All About Pocket Knives

Sorry for the terrible pun but I recently took a gamble on this gnarly old Rob. Klaas barlow because I love old bone handled barlows and this was available at a good price.

However, I'm a bit stumped when trying to find info on this model as A: there are no Kissing Cranes or cranes at all on this knife, the tang stamp on both blades is simply ROB. KLAAS above GERMANY and B: I can't even turn up a post or picture anywhere online of a Klaas barlow that looks anything like this.

My first assumption would be that this knife is maybe pre-Kissing Cranes trademark but I really doubt that is the case since that would date this thing to pre-1890 if my Klaas history is correct. Seems unlikely.

I've attached several photos to get a better idea and so you can see the tang stamp. It definitely feels old to me given the build, the patina, and the wear... the sawcut bone covers are glassy smooth with only a faint hint of the original sawcut texture.

The blades certainly saw some love and appreciation in their day but they're still usable and this old thing still has very confident walk and talk once I cleaned all the rust and pocket gunk out of it and oiled it up.

Goins' Encyclopedia indicates that the Robert Klass firm was founded in 1834 and the stamp with kissing cranes dates to 1896, so I think it is possible that your knife was made before 1896. Nice find!

It's an older Klaas barlow knife. Kissing Crane was founded in 1834. It was a separate company and then merged with Klaas in 1869 to become the Robert Klaas Company through the marriage of two people from the families of both. Klaas registered the Kissing Crane logo and trademark in 1895. Kissing Crane became a popular brand that sold in the U.S. but it was more common to see the Rob. Klass stamp on the German sold knives. Not all Klass knives will have the stork stamp.

A little off topic but something similar happened with Hen & Rooster which Klaas owns the German trademark to now, while Frost owns the U.S. one. The U.S. sold knives have "World's Finest Cutlery" etched on the blades but the one's sold in Germany do not.

herbva wrote: ↑Wed Oct 21, 2020 5:45 pm Goins' Encyclopedia indicates that the Robert Klass firm was founded in 1834 and the stamp with kissing cranes dates to 1896, so I think it is possible that your knife was made before 1896. Nice find!

Thanks for the info, that has been about as far as I could determine as well... oddly there isn't as much specific info on Klaas as I figured there would be given how long they've been around. Either way it's a great old barlow I'm happy to have!

RevolverGuy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 21, 2020 5:56 pm It's an older Klaas barlow knife. Kissing Crane was founded in 1834. It was a separate company and then merged with Klaas in 1869 to become the Robert Klaas Company through the marriage of two people from the families of both. Klaas registered the Kissing Crane logo and trademark in 1895. Kissing Crane became a popular brand that sold in the U.S. but it was more common to see the Rob. Klass stamp on the German sold knives. Not all Klass knives will have the stork stamp.

A little off topic but something similar happened with Hen & Rooster which Klaas owns the German trademark to now, while Frost owns the U.S. one. The U.S. sold knives have "World's Finest Cutlery" etched on the blades but the one's sold in Germany do not.

That's good to know, I figured there were probably Klaas knives without the storks/cranes but basically all my online digging turned up knives with crane stamps. Thanks for the info!

Weird, I didn't realize the Hen & Rooster trademark had been split like that.

And to add even more confusion to the mix here is a horseman's knife I picked up several years ago stamped,"M.Klaas England! Still haven't found out anything about this one.

AUSGEBOMBT: Nice old Barlow! BTW: I'm a B'more native too. Poly grad. Ten Hills on the west side near Catonsville. J.O'.