All About Pocket Knives

I just purchased a Southington Whittler in really nice shape. The main blade and the file blade both have the following mark:

SOUTH-
INGTON
CUT. CO.

on the mark side and nothing on the pile side. The secondary pen blade, however, is marked with a deer's head one one side and the inscription "R. W. & S." on the other. Goins mentions R. W. & S. but has no other information. Nothing in Levine. I wondered if the "S." might stand for "Sons", but the only thing I could find that might be it is "R. Wallace & Sons", for whom Goins gives some history, but no mention of a deer's head logo.

Can anybody shed any light on this one?

No information here, but one would have to suspect that one of those blades might not be original to the knife.

RobesonsRme.com wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 9:39 pm No information here, but one would have to suspect that one of those blades might not be original to the knife.

That certainly is a possibility, although it's not the first knife I've seen that has more than one maker's mark on it, and apparently legitimately, if I correctly remember what I've read on this board.

Brent I think that might have been a contract knife done for R.W. & S. by Southington. They were both in existence at the same time (late 1800's) and both in Connecticut. The full name was R. Wallace and Sons. They were at the time one of the premier silversmiths in the country dealing primarily with tableware and the like, but they didn't manufacture pocketknives. Wallace was a great innovator and was actually the first producer of nickel silver in the U.S.. The stag head was part of their silver mark:




That's a great knife with a very unusual and historic mark. Congrats on the find!

Eric

Great post, Eric.

Agree with Eric, the Southington tang stamp is correct, most likely a contract knife for R.W.&S.

ea42 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 3:21 pm Brent I think that might have been a contract knife done for R.W. & S. by Southington. They were both in existence at the same time (late 1800's) and both in Connecticut. The full name was R. Wallace and Sons. They were at the time one of the premier silversmiths in the country dealing primarily with tableware and the like, but they didn't manufacture pocketknives. Wallace was a great innovator and was actually the first producer of nickel silver in the U.S.. The stag head was part of their silver mark:

That's a great knife with a very unusual and historic mark. Congrats on the find!

Eric

Eric, that's fabulous information! Thank you! The stag head mark being associated with the R. Wallace & Sons name clinches it. I saw that they were both in Connecticut, but saw no other connection, so I couldn't be sure.

My pleasure Brent. I did a little reading on the company while I was at it and found that they have a really incredible history. A lot of firsts that I never knew about.

Eric

Looks like both pen blades have been replaced.

Take a close look at the pin in the bolster, on the master blade end it is invisible, on the pen blade end it is clearly visible and appears to be a different color than the original bolster material.