All About Pocket Knives

I was digging for antique bottles back in 2003 at an Indian wars Fort that was established in 1875 and abandoned in 1890. At the bottom of a pit was this brick. Thought it was pretty cool and then I noticed the size. Very small for a brick of that period. It says "Bristol Bath Brick." After a lot of research on the web, turns out soldiers used to use these as whetstones. After I found this out I looked at the brick more closely and you can still see the steel marks of the blades and the indention on the top of the brick from many, many, stropings. Thought it was pretty cool. Forgot about it for the last 8 years but ran across it just the other day.

PS. Thanks to you Bryan for getting it all back up and running.

WOWWWWWWW! That is way too cool

What a great artifact that is Gunsmoke. I wonder what it's original purpose was.

It must have served well as a whetstone.

Thanks guys! Thats funny Wosey! You're right too. Nine times out of ten bottle diggers will bring home 100 $.50 bottles and / or a brick. As it happens though, on this particular day the bottle gods were smiling on my partner and me as we dug 21 U.S.A. Hosp. Dept bottles out of that pit and a few more pits right beside it. That won't mean much to a knife collector but it evened out at about $12,000. Motherlode of all pits and I will never see another one like it I am sure.

great find i remember an old oil man whom was working in africa & dug up lots of old bottles from an early english trash site. most had held gin & at that time the neck & top of bottles were cast separate from the bottle itself. a wooden mold was used to fuse the neck to the bottle itself.interesting items are hidden in many areas.---HiPower

What a wonderful historic item - and with the story, knife muesum quality maybe?

FRJ wrote: I wonder what it's original purpose was.

Not what I would have guessed, Joe. Got this off Wikipedia. Once again I have learned something because of AAPK. What a great place. It constantly feeds my curious nature.

The bath brick, patented in 1823 by William Champion and John Browne, was a predecessor of the scouring pad used for cleaning and polishing.

Bath bricks were made by a number of companies in the town of Bridgwater, England, from fine clay dredged from the River Parrett near Dunball. By the end of the 19th century some 24 million bath bricks had been produced in Bridgwater for the home and international markets.

The brick, similar in size to an ordinary house brick, could be used in a number of ways. A mild abrasive powder could be scraped from the brick and used as a scouring powder on floors and other surfaces. Powder could also be moistened with water for use on a cloth for polishing or as a kind of sand paper. Items such as knives might be polished directly on a wetted brick.

Thanks for posting that Jerry.

Can ya believe that Smoke? They used dirt to get rid of dirt. Them old folks were some purdy smart fellers.