Browne and Pharr, Makers, Atlanta, Ga history
Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 4:23 pm
There seems to be quite a lot of misinformation about the company, knives and other products.
I am the Browne, lets start with that fact. Cecil O. Pharr of Tucker is the Pharr. As friends in the motorcycle business and active gun enthusiast, we were discussing knives at the cycle shop on a number times. I had purchased a number of Case, and found them disappointing as the metal was poor at edge holding and they were hard to keep clean in you pocket and did not fit the contour of the hand.
we began to discuss what would make a really good knife, good blade steel, take apart to clean, and easy to fit the hand in any position. Cecil had the idea of screws, we talked about 01 tool steel for the blades, higher heat treat levels and with the blended additives long on edge holding with modest rust when reasonable care taken.
Cecil made the first pattern, a single scale, at home and we discussed further development. Cecil's original had thick bolsters and the rosewood protruding making the knife wide. WHAT FOLLOWS IS A VERY BRIEF AND CONSOLIDATED HISTORY MUCH MOST LIKELY OMITTED AS A LITTLE TIME HAS LAPSED.
BP mfg was formed, a plant sight leased and equipment purchased to start production. I went to work in my home shop refining the design, and still have the prototypes, I got a screw company to make the stainless screws with an axle shaft for the blades and the brass cups and knurled nuts for the wood scales.
The original production knives were thicker and the rosewood protruded from the bolsters. these had crudely ground blades done by band saw and then ground by hand. Cecil had a contact who imported the Rosewood, very old, and high quality, that is what we used. I checked with some contacts of mine at Lockheed and determined the correct stainless for the bolsters and later scales. we used 3/4 hardness brass for the scales.
I showed them to Orvis, Eddie Bauer, and other possible outlets with mixed results. They were to thick, heavy and needed refinement. thinner bolster material, level rosewood with the bolsters, and more uniform blades
I then contracted with a die maker to have the blade blanks, scales, bolsters using a 50 ton machine we had and thus stamped out the blank parts of the knife. The result were immediate improvement of appearance and function. He also made the name die for impressing "Browne and Pharr Makers, Atlanta, Ga" this design being Cecil's very good idea.
we did our own heat treating of the tool steel and springs, -- the spring are another story, as they are an inverse curve the normal pattern of a knife spring would not work, I must have make 20 different springs testing each to no avail. about 11:30pm eating a late dinner, the good Lord put a picture in my mind of the correct shape for the spring. I road my Ducati back to the plant, made the spring and that is what you have today.
Cecil ran the plant, I continued working to provide capital to build, and in his position he came up with the packaging, advertising literature and personally inspected each knife made before it was sold. I came in in the afternoon and weekends and continued development and design work.
I will omit the Flicket, pistol Belt Clip and other projects as this is a knife forum.
I will say to you, we never sold a knife without the company "logo" on the blade
we never sold a knife without screws,
we never sold a knife with a single blade.
we had a problem of a production individual liberating parts and assembling them at home -similar but not ours. He was selling them our around the area.
unfortunately in the Carter inspired high interest rates of 23% we were forced to close as banks were in real trouble, thus we closed down. - another story.
Bob
Robert A. Browne, Sr.
I am the Browne, lets start with that fact. Cecil O. Pharr of Tucker is the Pharr. As friends in the motorcycle business and active gun enthusiast, we were discussing knives at the cycle shop on a number times. I had purchased a number of Case, and found them disappointing as the metal was poor at edge holding and they were hard to keep clean in you pocket and did not fit the contour of the hand.
we began to discuss what would make a really good knife, good blade steel, take apart to clean, and easy to fit the hand in any position. Cecil had the idea of screws, we talked about 01 tool steel for the blades, higher heat treat levels and with the blended additives long on edge holding with modest rust when reasonable care taken.
Cecil made the first pattern, a single scale, at home and we discussed further development. Cecil's original had thick bolsters and the rosewood protruding making the knife wide. WHAT FOLLOWS IS A VERY BRIEF AND CONSOLIDATED HISTORY MUCH MOST LIKELY OMITTED AS A LITTLE TIME HAS LAPSED.
BP mfg was formed, a plant sight leased and equipment purchased to start production. I went to work in my home shop refining the design, and still have the prototypes, I got a screw company to make the stainless screws with an axle shaft for the blades and the brass cups and knurled nuts for the wood scales.
The original production knives were thicker and the rosewood protruded from the bolsters. these had crudely ground blades done by band saw and then ground by hand. Cecil had a contact who imported the Rosewood, very old, and high quality, that is what we used. I checked with some contacts of mine at Lockheed and determined the correct stainless for the bolsters and later scales. we used 3/4 hardness brass for the scales.
I showed them to Orvis, Eddie Bauer, and other possible outlets with mixed results. They were to thick, heavy and needed refinement. thinner bolster material, level rosewood with the bolsters, and more uniform blades
I then contracted with a die maker to have the blade blanks, scales, bolsters using a 50 ton machine we had and thus stamped out the blank parts of the knife. The result were immediate improvement of appearance and function. He also made the name die for impressing "Browne and Pharr Makers, Atlanta, Ga" this design being Cecil's very good idea.
we did our own heat treating of the tool steel and springs, -- the spring are another story, as they are an inverse curve the normal pattern of a knife spring would not work, I must have make 20 different springs testing each to no avail. about 11:30pm eating a late dinner, the good Lord put a picture in my mind of the correct shape for the spring. I road my Ducati back to the plant, made the spring and that is what you have today.
Cecil ran the plant, I continued working to provide capital to build, and in his position he came up with the packaging, advertising literature and personally inspected each knife made before it was sold. I came in in the afternoon and weekends and continued development and design work.
I will omit the Flicket, pistol Belt Clip and other projects as this is a knife forum.
I will say to you, we never sold a knife without the company "logo" on the blade
we never sold a knife without screws,
we never sold a knife with a single blade.
we had a problem of a production individual liberating parts and assembling them at home -similar but not ours. He was selling them our around the area.
unfortunately in the Carter inspired high interest rates of 23% we were forced to close as banks were in real trouble, thus we closed down. - another story.
Bob
Robert A. Browne, Sr.
,and don't be a stranger.
