All About Pocket Knives

Lately I have took an interest in rough black knives. I had not thought much about it till I sold an old Kent 2 bladed jack in rough black. The friend I sold it to showed it to me after he cleaned it up. Ever since I wished I had kept it. Oh well, it is in good hands and it has made me appreciate rough black a little more. Today seemed like a rough black kinda day. Googled rough black and got some porn. Googled rough black knife and came up with the fact that during WWII it was called gum fuddy. It was first used because traditional handle materials were scarce. I couldn't find a thread dedicated to rough black. I know you guys have some great rough black so lets see it. Here is my favorite rough black edc a High Carbon Steel and a Robeson I picked up last week.

Here s my favorite rough black Joseph Rodgers.

Nice Garddog!! You betcha! This is my one and only right now but I have bought and sold many over the years. This CaseXX 35 1/2 is not goin anywhere.

I'll add a couple; Case 62031 1/2 and a 6347 SHP.

Those are nice Red!

Great looking knives. So what is rough black made of? Gum fuddy, I like that.

My only one

That's a nice one garddogg56. That is downright gnarly lol. Case calls it a nearly indestructible synthetic vikingdog. Great looking knives guy. This has been one rough week for me. Seems like nothing has went right. If I had packed a nice bone handle knife I surely would have dropped and chipped it.

Here's a rough black that I have that I kinda like. BOKER USA. No pattern number. The "rough black" are apparently celluloid?

Nice TJ, I don't think it is celluloid. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in.

Here's a tested 6445.

Maybe the handles on the BOKER are not rough black then, but there is definately some out-gassing going on based on the staining of the blade.

Thanks Perry and DadNewton.I have a stockman version of TJ's she is always in my truck console my do-all knife in rough black.

vikingdog wrote:Great looking knives. So what is rough black made of? Gum fuddy, I like that.

I'd like to see the answer to that question too.

Here's as much as I've found out so far T.J. "Rough Black was used as a substitute for bone stag during and shortly after World War II. Called Plastag by W. R. Case &Sons, it has a rubber like base and has no set pattern of jigging."

I think rough black may be like bakelite or some other manmade synthetic plastic made of chemicals. Every chemical company probably has there own brand or name for it. Celluloid is a semiorganic plastic subject to decomposition. Which there may have been some rough black made of celluloid.

Thanks Mike and Newton. I did a forum search and found a thread that one person said that "rough black" could sometimes be celluloid. The term is a little ambiguous at best. I'm thinking that the BOKER USA that I posted is rough black made from celluloid, based on the shading of the blade that sits above the frame.

That is very nice MrB.

This one is reminiscent of garddogg's. AMERICAN KNIFE CO. WINSTED CONN 1919-1948 cattle knife.

..really nice!

dang that is sweeeet beechtree

MAN Beechtree those blades are in fine shape

Nice knives All!

All I know is CASE knives so just an observation. Not sure of other brands.

Two types were made. Out of the same material, don't know for sure but I do not think so.

One is the gum fuddy and the other is jigged imitation bone.

Jerry

Sweet knives, keep 'em coming!