All About Pocket Knives

.. First year collector North Chattanooga , Tenn , retired guy , Half-Back as most of our working career in Upstate New York Hudson Valley region, (Poughkeepsie Railroad bridge pic in my Avator, profile, we were early supporters to turn into State walkway park access),, then 12 years east coast of florida near space center.. Moved Half way back north to find Chattanooga along river.. GREAT place to retire.

Have been flea buying , small local club swapping for almost a year... About 33 keeper knives at this time... Reading forum past week , learned alot about tang name and years... Very surprised about number of knife manufactures in the Utica / Syracuse , ULSTER, Ellenville (where wife was from ) , Newburgh (Allen brand) , KENT ( NYC), etc..... Last two weeks read about our Chattanooga builders like PARKER... Two days ago scored the brass 1982 Knoxville , World fair knife.... Hope the pics attach and should be able to enlarge.? ID my green PUMA (Back-Packer) as 1973 ,2nd quarter build.

One of the small UTICA blade is 100 yr Anniversary of IBEW (1891-1991),,raised pattern different on both sides.?? Would like to know more info on that brass item.?
2) One small black / brown has the curve JOHNSTON , straight USA logo , thought New York, but guess it is FEDERAL out of Rhode Island 1945- 50 era?.
3) Some novelity item like PISTOL with case lower right, no brand name , maybe cigar tip cutter.? Flip out lock , hammer pull back release.

Welcome from Indiana. Looks like you are off to a great start.

mate, for a first year collector you have a great stash. . Hope you also have plenty of money stashed, looks like you're gunna need it. Welcome to the " Rabbit Warren ".

Split wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:55 pm First.....

Hello and to AAPK.

Welcome from Jersey!
Nice gathering you have there!!

Welcome, from Texas! I love Tn. My parents used to live in Brentwood, near Nashville. Hopefully I'll make it through the eastern part, on the way to visit my son, in the Navy, in Virginia. Supposed to be some good flea markets around Pigeon Forge, and SMKW...with lots to see in the knife world.

Welcome from East River South Dakota. You will like it here.

Great looking collection, Split, and to AAPK! Hope you like it here, everyone is friendly and full of knowledge. Got a joke I heard at a knife show from an old knifer-

"I heard a guy can make a small fortune in the knife business . . . if he starts with a large one."

We all have the passion and like collecting for the nostalgia and hobby of it. Some make some decent money, but we all have certain knives, patterns or makers that we're excited to collect. There's always another great knife just around the corner.

Welcome here.
You're off to a good start.
It's the search.

Welcome aboard sir.

Welcome to AAPK.

Welcome to AAPK. Great start on the collection!

From what I see in your pictures, I see a couple of potential “red flags” - Celluloid knives, and a knife roll. Both of those are ticking time bombs that can potentially ruin a collection. I learned the hard way as did several others here, so please do a search here on AAPK for “celluloid off gassing”, and “knife rolls”. You can mostly avoid problems with both if you know the perils, what to watch for and how to deal with it. Here’s just a couple of the many threads on both topics

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=54367

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=64714

Ken

Howdy, Split! to AAPK from the Florida Panhandle.
Treefarmer

I doubt that knife rolls are a cause of cell out gassing. I think the problem is that when knives are stored in a knife roll you cannot see what is going on with the knives until you open up the roll. If you only open up your knife rolls every few months a knife might have off gassed greatly and you've missed the early signs before other knives got affected.
kj

kootenay joe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 5:57 am I doubt that knife rolls are a cause of cell out gassing. I think the problem is that when knives are stored in a knife roll you cannot see what is going on with the knives until you open up the roll. If you only open up your knife rolls every few months a knife might have off gassed greatly and you've missed the early signs before other knives got affected.
kj

Never said, nor implied, that knife rolls are the cause of celluloid outgassing. However the materials used in the making of some knife rolls can have negative effects on knives. I have experienced it first hand and unfortunately still have the damaged knives.
The offending roll had no celluloid knives in it at the time. However the nickel silver components of several knives that had been stored in the roll were damaged (corroded/pitted). If you read the post I referenced and others here on the subject you’ll see that my bad experience with storing knives in a knife roll is not an isolated incident.

I agree with the rest of your post. The moral of the story is, don’t store knives in knife rolls long term.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 3:25 pm

kootenay joe wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 5:57 am I doubt that knife rolls are a cause of cell out gassing. I think the problem is that when knives are stored in a knife roll you cannot see what is going on with the knives until you open up the roll. If you only open up your knife rolls every few months a knife might have off gassed greatly and you've missed the early signs before other knives got affected.
kj

Never said, nor implied, that knife rolls are the cause of celluloid outgassing. However the materials used in the making of some knife rolls can have negative effects on knives. I have experienced it first hand and unfortunately still have the damaged knives.
The offending roll had no celluloid knives in it at the time. However the nickel silver components of several knives that had been stored in the roll were damaged (corroded/pitted). If you read the post I referenced and others here on the subject you’ll see that my bad experience with storing knives in a knife roll is not an isolated incident.

I agree with the rest of your post. The moral of the story is, don’t store knives in knife rolls long term.



Ken

Ken

So likely the fiber content of the liner part of the roll is important.
I have some very old stained knife rolls and the liners are cotton. I think my Hickory Hill rolls have cotton, but i have others (rolls & folders) with a synthetic lining.
It would be interesting to find out which synthetic fibers can increase incidence of out gassing and/or corrosion of nickel-silver.
kj

Correct. I have no idea if it was residual acid or some other caustic substance in the material dye or the imitation leather outer material, but anecdotally the damage was most severe where the elastic bands holding the knives was in contact with NS shields and bolsters. The damage appeared similar to that seen with celluloid outgassing, but was not limited solely to areas in contact with the elastic. Whether or not that was the origin is purely a guess. Therefore I also would not assume it was “synthetic material” which was the cause. Could have been, but dyes used in coloring the material might be the culprit. In fact I do not know what the lining material was. I long ago disposed of that roll but IIRC it was lined with some type of soft felt-like material, or maybe flannel. BTW my experience was with a Hickory Hill knife roll, and I’d recommend you read this viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6514&p=688180&hilit=Hickory#p688173

There are posts here from others who have had similar experiences with knife rolls. Others here say they’ve never had a problem using knife rolls for storage. However I now never store knives in other than Sackups rolls - I’ve used Sackups for years for storing knives, firearms, and fishing reels, with no problems.

Ken

... THANKS GANG... Lots of info / history here to read about all the brands..... PARKER has a local history. Just got a nice Trapper 2, but see the same model with etch blade for SODDY - DAISY Two Towns,, also they made the 1981 Space Shuttle shape Columba that would seek... ( Can also post in the Wanted thread ) .... I came from the upstate New York area so any of those brands are great to learn.

...welcome to AAPK!!!!!............ ..............................

Hello, and from just across the state line (down in Alabama)!
I live about an hour from Chattanooga, and work all around that area.
I hope that we can say Hello at a local knife show one day!

Welcome aboard Split from KY. You have an interesting collection.