All About Pocket Knives

I've got these two Hammer Brand Timber Scribes and while both have the usual Hammer Tang stamp, the reverse tang on one reads "New York Knife Co. Walden" (3 lines) while the other just has a model number of "135". I'm guessiing there might have been a change of ownership between the time the two knives were made, but that's just a guess. Any info on dates for these would be appreciated.

Bob,
New York Knife Co went out business about 1932. I am not aware of any changes of ownership before they closed. I think the differences reflect an in house change in markings.

Imperial Knife Co acquired the Hammer Brand name and produced tons of Hammer Brand marked shell handle knives, but neither of those knives appear to be shell handles.
I do believe New York Knife made those two timber scribes.

I believe the numbers are pattern No.'s used by the hardware/wholesalers for re-order.
Not but a handful of there knives were single blade. The multi-blade Hammer Brand
knives seem to all have the house name stamped on the secondary blades. It would be
my guess that the "un-numbered" knives are earlier than the numbered ones.

I have several different patterns, all with different No.'s stamped on the back of the master
blade.

I haven't researched the hardware/wholesalers catalogs, but I have a few different references
from a few different companies I can look at to see if any of the No.'s match there order/pattern No.'s.

Wish me luck and hopefully I can make some direct connections (or maybe prove otherwise).

..... Joe

.... Joe

You're correct Dale in that neither is shell handled. One is Cocobolo, exactly like the one pictured in the ad Joe posted (You Da MAN Joe!), while the other is solid brass. I recall 1932 as being right about the time Imperial acquired the Hammer trademark and since the Depression was still going pretty strong, shell handled knives was one way they used to help stay in business. Great info Joe. I saved that old ad. I may just display it with the timber scribes. Thanks tons guys!

I have this example and a little different take on it's possible origins.
The front stamp on the clip blade is the NYK Hammer Brand stamp, on back, it's stamped with pattern No.237. (no NYK stamping on either blade) The NYK Co. 237 is listed as a 3-3/4" swell end jack with pen secondary. This knife is only 3-1/2" and has a punch secondary. However, Imperials No.277 is a 3-1/4" swell end punch jack with clip primary and punch secondary. The punch in this knife is like those used in many of the early Imperials.
Neither the NYK or the Imperial are an exact match to this knife, but there seems to be a tie in there somewhere and i've always suspected that it was likely built by Imperial, in the earlier days after aquireing the Hammer Brand trade mark, using leftover NYK parts.
I'm wrong much more often then right on these things, but that's just my take on it.

WB

WB, so youu're thinking the swell end was made somewhere between the two timber scribes? Following the tang stamps, that would seem to make sense (but what do I know?).

Bob, it's the only way i've been able to explain the punch jack not matching either description of the NYK 237 or the Imperial 277. The knife has traits of both.

WB