Help ID my great grandfathers knives

[spizebrad]

Hey all! I recently posted a pic of one of the knives I just acquired from my great grandparents collection. I’m gonna go ahead and share a few more below and give a brief description of what I know so far. I’m also not at all familiar with the handle materials so please enlighten me!
#1- 3 blade challenge pocket knife. The tang stamp reads- Challenge
Cut Co
Bridgeport
Conn
#2 Looks like a knife fob that was sold with a pocket watch. The ring says 14k gold and the tang stamp reads:
Elgin am
Mfg co
USA
#3 two blade olive green celluloid(?) the tang stamp reads Henry and Sons curved around 1865
#4 swirled green celluloid 2 blade. The tang reads:
Shrade
Cut co
Walden, NY
#5very small single blade. The tang stamp only has patent numbers that are mostly etched off. From what I can gather the patent was from Imperial but I can’t get a date on it.
#6 3 blade Keen Kutter. The tang is kinda like a downward arrow with EC Simmons above Keen Kutters and St Louis written below it.
#7 yellowish cracked handle with three blades. The tang reads:
George
Wostenholm
IXL cutlery
Shaffield
With no other markings I can see on the blades. Sorry if this is an overwhelming post, feel free to chip in with any amount of info, big or small!
Thank you all again.

[kootenay joe]

You have these knives ID'd correctly. What is it you are hoping to find out ?
kj

[Madmarco]

You have these knives ID'd correctly. What is it you are hoping to find out ?
kj

He'd like to know the handle materials Roland!

[spizebrad]

You have these knives ID'd correctly. What is it you are hoping to find out ?
kj

I’d really like to know the handle materials and a more exact date for some of them. Specifically, I have no idea when the Wostenholm, Keen Kutter and Shrade were made.

[kootenay joe]

The Wostenholm has ivory handles and likely is older than 1891 when most knives began being marked with country of manufacture.
The Schrade Cut Co jack is from early 1900's to 1946. Likely to be closer to the 1946 end of this time span.
kj

[kootenay joe]

The Elgin is a fob thype knife as you say. Most of these are "skeleton knives", meaning a knife manufacturer made the knife but did not put handles onto the liners. These were then sent to jewelry stores to mount handles, often very thin rolled gold or sterling silver, and to monogram, etc. The knife manufacturer would mark the tang with whatever name was requested, not their own mark. So "Elgin" was likely a wholesaler to jewelry stores.
These were popular late 1800's to 1920's.
kj

[spizebrad]

The Wostenholm has ivory handles and likely is older than 1891 when most knives began being marked with country of manufacture.
The Schrade Cut Co jack is from early 1900's to 1946. Likely to be closer to the 1946 end of this time span.
kj

Thank you so much! The wostenholm was really hard to find any dating info on. Never would’ve guessed it would be that old but I was reading that no country and no “oil joints” stamps could indicate an older knife for the IXLs

[spizebrad]

The Wostenholm has ivory handles and likely is older than 1891 when most knives began being marked with country of manufacture.
The Schrade Cut Co jack is from early 1900's to 1946. Likely to be closer to the 1946 end of this time span.
kj

I’m starting to feel a bit greedy now but do you have any info on the Keen Kutter? From what I can gather the tang stamp would’ve been used any time between 1870-1940?

[kootenay joe]

Don't feel badly about asking questions. We love questions as it gives the opportunity to chat about some aspect of 'knifing'.
I am not 'up' on Keen Kutters but there are others who do know quite a lot of the Keen Kutter details. One will likely show up & post.
kj

[danno50]

The Keen Kutter is a swell centre whittler with bone handles. It was made for the EC Simmons Hardware Co. prior to 1940. If it is 3 1/2", it could possibly be a K3698 3/4, which was made between 1905 and 1938. Depending on age, it was likely made by either Walden or Winchester.

[1967redrider]

Is there a number stamped on the other side of this? Thanks.

[danno50]

Good question 1967redrider, slipped my mind.

[spizebrad]

The Keen Kutter is a swell centre whittler with bone handles. It was made for the EC Simmons Hardware Co. prior to 1940. If it is 3 1/2", it could possibly be a K3698 3/4, which was made between 1905 and 1938. Depending on age, it was likely made by either Walden or Winchester.

I’m at work now but I’ll be sure to measure the blade and take a look at the other side for a number. Thank you!

[Mumbleypeg]

Unless I missed something your OP list has 7 knives but there are pictures of 8. Going from top to bottom in the pictures with the top being number 1, all but 4, 7, and 8 are celluloid. Picture 4 is metal and seems to,be kissing from your description list. 7 is bone, 8 looks like possibly ivory.

Ken

[danno50]

The Keen Kutter is a swell centre whittler with bone handles. It was made for the EC Simmons Hardware Co. prior to 1940. If it is 3 1/2", it could possibly be a K3698 3/4, which was made between 1905 and 1938. Depending on age, it was likely made by either Walden or Winchester.

I’m at work now but I’ll be sure to measure the blade and take a look at the other side for a number. Thank you!

It is not blade length that is important, it is the length of the knife with all blades closed that we want

[spizebrad]

The Keen Kutter is a swell centre whittler with bone handles. It was made for the EC Simmons Hardware Co. prior to 1940. If it is 3 1/2", it could possibly be a K3698 3/4, which was made between 1905 and 1938. Depending on age, it was likely made by either Walden or Winchester.

I’m at work now but I’ll be sure to measure the blade and take a look at the other side for a number. Thank you!

It is not blade length that is important, it is the length of the knife with all blades closed that we want

Oh okay. Well, the length with all the blades closed is just shy of 3 1/2 and there isn’t anything printed on the other side of the main blade. I’ll post a pic with a ruler.

[danno50]

I’m at work now but I’ll be sure to measure the blade and take a look at the other side for a number. Thank you!

It is not blade length that is important, it is the length of the knife with all blades closed that we want

Oh okay. Well, the length with all the blades closed is just shy of 3 1/2 and there isn’t anything printed on the other side of the main blade. I’ll post a pic with a ruler.

From your picture it looks pretty close to 3 1/2". I believe it is a K3698 3/4 as I speculated. With no stamped pattern number, I believe it is an earlier (1905 to 1923 or so), Walden made knife. Below is a pic of my Winchester made K3698 3/4.

[Colonel26]

The Elgin is a fob thype knife as you say. Most of these are "skeleton knives", meaning a knife manufacturer made the knife but did not put handles onto the liners. These were then sent to jewelry stores to mount handles, often very thin rolled gold or sterling silver, and to monogram, etc. The knife manufacturer would mark the tang with whatever name was requested, not their own mark. So "Elgin" was likely a wholesaler to jewelry stores.
These were popular late 1800's to 1920's.
kj

Elgin was a brand of watches. This would have been a fob for an Elgin pocket watch.