All About Pocket Knives

deo-pa wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 1:37 am I recently purchased this English silver fruit knife. The blade of this shadow knife is inscribed: “Presented to Mr. J. Morton, late Postmaster of Spilsby as a token of respect from the Messengers of that office. Sept. 20th, 1851.” It was presented to him on the day he retired.

The knife is mint, never sharpened, measures 3-3/8 inches closed, and has its original case. It has brass liners and iridescent chamfered mother-of-pearl handles. The back spring is tooled. The reverse side of the blade is bright-cut engraved with rose sprigs and has five hallmarks: the Birmingham anchor, lion passant, young Victoria head, “GU” maker’s mark (George Unite), and the date letter “C” for 1851.

I watched this knife for over a year in an Etsy shop in France. The price dropped occasionally but remained high. Many months ago I made an offer and it was rejected, but I couldn't get the darn thing out of my mind. Recently the euros to dollars exchange rate moved favorably in our direction; I made another offer and this time he accepted.

Dennis
PS - Spilsby is a town in east central England about 25 miles from the North Sea (see map)

... how was it done at that time in history? with what kind of tool? Also, was it done before the blade was heat treated?

If its not too much trouble I’d like to see the tooled back spring.

JamieinWV wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 8:45 pm When I saw 170 year old….I thought someone was posting pics of my mother in law