All About Pocket Knives

Hi All,

I'll be honest with you all and say that, the main reason I joined this group was to see if I can get a Pocket Knife identified and possibly dated.

My name is Andrew, I live in Adelaide, South Australia and one of my many hobbies is to metal detect. I also like to find out the history of some of the places I visit. Recently I was out detecting in a area which has a little bit of history. Most of this history only happened after 1839 in the area I was searching. Anyway to cut a very long story short. I ended up detecting in an area of some historical significance and came across this pocket knife, which has two blades, both look like they appear to fold out the same way. The knife is in pretty bad shape, the blades themselves are rusted and what looks to be where wood once was, there is nothing now. The smaller blade, which I think had the saw or flat head screw screw driver bit was extended, but the main blade is still folded up. From looking under a magnifying glass and taking close up images with my camera, I cannot see any identifying markings on it. This lead me to this site. I figure (and I could be wrong) that you guys may have some clue to it's origins.

The knife was located about 150 metres (about 164 yards) from a road and there was absolutely no other items found in the area I was searching, which was strange as there is a monument nearby, and I would guess that there would be some human activity in the area. I would think there would have been bottle tops or tin or at least some other rubbish, but the area was really clean. Except for this knife. I am not making an assumption that the knife was from the 19th century, but it would be nice to know roughly when it would have been used. I may even be able to locate the original owner or family of..

Would anyone one have any idea of the origins or what the knife may be? Pics added.

Appreciate any help you guys can give me.

First of all: What's left of the rusted remains tells us the knife was/is a two blade bare end jack knife. I've seen that handle pin arrangement just recently on AAPK but for the life of me, I can't remember in what context. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me will supply that information. In the meantime, it has nickel silver bolsters so it's doubtful it's older than the 20th century. Originally it probably looked very much like this old Cattaraugus. One of two possibilities. Either it didn't have a shield or it's newer than the 1950s-1960s when they stopped pinning the shields on and went to gluing them on. To be rotted away like that, the handles were most likely wood or Celluloid.

As always, contradictory conclusions are welcome.

The open secondary blade tells me that someone was using it when it was lost. Make up your own story about that. That's about as many conclusions as I can draw from the carcass. Good luck.

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the reply. I do plan on going back to the site, where i found it. I took GPS coordinates to make it easier to find. I will try and find the small shield that may have been on it. One thing I think I forgot to do was skim over the area again with the Detector. I usually do, but I must have been too excited about the find. I have been told that it looks more 20th century as you have said. It would be interesting to know what they were doing with it when they lost it...

Thanks again for the reply

It must not be a very arid area where you found it, otherwise I wouldn't expect to see that much rust. Plus it's been there for quite some time for the handles to be rotted away.

Hi Andrew and welcome. The main blade on your knife might still be able to be opened if you soak the knife for several weeks in Kerosene and slowly work it with a pliers. If you can get it opened, the tang might still be readable to the point of identification. If you can get it open, use a pencil and rub the lead point over the tang to remove rust. If it won't open you won't have done it any harm. There are just too many possibilities without seeing the tang. The shield, if there was one and if you can locate it may identify it but more likely will look like many others. These hunts are almost as much fun as finding the knife in the first place. ____Dave

to AAPK Andrew! An exciting find you've made there and we do love a mystery here. Jerryd and Dave have filled you in pretty well on your found knife. I would only add that the pattern is a very popular one and was made by many, many companies . The rounded tang on the pen blade suggests to me a manufacture date between 1900-1950 roughly. As Dave said your best shot to identify the manufacturer will be on the tang of that master blade if you can get it open. Good luck and good hunting!

Hi Andrew! Welcome!

Welcome, and what a neat mystery. It will be interesting to see what brand the knife is.

Thankyou to everyone for your replies and welcomes. I am still working out what parts are named what, I am assuming the tang is the but of the blade, or the piece just before the handle where the manufacturer would place their stamp or company name. I will give it a soak in Kero for a few weeks and see what happens.

The area it was located does receive some rainfall, mainly from Summer storms and Winter cold fronts, although in summer temperatures out there can reach over 40c on quite a few days of the season. The soil is typical of sandy Australia, red or brown. It was located in an area close to Morgan, South Australia, if any of you wish to look up the area.

again, many thanks for the info and welcomes...

Welcome to AAPK Andrew. Very interesting find. Your interest in understanding the parts of a knife can be easily resolved. Way up there ^ at the top of the page, click on "Research". When that page opens, look for "Glossary of Terms" (just one of many educational primers found there) and click on it. There you'll find definitions for knife terms. Most of them have illustrations accessible by another click. To save all that trouble here's a link to the page http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/con ... ife-terms/

Any questions, just ask!

Ken

Andrew!
Interesting find, lots of possibilities. There are several members of AAPK from Australia.
If you take your metal detector to a pawn shop, you ought to be able to trade it for a bunch good knives that you don't have to soak in kerosene .
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote: Andrew!
Interesting find, lots of possibilities. There are several members of AAPK from Australia.
If you take your metal detector to a pawn shop, you ought to be able to trade it for a bunch good knives that you don't have to soak in kerosene .
Treefarmer

HAHA! Still laughing at this I am not into knives that much, I am more interested in the history of the ones I find. Every knife has a story to tell. I wouldn't trade the detector in for anything, except a better detector that is.