All About Pocket Knives

Bill Feeney and his staff at Spouting Whale (F&F Inc.) have been doing scrimshaw on knives and other items for over 40 years. His style of scrimshaw is the classic hatching type (as opposed to stippling = dots). Spouting Whale is located in Massachusetts.

Like many collectors, I like things to fit into clearly designated categories so I have only collected Schrade USA knives. Schrade's 100 years of production created more great knives than I could ever afford so I've stuck with it. That said...

I branched-out a couple years back and decided I would also collect any items scrimshawed by Bill Feeney. I already had a few special editions that he did for Schrade and since I really like his work (and scrimshaw in general) I decided to start a fresh pile of attractive knives.

I took a group photo of my current Feeney-scrimmed items a few weeks back. I will add more detailed photos of individual knives over time.

I hope you enjoy seeing these! Please feel free to post any other Spouting Whale items you may own. I'd love to see them!

Pictured below are four synthetic handled Frost Cutlery lockbacks, one mammoth ivory Parker trapper (with duck scrim), two elephant ivory plaques, one mammoth tooth money-clip (with dog scrim) and two genuine MOP canoes. All the rest of the items are bone. Bill did the fixed blade for me a couple years back, the rest of the items were done in the 1980s.

Braaaaavoooooooooo bladecollector. Excellent. Absolute beauties all around and I love seeing a good chunky piece of tusk. Loved checking out your beauties. Mmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

All of them are beautiful. Nice collection. Mr. Feeney sure does good work.

Bob

I'm not sure if this one was done by Mr. Feeney as it is unsigned. I bought it at a small shop in Salem Massachusetts many years ago. The other handle is wood.

Wow!!!! Awesome collection Bladecollectorr! I've never seen such a fantastic group of scrimshaw in one collection before. And, I enjoyed the story. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the kind words guys!

knife7knut wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 8:21 pm I'm not sure if this one was done by Mr. Feeney as it is unsigned. I bought it at a small shop in Salem Massachusetts many years ago. The other handle is wood.

It wasn't likely done by Bill himself because he tends to sign his work with the crossed-7 or backwards "F" as seen on all the knives in my group photo. At the height of his production he employed ten other scrimshanders.

One of his staff may have done it, or not. I stick to Bill's work to keep my collection uniform but tons of other scrimshanders have been active over the last 40 years. Without a signature there is no real way of knowing who did it.

Here are pics of the tiny Parker AB-11 lockback. Bill's signature is clearly visible.

Thats a great collection you have right there

bladecollectorr wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 6:48 pm Bill Feeney and his staff at Spouting Whale (F&F Inc.) have been doing scrimshaw on knives and other items for over 40 years. His style of scrimshaw is the classic hatching type (as opposed to stippling = dots). Spouting Whale is located in Massachusetts

Feeney group May 20, 2021.jpg

Very impressive!!! Thanks for the post

Thanks again gentlemen!

Here are a couple more pics of the Frost lockback set. The knives are somewhat crude and were made in Pakistan. The wall-display they came in looks much more attractive as a whole. When in their display, you tend to focus on the scrims more than the knives themselves so they still are pleasing to the eye.

Impressive collection.

Very impressive collection