All About Pocket Knives

Here are some knives that have been listed on Ebay over the past few weeks, months, etc.

Some of these are patterns I've never seen.

I didn't buy any of these.

Just more of the diversity in design exhibited by Robeson Cutlery.

Charlie

Some more:

No question, Robeson sure made some beautiful knives.
To me, that ebony jack is really special.
Well, all of them are pretty darn nice.

More:

Continued from above:

And lastly:

Great looking knives, nice variety, and good record keeping on your part Charlie

Thanks for posting these amazing knives,to me that cattlemens knife takes the biscuit.

Very prolific knife makers,Robeson,and yet no farmers jacks? Thanks Charlie.

I could not convince myself that the three blade cattle knife had not been cleaned. Pictures were not the best.

To me, that 091 whittler, was the most interesting. It was 4" in closed length.

Think about that.......a four inch 91 whittler.

Sound familiar?

That bone handled gunstock whittler was nice too.

Notice those two 021 congress knives, one bone, one pearl. I've never seen or heard tell of that pattern.

And that pinch bolstered black handled congress, the 386, was sweet too.

Those two bone handled knives that look like melon testers may well be of the same pattern, but neither seller stated their length or a pattern number.

I know that Buzz Parker puts on The Greatest Knife Show On Earth every year in Pegion Forge, but really, the greatest knife show on earth is on Ebay every day. Love it or hate it, the knives do appear and we should be paying attention.

Personally, I look at every newly added auction in the Pre-1970 Folding Knife Category every day. If I like the auction title or the accompanying postage stamp photo, I open the auction for a closer look.

That's how I found that Maher & Grosh farmer's jack for Lyle.

Charlie Noyes

Charlie, looking at all those great knives it's not hard for me to understand why you've been drawn to that brand.

I think I'm going to have to get one of those Robeson jack knives.

Such as?

Look at the tang marks on that long pull tear drop jack.
I don't think I've ever seen that before and Tom Kalcevic does not list it in Knives Can Talk!.
I really regret not trying to get that one.
Charlie

Charlie, I am working on a acquiring Cattle pattern sub-collection and ended up with the Robeson Cattle knife depicted above. Here are some pictures that I have taken. To my novice eye it does not look to be cleaned. It does look lightly sharpened and carried to me. The bone and jigging are really nice.

Please let me know if you have a different read or need to see different pictures.

Jerry

Definitely been slightly used, honed, but does not appear to have been buffed.

Interesting how different the color of the handles look in your pics compared to the auction photos.

The pattern number appears to be 632024. I don't think I've ever seen that one.

Beautiful, honest knife, I think.

Congratulations on getting that.

Charlie

Hi Charlie - but only one of those beautiful Robeson Girl Scout knives exist that I'm aware of and it's in your personal collection. I look almost daily for one to "pop-up" on eBay but no luck. That's such a rare and beautiful knife that I feel blessed to have your photograph as a placeholder in my collection. Tom

No, there are more around. Dino Bakeris up in Maryland has one, as does my friend Jan in Atlanta and Philco just bought one off Ebay this year.

Keep looking.

One of these days, probably sooner, more so than later, I'm going to have to start selling all this.

I'll give you a call. I could use a nice Hawaiian vacation.

Charlie

Wonderful knives and they were all for sale right there on the bay… So Now, does everyone understand why Robeson is arguably The greatest American cutlery Co. of all time? And if you were to argue against this who would it be in favor of? I know who most would probably choose because there's not many to choose from but did they ever make a nicer/better knife than some of the knives Mr. Noyes shared with us? I don't know which of those I would choose if I was given my choice. I'm going back to look at the pics again. Thanks for taking the time to share these with us Sir.

Given my druthers, I'd go for that tear drop jack, it's quite early.
I don't generally like tarnished knives, but that big jack has an etch I've never seen on a pocketknife before, but have seen on a couple of straight razors.
But, the never see before or again knife is that 4" 091 whittler.
Charlie

Oh, call me "Charlie", please. I'm not that old.

Yes Sir. Mr. Noyes I mean Chucky err ummm Charlie Well, I still can't make up my mind from the ones in this post but then again I don't know what's rare or not because around here they're all rare. I'm not a big fan of shadow's or tip bolsters but that pearl shadow humpback congress ? ? is one shadow I would love to own I mean WOW spiders and all. It looks so fragile though and hard to believe it's made it this far and remains in that condition. I wouldn't kick that one out of bed if it had a crack on both sides. And the little serpentine stockman with the tip bolsters and beautiful jig bone has changed the way I feel about them. Both of those sort of stand out to me because I normally wouldn't care as much for them as the others.
I thought someone would come up with a contender of sorts but….. psssssttttt All the cool kids are collecting Robeson's

I'm biased, of course, so I don't usually make claims re' Robeson being better than any other American cutlery manufacturer, but I have read in authoritative publications by authoritative experts that only Robeson and New York Knife occupy the topmost position in quality, but not necessarily in that order.
Charlie

BTW; never, ever, call me "Chucky"

RobesonsRme.com wrote:I could use a nice Hawaiian vacation.

Charlie

Ooh, good choice. Wonderful place.

Thanks for the encouragement Charlie - I sometimes think the hunt is better thank the kill. Is Dino on AAPK; I too am in Maryland and I'd love to hook up with Dino some day. I know he contributed to Joe Kerr's book 600 Scout Knives so I'd love to see his Scout knife collection.

As far as a Hawaiian vacation, you might not be too far off. The hunt continues.