All About Pocket Knives

It may seem like a small thing, but it always bugged me that so many Hawkbills seemed slightly tipped. However, turning to pp.86-87 in the reproduction Schrade Cut catalog, I realized something I had been missing; duh!
It seems when a hawkbill was made (back in the day), the treatment of the point depended on the intended use. It seems that if it was to be used for "skinning wire", in other words, as an electrician's knife, the point was blunted slightly. When intended as a pruner, it was made sharp.
Maybe the hardness of the blade had something to do with it, because I have also noticed the spring wears more on a blunt tipped knife. On this one, even though it is little worn at the edge, the spring is already slightly below the liners. Or maybe I am dreaming?? Comments are welcome here; if anyone knows more, please chime in!!
Anyway, Hawkbills are an interesting area of collecting, and one can build a nice collection for reasonable money.

Hey Upnorth it may seem like a small thing to you but these are the kind of things that make this hobby fascinating. I have observed the difference in hawkbills points but was never astute enough to bring the difference to a reason..Thanks..

Sunburst

Good observation Charlie!
I had not made that connection before.

Dale

Here is an interesting knife, with a punch I have not seen before in my punch-drunk travels. I am Google-challenged sometimes, and could not find the way to verify old patents. This is a Canadian one, and the punch borrows details seen on at least 4-6 old U.S. patent punches that I have seen. It's like a Case-Robeson-NYK-S&M-Camillus stew! If anyone can tell me how to look the patent up, I'd greatly appreciate it!!

Charlie,
Nice Premier! According to my underground sources in Canada, that patent was issued in 1930 to Premier Cutlery of Canada and expired in 1947 Actually, i got it off the Canadian patent office website . Here's a link to the info on your knife, pretty basic since they don't keep document images on patents issued before 1975:
http://patents1.ic.gc.ca/details?patent ... #imageview

Eric

Thanks Eric! I looked there, but could not figure out how to enter the number. Interestingly, the patent appears to cover the whole knife!!?? I wonder if that means you could legally copy the punch at that time, if you put it in a different knife? Too bad there are no more details.

Back to your original post, thanks for bringing this to our attention upnorth. I have seen knives advertised as electrician's knives that I thought were prunners and never understood why , before now. The down side is that I won't necessarily know if I have a 'tipped' prunner or an original electricians. Thanks for pointing out this tidbit of useful information s-k

very interesting looking punch by the way.

Thanks for that upnorth. I kind put two and two together a while back, but never thought much of it. Being the hawkbillist I am I always love postes regarding these curved blades .

Regarding the temper, I too believe there is a difference. I have owned blunt tipped schrades and pruner schrades of the same age and with the same overall wear, but the blunt tip had considerably less walk and tlk, and the spring sat below the liners as you suggested. Sometimes though, this is just a poor fit and has nothing to do with wear, but either way is interesting

Over in Bernie Levine's forum in our neighbor site, he has posted the patent document for the "Canadian" punch!! How does he do it???????????