All About Pocket Knives

Hello,

Welcome to my long introduction. For the last 20 years (since my late teens) I have been carrying a knife on me each and every day, mostly folders but the occasional small fixed blade, and I did this for the sake of both utility and defense (up until I got my CCW years and years ago) and still continue to carry a knife for utility sake.

For the most part I carried cheaper knives through the years not caring at all about brands and/or steel composition, but about a few years back for some random and mysterious reason I started taking an interest in steel composition. I read data spec sheets from Crucible and any other steel manufacture I could find, read about all the different types of elements that go into a blade and how they function alone and with other elements, going so far as to even read a handful of scientific papers on the subject, read about the different testing methods of steel such as impact testing (Charpy/Izod), etc etc. Put simply, I went OCD on understanding knife steel going as far as creating my own Excel data sheets. Why? Still don't know to this day

After a couple years of this weirdly intense interest and buying a whole bunch of folders (primarily Spyderco but a huge assortment of others), whatever craze had taken me over was gone. I existed in peace for a year or so until again, for some mysterious reason I just randomly started thinking I should buy a knife from the 1800's or early 1900's....and lol, that ended up becoming two, then three, then four, then five.....and we will see where this ends up

My interest in the 19th and early 20th centuries isn't mysterious; I am a fan of history in general and when it comes to American history, the "Gilded Age" has been my primary focus. I have read four separate books that focused on a broad look at this era, as well as another couple dozen that were more specific subjects during or close to this period (like books on the "Robber Barons", advancement of technologies like the Locomotive, subjects on the "Roaring Twenties"). Two of my favorite documentaries are 'Expo- Magic of the White City' and 'The Men Who Built America', both of which fall into this era.

Here I am now on allaboutknives because after the last couple months of my Duckduckgo searches to find information on antiquated knife manufacturers, it kept returning results from this site. The other day I even bit the bullet and ordered a 2nd edition copy of Goins Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings so I can familiarize myself better. Clearly not overrated but certainly overpriced (cost $130).

My collection is small at the moment and I have been using ebay and Etsy up to now, but I currently have:

• Beaver Falls Cutlery - skinner
  John Russell Greenworks - skinner
  J.A. Henckels - hunting knife(?)
  A.A. Fisher - 2 blade
  New York Knife Co Walden (before Schrade) - lockback
  New York Knife Co Walden (before Schrade) - pruner
  Veritable Choton - 3 blade something-or-another
  American Shear & Knife Company - 2 blade

I hope to learn more and grow my collection. I carry all my folders and will use all my fixed blades when the summer rolls around and I can start camping again, so functionality is as equally important to me as collectability.

Welcome to AAPK. Pull up a chair and make yourself at home. There are knife fans of every stripe here and all of them share an appreciation for man's first tool. Glad you decided to join us.

Thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself. Lately, it seems that all we get as far as newcomers and their first post is "What is this knife and how much can I get for it", never to be heard from again.

We're glad you found us and hope you stay a while. Lots of nice folks here.

_________
Mike

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:59 am Hello,

Welcome to my long introduction. For the last 20 years (since my late teens) I have been carrying a knife on me each and every day, mostly folders but the occasional small fixed blade, and I did this for the sake of both utility and defense (up until I got my CCW years and years ago) and still continue to carry a knife for utility sake.

For the most part I carried cheaper knives through the years not caring at all about brands and/or steel composition, but about a few years back for some random and mysterious reason I started taking an interest in steel composition. I read data spec sheets from Crucible and any other steel manufacture I could find, read about all the different types of elements that go into a blade and how they function alone and with other elements, going so far as to even read a handful of scientific papers on the subject, read about the different testing methods of steel such as impact testing (Charpy/Izod), etc etc. Put simply, I went OCD on understanding knife steel going as far as creating my own Excel data sheets. Why? Still don't know to this day

After a couple years of this weirdly intense interest and buying a whole bunch of folders (primarily Spyderco but a huge assortment of others), whatever craze had taken me over was gone. I existed in peace for a year or so until again, for some mysterious reason I just randomly started thinking I should buy a knife from the 1800's or early 1900's....and lol, that ended up becoming two, then three, then four, then five.....and we will see where this ends up

My interest in the 19th and early 20th centuries isn't mysterious; I am a fan of history in general and when it comes to American history, the "Gilded Age" has been my primary focus. I have read four separate books that focused on a broad look at this era, as well as another couple dozen that were more specific subjects during or close to this period (like books on the "Robber Barons", advancement of technologies like the Locomotive, subjects on the "Roaring Twenties"). Two of my favorite documentaries are 'Expo- Magic of the White City' and 'The Men Who Built America', both of which fall into this era.

Here I am now on allaboutknives because after the last couple months of my google searches to find information on antiquated knife manufacturers, it kept returning results from this site. The other day I even bit the bullet and ordered a 2nd edition copy of Goins Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings so I can familiarize myself better. Clearly not overrated but certainly overpriced (cost $130).

My collection is small at the moment and I have been using ebay and Etsy up to now, but I currently have:

• Beaver Falls Cutlery - skinner
  John Russell Greenworks - skinner
  J.A. Henckels - hunting knife(?)
  A.A. Fisher - 2 blade
  New York Knife Co Walden (before Schrade) - lockback
  New York Knife Co Walden (before Schrade) - pruner
  Veritable Choton - 3 blade something-or-another
  American Shear & Knife Company - 2 blade

I hope to learn more and grow my collection. I carry all my folders and will use all my fixed blades when the summer rolls around and I can start camping again, so functionality is as equally important to me as collectability.

You could have purchased a brand new copy of Goins for $27.95. They are still available.

Welcome aboard. Your interest in history mirrors some of my interests. WW1 is my driving interest. But all history is a hobby of mine. I think you will fit right in here. I hope you will consider shopping in the stores here on AAPK. There are stores that offer the kinds of knives you are interested in.
Of course any pictures of your collection that you can post would be nice. Glad you are here.

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:15 am You could have purchased a brand new copy of Goins for $27.95. They are still available.

Lol....whelp my first mistake! Where exactly can you find "goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" for that cheap? I don't use Amazon anymore thanks to what they and others did to Parler, so my searching was limited.

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:16 am Welcome aboard. Your interest in history mirrors some of my interests. WW1 is my driving interest. But all history is a hobby of mine. I think you will fit right in here. I hope you will consider shopping in the stores here on AAPK. There are stores that offer the kinds of knives you are interested in.
Of course any pictures of your collection that you can post would be nice. Glad you are here.

Thanks, and thanks to philco and Case as well. I too have went down the rabbit hole of WWI, I have read "The Guns of August" as well as a couple others, and have watched and own The First World War (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426688/).

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:20 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:15 am You could have purchased a brand new copy of Goins for $27.95. They are still available.

Lol....whelp my first mistake! Where exactly can you find "goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" for that cheap? I don't use Amazon anymore thanks to what they and others did to Parler, so my searching was limited.

Knife Magazine sells Goins’ Encyclopedia and many other cutlery related books. And the magazine itself is well worth the price of a subscription.

https://www.knifemagazine.com/product-category/books

Scroll down until you see Goins

Welcome to AAPK.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:29 am

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:20 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:15 am You could have purchased a brand new copy of Goins for $27.95. They are still available.

Lol....whelp my first mistake! Where exactly can you find "goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" for that cheap? I don't use Amazon anymore thanks to what they and others did to Parler, so my searching was limited.

Knife Magazine sells Goins’ Encyclopedia and many other cutlery related books. And the magazine itself is well worth the price of a subscription.

https://www.knifemagazine.com/product-category/books

Scroll down until you see Goins

Welcome to AAPK.

KEN

Thanks for the welcome and the info Mumbley!

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:20 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:15 am You could have purchased a brand new copy of Goins for $27.95. They are still available.

Lol....whelp my first mistake! Where exactly can you find "goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" for that cheap? I don't use Amazon anymore thanks to what they and others did to Parler, so my searching was limited.

Knife Magazine has an order form for a bunch of different books including Goins.
Or knifemagazine.com.

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:31 am

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:20 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:15 am You could have purchased a brand new copy of Goins for $27.95. They are still available.

Lol....whelp my first mistake! Where exactly can you find "goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" for that cheap? I don't use Amazon anymore thanks to what they and others did to Parler, so my searching was limited.

Knife Magazine has an order form for a bunch of different books including Goins.
Or knifemagazine.com.

Thanks edge!

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:37 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:31 am

Yomagn'tho wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:20 am

Lol....whelp my first mistake! Where exactly can you find "goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" for that cheap? I don't use Amazon anymore thanks to what they and others did to Parler, so my searching was limited.

Knife Magazine has an order form for a bunch of different books including Goins.
Or knifemagazine.com.

Thanks edge!

It would be interesting to see pictures of your knives individually, blades closed and blades open taken from directly overhead and then crop picture to size. We will 'read the knife' as well as read what the markings happen to say. We all learn a lot by looking at pictures of knives.
kj

Welcome aboard! Many of us here love history and pocket knives, and while most of us have our favorite styles and brands, at the end of the day we like just about any good knife. lol.

Oh, and we love pics too!

Welcome to AAPK! We would love to see pics of some of your knives.
We would be interested in seeing your Excel sheet regarding blade
composition too. Some of us get very technical as you will see
after you stick around awhile.

Bob

to AAPK! Lots of great knifing info here and we love pictures. If you're into older, historic knives be sure to pick up some reference books with pictures because there are a lot of fake high dollar knives that have been counterfeited over the years. Patina and wear can be faked too. Search here for pictures and info before dropping down your hard earned cash.