All About Pocket Knives

Hello esteemed knife gurus ! I have a question that I cannot seem to find on the net and before I purchase my next knife book, I thought somebody might know the answer.
As you can see in my pics, I have what I’ve tracked down as a Jack (3 3/8”), swell end 2-blade L F & C with celluloid scales in a unique pattern and color. The only markings on the tang of the main blade is “ L.F. & C.” Then right underneath is, “U.S.A.”
This knife definitely has been used but still has quite a -snap- when closing both blades.
Could anybody hazard a guess as to how old this particular knife might be? This came from my deceased Grandfather’s pocket knife collection he had in two cigar boxes(!). He was 98 when he passed, so it’s anybody’s guess if he bought this brand new or acquired it in a trade. Any idea from the pics how old this might be? Any good reference book you could steer me to about the L.F. & C. Knives?
Advance thanks !!!
-TnqCmdr

Welcome to AAPK! On the main blade tang opposite where you see LF&C there looks to be a pattern number but I can't make it out in your pictures....can you identify that pattern number for me?

LF&C made pocket knives from 1912-1950 according to Goins. They did not use a lot of different stamps so getting a close date is impossible.

Bestgear and Gunsil: thank you so much for your comments !
Using my 50X handheld ‘microscope’, I couldn’t detect any number or letter that may identify this knife further. Good suggestion though! Just narrowing down when these knives may have been made was more than I knew when posting my question. Thx again !
-TnqCmdr

In your OP you mention “before I purchase my next knife book.” May I suggest you get a copy of Goins’ Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings. It contains thousands of cutlery tang stamps and dates of their usage, companies and dates of operation, and histories of many cutleries. Probably the most useful book I have, Knife Magazine is a good source. http://www.knifeworld.com/goinenofcutm.html

Ken

have not looked in a while but u better get goins book from knife world only as they were $100 from amazon and barnes and noble....30 from knife world...

It’s interesting that LF&C started to make pocket knives with the incorporation of H&B in that year (1912)... yet the pocket knives from LF&C certainly relied heavily on black composition handles in contrast to the pocket knives that H&B made prior to becoming LF&C... the other interesting thing is LF&C made table cutlery and a few nice fixed blades including some with awesome stag in the 1800s.. as an aside - when Frary left LF&C and started Frary Cutlery in the 1870s he no doubt made pocket knives in the later 1800s which was well before LF&C...

Lee, I'm sure in your short time of involvement with knives you have seen a lot of LF&C knives with their patented stag handles. They just stand out, and are easy to tell who made them at a glance at a table. LF&C made many other celluloid knives and many many nice pearl knives but to know onw was LF&C you'd have to open it up you can't tell by the scale material, I don't think the black handles were the majority.

Agree with you Gene - I can easily pick out a LF&C knife just from those black composition handles. When I see LF&C knives in MOP or wood if the knife is in good shape I’ll grab it but not the black composition handles knives. My perception is the black composition handled knives were no doubt the majority - believe that also is pretty clear in their catalogs... I see way more LF&C knives with those black handles than any other for sure! If Tom (bestgear) sees this he has old LF&C catalogs plus he collects LF&C knives so like to hear his take on it .. one thing for sure they did not use true stag nor jigged bone on their pocket knives except for maybe table cutlery and their few fixed blades.

Here are a couple of different ones:a one blade handled in wood(ebony I believe)and a couple of metal handled ones.

Nice Ray ... Thanks for showing the metal handled one - I forgot besides wood and MOP they had a few metal ones... Again my take - majority are black composition and celluloid - I would like to see just one in jigged bone or stag

I found these LF&C catalog pages on AAPK at this link - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=42557&p=484819&hil ... al#p484819

I think this may help abit with pocket knife handles of LF&C... The first page is all MOP but I would say approximately 75% of all their knives over 8 pages is perfected stag which is what I was calling black composition (actually I understand it is black celluloid that appears to be stable other than some shrinkage (but highly flammable).. the others were either an ivoroy celluloid (aka French Ivory), MOP or wood handles. I guess that is also why I see many more perfected stag handled LF&Cs than others when searching for knives ...

Your question "any guess as to age ?"
My guess is 1930's to 1940's based on the celluloid handles. Unless this knife can be found in an old LF&C catalog i don't think a date can be known for sure.
kj

Imperial used a handle cover very similar to that with solid bolsters.

Solid bolster Imperial means most likely made before 1937. Fits with my guess of 1930's for O.P. knife.
kj

Nice knife. I would love to know that I was carrying my grandpa’s knife. Count yourself blessed

I agree that it is probably 80 to 90 years old. Your grandpa may have had it for most of his life. Blessed indeed you are.

WOW! Thank you so much guys for your comments ! I felt like I was sitting at a symposium on specific antique knives.
I’ll definitely look for that catalogue, great info! Thx so much!
-Greg

Thought I'd bring back this old thread and add another knife to the list.
This one is not a looker at all, broken blade, missing shield and all, but I'm a sucker for heavy dark scales and LF&C in general.

It's an LF&C USA model 32267. pretty clear number stamp but I tried a couple variations.
Found it I'm my parts pile and just looking for an aprox date before putting it back on the shelf.
I think I am mostly intrigued because so far I have found absolutely nothing on it and that's interesting in itself.
I know one of you has the old catalogs and I'm just curious.
Swedge