All About Pocket Knives

Guys, I am starting this thread to showcase my own Eskilstuna knives, rather than starting one new thread for each knife or maker.

I am a true novice trying to learn as much as possible about these fine knives and I will try to relay what I find out here.

Two excellent sources of information is eskilstunaknivar.se and pimhusse.se , two sites dedicated to Eskilstuna knives. They are in Swedish but if you use Google translate you´ll get the picture.

I´ll start with a nice one from a lot I bought the other day.

It was made by a company called Stalvaru AB who were in business between 1946 and 1954. They used the horse shoe as tang mark.
This knife isn´t attributed to any maker in particular and from what I have learned, they bought blades from other makers and used them for their own models.

I am actually not quite sure of what the handle scales are made of yet but I will post here when I know more.

Great idea for a thread Jim. Nice multi-tool knife. Looking forward to seeing more of your collection and learning about Swedish knives.

smiling-knife wrote:Great idea for a thread Jim. Nice multi-tool knife. Looking forward to seeing more of your collection and learning about Swedish knives.

Thanks! Glad you like the idea! I just thought it might work as a reference of sorts and make it easier to find. I will update it every now and then so please check back.

BTW, the small blad on the knife above is used for prying open watch cases.

All the best!

Jim

I know nothing about Eskilstuna knives. So, I will be watching and learning! Thanks Jim for starting this thread!

Here are some of mine:
Three EKA folding knives;one advertising Ohio Rubber Co.
A KnivIndustri Eskilstuna folder with mother of toilet seat handles.
An SAS figural knife(no maker's name).
A Segerstrom barrel knife.
A champagne pattern. Maker's name is unreadable.
A Mora knife with a fish handle.
Another regular Mora knife.
Not sure whether this one is Swedish or not. No maker's name but looks like a Mora with a highly polished blade and engraved sheath with ebony handle inlayed with silver pins.
Two knives by J.A.Hellberg (third and fourth knife)

The two J.A.Hellberg knives.

knife7knut thanks for the pics!! Some great knives there for sure!!

I´ve never seen the SAS airplane version before and I really liked that one!


Here is another of mine, a pattern 38 made by Knivbolaget, Eskilstuna and if the stamps are right, then it was made between 1929 and 1939.
Mother of Pearl handle scales, 2 blades, a screwdriver and a funny version of cork screw, the Hammesfahr Patent from 1898 I believe.
This knife pattern was made by many makers in Eskilstuna.

The screw is locked by the underlaying "spring blade" which acts as an extension of the screw, then you twist the screw 180 degrees and then twist it outwards for another 90 degrees, see pics.

Pretty good condition but not like new, of course.

Thanks for watching!

Jim

A very interesting knife to be sure! I don't recall ever seeing a corkscrew such as that. I have a couple of German made knives with corkscrews that slide out and then pivot into a locking position.

Neat knife Jim, I have one just like that

knife7knut wrote:A very interesting knife to be sure! I don't recall ever seeing a corkscrew such as that. I have a couple of German made knives with corkscrews that slide out and then pivot into a locking position.

Thanks!

Yeah the Germans has made some odd variations of cork screws among many other things.

But it is a great way to have a longer cork screw on a shorter knife.

Jim

Miller Bro's wrote:Neat knife Jim, I have one just like that

Great! Then it's us against the rest!

Jim

Great Hammesfahr corkscrew knife Jim. Corkscrews are another of my collecting interests. Cheers!

smiling-knife wrote:Great Hammesfahr corkscrew knife Jim. Corkscrews are another of my collecting interests. Cheers!

Corkscrews are fun and interesting to collect but they are scarce and it is not easy to find interesting ones.

Do you have a certain area of cork screw collecting?

Jim

this is the only one i have

EMIL JONSSON

sakoblade wrote:

smiling-knife wrote:Great Hammesfahr corkscrew knife Jim. Corkscrews are another of my collecting interests. Cheers!

Corkscrews are fun and interesting to collect but they are scarce and it is not easy to find interesting ones.

Do you have a certain area of cork screw collecting?

Jim

Hi Jim, my corkscrew collection is quite varied... like my knife collection. Scandinavian figural corkscrews form the first half of the 20th century is one are that I particularly like. Cheers, Steve

That's a nice MOP knife Cato.

Cato, thanks!

Time to update this thread after way too many other urgencies of life.

The makers from Eskilstuna were many and there are way too many patterns to collect.
What strikes me as odd is that many makers used the same patterns and here is an example of that. Two small pocket knives with two blades, one knife blade and one nail file.

Simple but nice and both are stamped Eskilstuna. One is marked H&R (Hedstrom & Rosvall 1921-1930) and the other one is stamped J.W Carlsson (1910-1953).

I´m sorry for the snow! It just started when I took the pics.

Jim

I think this might be linked to the 2nd World Rover Scout Moot in Ingaro Sweden 1935 but just a hypothesis. What do you think Jim?

smiling-knife wrote:I think this might be linked to the 2nd World Rover Scout Moot in Ingaro Sweden 1935 but just a hypothesis. What do you think Jim?

Well I once was a Cub Scout but that is many many moons ago so I am not sure at all? But will do some research when I get some time.

Very fine looking knife, as in all your posts, and I would almost bet it is a Pontus Holmberg. They surface over here every now and then but I have never seen the Scout Rover Moot version before.

Thanks for sharing!!

Jim

Thanks for the reply Jim. Very well identified. The mark on the other side of the tang is P Holmberg Eskilstuna.

Was/is eskilstuna the predominant swedish cutlery area much like solingen germany and sheffield england? I've never heard of it before, nor do I know anything about it or much about swedish knives. One thing I know is that sweden has long had wonderful high quality fine grained steel, those eskilstuna knives must take a wicked sharp edge.

Nice knives and great info

I have one from Eskilstuna from Hedengran and Son - a 4" bone handled jack with sabre ground master, pen and corkscrew... funny the pen was most likely sharpened and lost some length and shape but interestingly I have seen 2 other jacks from Eskilstuna that had a similar pen blade - coincidence or not .. I think Hedengran and Son started in the 1830s if I am not incorrect and have not seen many knives from this Swedish maker... J

Jim do you have any info on Hedengran and Son?? Maybe they are more common than I believe but found this one on a local hunt....

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Was/is eskilstuna the predominant swedish cutlery area much like solingen germany and sheffield england? I've never heard of it before, nor do I know anything about it or much about swedish knives. One thing I know is that sweden has long had wonderful high quality fine grained steel, those eskilstuna knives must take a wicked sharp edge.

Yes, Eskilstuna has been the predominant city of cutlers for at least 200 years.
It is not known exactly how many makers we have had but some 200-250 are known today.

Swedish steel has a good reputation all over the world and I guess it helped the cutlers in their line of work.
I can personally vouch for how sharp they can get as I have cursed many times, finding a neglected and rusty and dirty old Eskilstuna knife at a fleamarket, only to find (the wrong way!!) that the blade is sharp as if it was new.

But as they say, no pain-no gain!

Jim

LongBlade wrote:Nice knives and great info

I have one from Eskilstuna from Hedengran and Son - a 4" bone handled jack with sabre ground master, pen and corkscrew... funny the pen was most likely sharpened and lost some length and shape but interestingly I have seen 2 other jacks from Eskilstuna that had a similar pen blade - coincidence or not .. I think Hedengran and Son started in the 1830s if I am not incorrect and have not seen many knives from this Swedish maker... J

Jim do you have any info on Hedengran and Son?? Maybe they are more common than I believe but found this one on a local hunt....

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Nice jack!!

Hedengran & Son started out in 1833 and was in business until 1916.
There were three generations of Hedengran smiths and from what I can tell from the tang stamp, it ought to have been made by Donatus Leonard Hedengran but I need to check the "bible" in the morning.

The pattern was used by several makers for all I know but will check some more and will get back to you ASAP.

And I might have seen that type of pen blade before too but I am not 100 % sure.

All the best!

Jim

Guys, I have checked my book "Knivar fran Eskilstuna" by Arne Marmér but I have no more info than what I have already posted.

But you can check two sites for more info about Eskilstuna knives.

http://www.eskilstunaknivar.se and http://www.pimhusse.se

They are both in Swedish but there are a lot of pics and if you do a Google Translate you´ll get it. If not, just ask me and I´ll be glad to help!

And for those interested in buying a copy of the book, just PM me and I´ll send you a link to a guy here in Sweden.

Longblade, I might have one just like your Hedengran & Son but need to check later today.

Cheers!

Jim