All About Pocket Knives

One of my only two Robesons. I believe the covers are horn, or maybe smooth bone.

Nice Robeson Truck I believe that those scales are horn. I have an old Robeson cattle knife with similar scales. Thanks for posting her

#goldpan wrote:Nice Robeson Truck I believe that those scales are horn. I have an old Robeson cattle knife with similar scales. Thanks for posting her

Thanks Randy. Based on the tang stamp it appears to be from the 1922 - 1939 era. I have one other Robeson, a tiny watchfob with tortoiseshell covers.

I forgot to post a picture of her for comparison! Here she is!

#goldpan wrote:I forgot to post a picture of her for comparison!
20170215_215357.jpg Here she is!

That is a beauty. I love 3-blade stockmans, its my favorite pattern.

Interesting. I have seen only one horn handled Robeson and it was pictured in Tom Kalcevic's book, Knives Can Talk! and it was a large sailor type knife with a big sheepfoot and folding Marlin spike on the back side and a copper bail. It was most likely made on contract, possibly in England.

Do either of your knives have a pattern number on them? I'd be interested in knowing what the first digit might be.

Charlie

Charlie thanks for jogging my memory. I have a book with Robeson codes. Mine (Stock pattern) starts with the number 8. Mottled composition according to my book. The Standard Knife Collectors Guide 6th edition by Ron Stewart. The tang stamp on this dates to 1920-1945. Is this correct Charlie?

My resource material states the 8 designated "Patterned Celluloid" which covers a lot of different types of celluloid.

Not saying ya'll's handle material is cell instead of horn, as you stated, but it's a distinct possibility.

Charlie

Charlie, I believe mine (the senator pen) is 2205. Does that help?

No, that confuses me even more.

Robeson used a six digit system, sometimes shortened to five if they omitted an unnecessary zero, but the only four digit numbers of which I'm aware were on a small series of German imports during the 1950's.

Charlie

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Robeson used a six digit system, sometimes shortened to five if they omitted an unnecessary zero, but the only four digit numbers of which I'm aware were on a small series of German imports during the 1950's.

Charlie

Hi Charlie. I just took another look at the tang stamps with my lighted hand lens and it does appear to be five digits. The first digit appears to be 8, but it could be a 6 or a 9. It's followed by 2 and 2. The fourth digit may be a 3, a 5 or a 6. The last digit is a 5. My best guess is the model is an 82235, 82255, or 82265. The knife was not stored properly for many many years and the stamps are barely legible. The Shur-Edge stamp appears to date from 1922 to 1939. If you'd like more photos I can try, but I doubt you'd be able to discern much detail.

If this is celluloid, it's unlike any celluloid I've seen. The porous appearance closely resembles bone, and that, plus its variably translucency, caused me to think it was horn.

Looks like celluloid to me.

truck wrote:If this is celluloid, it's unlike any celluloid I've seen. The porous appearance closely resembles bone, and that, plus its variably translucency, caused me to think it was horn.

Truck you need to get one of those 45x magnifiers off of ebay. It makes it so easy to identify bone from horn and composition. Less than 2 bucks!