingly right in your hand. Maybe the old knives that gassed out are just all gone, leaving us with a very select group that didn't gas out for random reasons, don't know, but I own 50-60 celluloids that show absolutely no sign of deterioration even though they're 70-90 years old.

By the way, your knife is probably from the '30's, maybe an Imperial or Camillus contract knife, almost certainly all original. One other thing, cracked ice and clear celluloids seem to be the most prone to deterioration.

Here's an example of a 1920's (Goins dates this Remington stamp to 1921 - 24) knife that shows no sign of deterioration:

Question: when does the gassing stop?..or does it stop?

It's one of those reactions that once it starts, it doesn't stop.

Folks,
If you have not seen it, there is a really interesting article about celluloid in the lastest "Knifeworld" publication. There is a lot of info here, enough so that I will hold on to the half dozen I have

BH

hmmm,I only have 1 or 2 but I should keep them seperated from
anything else !?
thanks TJ..

cattaraugus57 wrote:hmmm,I only have 1 or 2 but I should keep them seperated from
anything else !?
thanks TJ..

TJ,

I beleive this is a smart bet..... I have missplaced my issue and in it it did have a URL address to the complete paper, I believe it was 20 pages , that was referenced for the Knife World article. Would some one here have that issue and be kind enough to insert that URL?

Regards,

BH