All About Pocket Knives

Dug this out of my basement today;it was mounted on a display board along with a bunch of other knives.Marked,"Robeson Germany Stainless".Ever see one Charlie? Didn't know Robeson imported knives from Germany.Any idea on the age?

Interesting, That's a first for me. Did you buy the whole board or just the one?

reddirtknives wrote:Interesting, That's a first for me. Did you buy the whole board or just the one?

The display board was one I had made up in the basement years ago to hold some knives that were too big to put into my regular cabinets.Among them were a pair of souvenir swords from the Philippines made entirely out of water buffalo horn and engraved with scenes on the blades.Another was an Indiana Jones knife by United Cutlery and several other Philippines knives. I will put them up in another post but here is a pic of the swords together.

Millard F. Robeson started out in about 1874 importing knives from Germany and England.

After the 1891 tariffs were enacted, he contracted with Sherwood in Camillus, New York for domestically made3 knives.

He took over the works in Camillus in about 1896.

Then, he moved the whole operation to Perry, New York in 1899.

Millard died in 1903 and the business was operated by his sons until about 1940, when it was bought by a businessman named Saul Frankel.

Frankel hired Emerson Case to manage the company and I think he becam president in 1948.

Soon after that, they started importing a very small number of pocketknife patterns from Germany again. Those knives all had a four digit pattern number.

About the same time they started importing these German made cutlery sets in various complexities, some with engraved and gold etched scenes on the blades and most with genuine stag handles.

Most, if not all, the German cutlery sets were marketed as ROBESON-CONTINENTAL items.

They all date from the 1950's to early 1960's.

Here's one of the imported pocketknives.

Charlie Noyes

RobesonsRme.com wrote:They all date from the 1950's to early 1960's.

Here's one of the imported pocketknives.

What a departure from the original knives made in the U.S.A.