A Gift From Mr. Paolantonio
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 1:23 am
I was cleaning out my desk drawer today and stumbled upon this knife. As soon as I seen it some memories came back to me.
I will have to go back about 15 years ago, I was making my way through the state of Rhode Island hitting antique shops and second hand junk shops looking for knives. I believe I was in Warwick R.I at the time although the exact city escapes me. I was not having any luck finding any antique shops so I spotted what looked like a second hand store with furniture and stuff. I pulled into the lot and went into this tiny store that had an apartment above it. I was greeted by a middle aged woman, she asked if she could help me, I stated I was looking for old pocket knives, a smile came over her face and she said she did not have any.
I was now wondering why she was smiling, she then asked if I was a knife collector I said yes, she smiled even more! By now I was wondering what is this lady so happy about? She said to wait a minute she knows just the man I would like to talk to about old knives. She then went over to a stair well that led to the apartment above the store and called out to a Mr. Paolantonio "could you please come down?"
A few minutes later an old gentleman, probably in his 70`s or older, came outside and introduced himself to me, he said I am Mr. Paolantonio and I was one of the owners of the Colonial Knife Company. I must say I was pretty impressed at that statement! We began talking and he asked me if I was a collector of knives, I said I was and have been for many years. We were talking back and forth about Colonial and how the knife business had suffered from imports and the decline of the company all the exact details are lost to my memory now. I asked him if he had any knives from the company he would like to sell, he said no they were all gone now. I was disappointed to hear this but I really enjoyed talking to the old man about knives and the company. I told him I lived quite a distance away from R.I and I was going to have to go now to make it back home at a decent time. He told me to wait a minute and went back upstairs when he came down he reached into his pocket and then placed this unused 2-blade shell knife in my hands.
I said wow! what a nice old knife, he said it`s yours! He told me he had several boxes of them he took with him when he left the company, this was the only one left. The bail is marked Sterling, I am not sure if the shell handles are Sterling as well. I said goodbye and we parted company the only regret I have today is that I forgot his first name, I am real bad with names like that, maybe Bob has an idea who I was talking to?
Here is the knife I was gifted that day
I will have to go back about 15 years ago, I was making my way through the state of Rhode Island hitting antique shops and second hand junk shops looking for knives. I believe I was in Warwick R.I at the time although the exact city escapes me. I was not having any luck finding any antique shops so I spotted what looked like a second hand store with furniture and stuff. I pulled into the lot and went into this tiny store that had an apartment above it. I was greeted by a middle aged woman, she asked if she could help me, I stated I was looking for old pocket knives, a smile came over her face and she said she did not have any.
I was now wondering why she was smiling, she then asked if I was a knife collector I said yes, she smiled even more! By now I was wondering what is this lady so happy about? She said to wait a minute she knows just the man I would like to talk to about old knives. She then went over to a stair well that led to the apartment above the store and called out to a Mr. Paolantonio "could you please come down?"
A few minutes later an old gentleman, probably in his 70`s or older, came outside and introduced himself to me, he said I am Mr. Paolantonio and I was one of the owners of the Colonial Knife Company. I must say I was pretty impressed at that statement! We began talking and he asked me if I was a collector of knives, I said I was and have been for many years. We were talking back and forth about Colonial and how the knife business had suffered from imports and the decline of the company all the exact details are lost to my memory now. I asked him if he had any knives from the company he would like to sell, he said no they were all gone now. I was disappointed to hear this but I really enjoyed talking to the old man about knives and the company. I told him I lived quite a distance away from R.I and I was going to have to go now to make it back home at a decent time. He told me to wait a minute and went back upstairs when he came down he reached into his pocket and then placed this unused 2-blade shell knife in my hands.
I said wow! what a nice old knife, he said it`s yours! He told me he had several boxes of them he took with him when he left the company, this was the only one left. The bail is marked Sterling, I am not sure if the shell handles are Sterling as well. I said goodbye and we parted company the only regret I have today is that I forgot his first name, I am real bad with names like that, maybe Bob has an idea who I was talking to?
Here is the knife I was gifted that day
cool story MB
