All About Pocket Knives

In past years I have acquired two copies of a Harness Jack that I have seen nowhere else. The first one was given to me, free, because the blade was broken. Two very interesting things that make it intriguing are, the unusual jigging on the bone, and the presence of a punch no one I know had ever seen before. The jigging is close to a Rodgers (sp?) style, or a shallow peachseed, but not exactly the same. The punch had no patent number, but the tangs are both stamped "SCHATT & MORGAN over CUTLERY CO over TITUSVILLE, PA". An S&M knife for sure. I subsequently found another identical knife in EX++ shape, but no further clues about the punch.
Many of you already know that punches often identify a subcontractor, and sometimes, a time frame. Also that many punches were patented in the first 10 years of the last century, when horses were still a large part of life in America.
Well, thanks to our own intrepid and research-talented PA knives, a piece (a LARGE one) of the puzzle has been found!
PA discovered that a certain J.W.Schatt (can't imagine who HE is-ha ha) patented this punch, in 1908, and assigned the patent to S&M Cutlery!!
Why it doesn't proudly display its patent numbers, I don't know. I believe it was expensive to produce, with its laminated tang, and forged blade. It required a set of dies more complex than most blades IMO, but maybe a tool and die man could chime in here. Hopefully you can see how the blade is forged over the tang-spacer.
Here's the broken-blade version. I'll try and add a pic of the full knife later. Hope I'm not boring (pun intended) you guys with this detail stuff, but I love it!

I can't assist with the punch history but may shead some light on the bone jigging. I have four Schatt & Morgan knives with the same bone jigging, three are shown here. The best example if the EO jack. There is still a faint etch on teh blade that reads" FINZER'S Tobacco Knife" . These are knives made by Schatt before moving from Gowanda, NY to Titusville, PA. So some of this style of jigging must have carried over to the Titusville operation - I don't have any knives from Titusville in my collestion with this fine grain jigging.

Do you have the patend number of the 1908 punch that PA found?

While we are on the subject of punches, I came across this small 3" serpentine stock knife by Schatt & Morgan, Titusville. It is almost a toy, or probably made for a young boy to carrry.

Made my day of knife hunting that day.

You have some mouthwatering knives there, David! Beauties, all.
The little stockman is rare; and the punch is a Robeson style.
The patent number for John Schatt's punch is;
#890,457
patented June 9, 1908

David,

That is the first of those knives I have ever seen by S&M. Very nice find. The hunt is 90% of the fun.

"if it was easy, anyone could do it"

I always say.

Here's one of those branches or hybrids from the DNA tree of pocketknives!
It is stamped Kutmaster, but looks like an older model S&M. It has a sheepfoot main, only the second one I've ever seen on an HJ. And it has John Schatt's patented punch on it!! The blades look original to the knife, matching the springs etc. I don't know what to think.
Salvaged old stock?? Kutmaster made some odd stuff in the 60's and 70's; Hmmmmm?!?!

I just realized the shield on my HJ looks like the one on nifbuf's small punch stockman! An odd iteration of a federal shield! And the bone jigging sure is close in appearance. Curiouser and curiouser!!

And now to throw ever more mud into the already murky waters.When reading this post,I recalled a knife I had purchased many years ago.I purchased it because of the strange colored scales:they are PINK! I don't know how well your monitors will reproduce this but I can assure you they are a brilliant shade of pink.

The knife in question is a three blade Hammer Brand New York Knife Co.(the OLD one;not the Imperial one).The clip master blade and sheepfoot and punch blades are in excellent original condition.The punch blade is in fact a two piece unit with the patent date stamped into it of 6-10-02.If you look at the picture of it,the yellowish tinge on the inside of the punch blade is the ORIGINAL cosmolene coating!

So who was the originator of THIS two piece punch blade?I have tried to access the patent office search facility as noted on another knife forum but to no avail.If anyone has used this facility and can search this patent date,I would appreciate the info.

As to the knife;it still has(faintly)the Hammer Brand logo etched in Text on the master blade,all the blades have half stops,and they snap like a bear trap.The only time I have ever seen scales even close to this color was on an old Case Tested 6294.Anyway here are the pictures.

Pat. by Owen Harrison, of NYK, pat no. 701,878 . It was later "improved" by James Fuller by putting spiral ridges on the back, in 1916. pat. no. 1,171,422.

P.S. cool redbone!!

Real PURTY knives

Wow, great history lesson guys, thanks Charlie and others for this important info about the history of the good ole punch blade.

Singin46