All About Pocket Knives

I recently purchased this Wade & Butcher, and since the individual that I purchased it from, knew very little about the manufacturer, I was hoping that I could find out information about the company etc. Thanks for looking..............Greg

hey greg, i believe your knife was made in the late sixties for the collector market. very nice .

wade & butcher c1818- present.

Thanks for the information Johnnie. It's definately one of the nices knives I've ever seen. Also the first one I ever seen. It's a big knife, at 5 1/4" closed.

Thanks again.............Greg

Hi Griz1200. That is a nice looking knife. However, it does not appear to be a genuine Sheffield-made Wade and Butcher. IMO it is a relatively recent reproduction of some sort. The rights to many of the old sheffield pocket knife names were acquired after the demise of the industry in the 1970s. e.g. there are lots of Wostenholms made in Japan when Parker was using the name in the 1980s etc. Does it have a country of origin on it anywhere? It looks German to me. s-k

S-K There are no markings that denote where it was made. The only tang stamps are....the main blade has WADE BUTCHER stamped in an arc, with the letters XCD at the bottom. The only stamps on the coping and small spear point, are the letters XCD on one side only.
I would appreciate any further info you might have on the knife.

Thank you very much..........Greg

Here is a link that may be of interest.

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 61290.html

Seems the knife is probably a modern repro made circa 1990 in Solingen; Olbertz factory same as Bulldog. Thought it looked familiar. s-k

i think you're right s-k. not the whittler produced in the sixties, probably a parkerized version from the ninties.

Would you all happen to know when Wade & Butcher went out of business? I've looked in all the books I have and can't find any thing about the company. I've also used Google and can't find anything definative.

Greg

Wade and Butcher was a tradename of the W & S Butcher Co. Brothers William & Samuel Butcher started the company in Sheffield in the 1820s. Not too long after they had a partner named Robert Wade who was the New York based importer of W & S Butcher knifes for the US. This was one of the main markets for the company's goods prior to the introduction of the McKinley tarifs of 1891. Not all W & S B knives are marked Wade and Butcher. In 1921 the American company Durham-Duplex bought W & S B and used it for the production of their safety razors as well as other forms of cutlery. W & S Butcher ceased production in Sheffield in 1959. s-k

Info summarised from Tweedale (1996) The Sheffield Knife Book.

Thanks S-K, for the info and the reference.

Greg

You're welcome s-k

Here you go, W&SB mark as described by S-K