All About Pocket Knives

Can anyone throw some light on this all metal folder. I've not been able to find any information but I'm sure I've seen a photo somewhere.
Gerry

Are the handles tin or heavy cast steel?

They are made of steel of all one piece . The knife is about 4" in length closed and the blade is about 3". There no other marks on it other than the word "BEST"

Gerry

I have a Wostenholm Boy's Knife with a similar or same metal handle but without "BEST" on it. If i can find it i will picture it. (i like verbing nouns at 0400 hrs.)
The question then becomes: did Wostenholm cast there own handles ?
Or, was there a handle manufacturer who supplied handles to many knife manufacturers ?
kj

Gerry, I have seen some marked "BEST" "TENT MARK" that were made by Richards Sheffield England.

Hope this helps.

Were the knives made by Richards marked with anything other than Best or Tent Mark?


Gerry

I bet many companies used the word "Best" German and English, so hard to pin it down exactly.

Here is a picture of one I have seen by Richards, they stamped their name on the tang usually.

I have to say they look similar but not the same, no marking on the tang on mine and Best is closer to the middle, I've posted on the BB sit in the UK and "Owdtom" is going to post about "Deane and Adams" fakes? There seem to be similar knives by "Rodgers" ,"Wostenholm" and others. Sometimes this knife research is like swimming up stream in cream of chicken soup.

Gerry

One of the guys on the BB forum reckons this is a knife made in japan around the of the 60's.

Gerry

Not Japanese and not from the 1960s.
Nearly all models similar to this "Best" one (and there were several by different companies) were produced in the early 1900s by German manufacturers. Miller Bros. posted one of the few post war examples from "Richards" which although was a company from Sheffield, their lineage was from Germany. Enclosed is a picture of a very similar model to yours from 1920 which was offered from the German firm of "Schlieper". It was not uncommon for some older German knives to be found with no makers stamp, but it does make it quite difficult to pin down who actually made certain unmarked models. Also enclosed is a picture from 1954 showing the "Richards Best" model.