All About Pocket Knives

In fair to poor condition, this old relic is a tasty morsel for a dabbler in knife history. Stamped WARDLOW CUTLERY (curved) over CO. over WALDEN,N.Y. It might be one of the E.C.Simmons brands, if you read into Goins.
It has NYK's Harrison (pat. 1902) punch, and looks like an NYK.
Nicely made, despite a worn blade, and a chunk of wood missing from the rear handle. It retains smart snap and half stops, and cleanly stamped tangs, so has been a knife to be proud of all these years.
Please post your rare knives here! Any condition!!

Seymour Alvord was very proud of his Empire Knife Company. They made beautiful, high quality knives, for their own sales, and on contract for many others. He was also a creative inventor. In 1906 he patented one of the best punches ever created for a pocket knife. In this example, he put his punch into a knife handle all by itself. There is a sliver of wood missing from the handle, but you are not seeing another blade, just the liner. A specific tool, rarely seen in this format.

Here's a few:
American Knife Co.Plymouth CT. with a folding brass ruler patent date April 1866.

Not a knife but in a knife handle:A hoof pick and a comb.

A pair of Jos.Rogers ivory handled scissors with a small blade in each handle.The beauty of this little piece is the ENTIRE side(liners,bolsters,and scissor blade)with the exception of the back spring and scale is all one piece!Can't imagine trying to machine that;even today.

Next item isn't a knife either but rather a folding glass cutter.The "blade" on the right held a small industrial diamond in the end(missing now)and the left "blade" is for snapping off different thicknesses of glass.

The last item is a sterling silver and mother of pearl four blade folding toothpick.I also have several of these with 2 8 blades in ivory.

Rare indeed, knifenut. I can't say I've seen any of your examples before, except the ruler! Cool!

do these qualify?

Cool Johnnie! That Wolfe is in good shape. Not many around!!

upnorth wrote:Cool Johnnie! That Wolfe is in good shape. Not many around!!

Amen to that Charlie, I hope others can add to this thread. It's a good one.

thanks charlie. paknives got one awhile back and i started my quest. wolf must have had fingers of steel. spring is so strong, almost impossible to open with thumb and index fingers. no nail nick!

Did someone say any condition? Here's a Wallkill River Works EO Jack.
A New York Knife Co. Brand, only made from 1928-1931.

There can't be many around, Paul! Nice find!!

Nice going, guys, all of you. Doesn't have to be MINT to impress me. I'm glad these knives end up in the hands of real collectors who appreciate them, so they can show them to others of us who can appreciate them.
Phil

Here's a few more rare(?) relics:

A huge navaja shaped knife made of cast pot metal with ornate designs all over it.I got it from a friend of mine whose dad had an antique shop.He had no clue where it came from and neither do I.

A dental technician's kit for making dentures(I assume)made by Herbst in Germany.Note the weird looking tooth brush.

Another huge navaja style knife purchased in an antique shop for $10.Not in bad shape for it's age(late 19th c.)and the price was right.

A huge display knife made of wood.

A mechanical pencil with a folding knife in the top.I have several variations of these;one with a sliding blade.

An unusual manicure set.The individual blades fold out and then you fold the two piece case closed to use.

Couldn't resist this one: a Mr.Bubble Swiss Army bubble maker.

The Sport Pal.This thing has it all:knife,scaler,hex wrench,screwdriver,scale,and tape measure.

The last is an unmarked manicure tool with four blades.The buttons on top and bottom slide the blades to either side for use.

I love the Mr. Bubbles knife7knut!

Hey all,

Did this knife pattern come from the factory with a wood handle? I don't know much about these old Union knives. It's in good condition, the blade is nearly 100%. It reminds me of a Marble's Woodcraft.


Gary

Yes they did.I have one identical to it.The wood was originally jigged to resemble bone.Yours looks like it is worn a bit. I had never seen another one until now.I'll see if I can get a picture up tomorrow;I have to dig it out to photograph it.I looked for the picture but have just finished shuffling around all my knife pics so god knows where it is.

Actually this knife belongs to a friend of mine. He brought over a small box full of old stuff, mostly scout knives. When I saw this one I asked him if I could snap a couple of quick pictures. He'll be tickled to know the handle is factory and that it's a rare one!

Thank you for your response Knife7knut.................................


Gary

I have not piped in on this for several reasons first I wanted to see the response. I am enjoying it. the second reason is because I finally got a new camera. it is an easy share Kodak V1003 I choose it because it had far and away the mose desirable quality. It was free I reupped on my internet supplier and they gave me it 3X 10 MP. Whatever that means it seems I waited so long to make up my mind on what to buy that I ended up with a free one. I have been told that it is a decent enough camera however I have not responded to this thread because I have not figured out how to use it correctly. As you know I am not to good with this stuff. Apparently my easy share aint so easy for me to share. So I finally decided to use my old Mavica which I have after 7 years finally figured somewhat out. The next problem I had was on what to post pics of. I have a lot of relics and unusual stuff and brands to show. Since it seems that some of the more unusual tang markings of knives made in Walden has been brought up I have attached some pics of some of the more unusual markings made and stamped Walden. if you have an interest Levine and Goins has some info on some of these so rather than expound for pages I will let you look them up for history ect. However if you get stumped let me know and I will try to help. I just put some of them on there are more I left out Schrade, Hammer, (I did put some NYK contracts and brands). ect since we discuss them fairly regularly and it would just take to many pics and time. I did make one exception since I saw the pic of the wooden knife I thought I would include its brother. I hope you enjoy the pics. Now I have to go and play with my new camera. ( it is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.) On second thought I believe I will go play with a bottle of Crown royal instead it is larger and fits my large fingers and hands better. LT

Here are some more pics . Easy share HUMBUG . WHAS UP WIT DIS CAMERA

Only a few more

Nice string of Walden-mades, LT! You are the host with the most!
I will dig up a few HJs that were made there. Today is my day to noodle around with my collection.

Pretty worn down blade, but still snaps almost like new! Temper balance between blade and spring must be about perfect!
I've never seen this exact tang stamp elsewhere, but maybe LT or someone else has one.
E.C. over SIMMONS over ST. LOUIS.
No markings visible on the backs of the tangs.

These knives all have NYK's patent punches on them, and were likely made by NYK, in Walden.
I think if you manufactured a good punch in the early part of the last century, it gave you an edge (pun intended) in getting contract work.
Clicking twice on the image should let you read the tang stamps.

Charlie,

You didn't show those NYK punches. How can I compare ?

This one's Valley Forge ( curved ) over USA over Cutlery Co. over Newark N.J.

This $10 knife was about all I could afford after the dog leg yesterday !

Fran early 44

Great knives!!!!As to that E.C.Simmons stamp:As I was going through my knife drawers to re-photograph some stuff,I came upon one I had put in and never cleaned.Scraped off the tang a bit and what do you think I found? This one has a bombshell shield and a fancy long pull almost like a NYK.Maybe an old Remington manufacture?
I have several others I will post later on.

K7K,

I've never seen a pin that looked so large.

Is that the original, or did someone drop a 16d nail in there ?

Fran