All About Pocket Knives

Will someone please take a look at this knife and tell me what it was designed for? Thanks.

Copy the web address and paste it.

This will make it a little easier to look up:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145101892800?_ ... nordt=true

Apparently somebody knows what it is, there are 63 bids on it now with almost 4 hours left.
Looks like a heavy duty, glorified, folding butter knife.
This should be interesting when it's properly identified.
Treefarmer

This is interesting and I've been digging too. I don't think it was made for heavy cutting and that narrows things down a bit. Not a hide scraper and a folding butter knife for outdoor use seems impractical, not an artist's palette knife either - I don't think. I'm guessing cheese knife. Interested in knowing the answer.

Thanks Guys, the blade caught my attention, and your right with 64 bids more than someone knows what it is.

It's an old folding draw shave knife. You hold the handle in your right hand, usually at the half stop position but not always, and pull the blade toward you. You wrap your left index finger around the tip of the blade, nestling your fingertip in that cutout to help guide the cut. Same principle as a two handed draw shave. Very cool and unusual knife, I can definitely understand the interest.

Eric

SOLD for $589.00. Looks like we have a potential contender for the next GEC pattern!

ea42 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:16 am It's an old folding draw shave knife. You hold the handle in your right hand, usually at the half stop position but not always, and pull the blade toward you. You wrap your left index finger around the tip of the blade, nestling your fingertip in that cutout to help guide the cut. Same principle as a two handed draw shave. Very cool and unusual knife, I can definitely understand the interest.

Eric

Thank you for posting that. Very interesting. Is this known by any other name? I looked on Google trying to find another, and nothing seems to come up. Even a draw shave razor seems to be unheard of. Google has gotten to the point where all they are interested in is selling you something and not providing information.

Bob I'm not sure what else they would have been known by, or if that's even what they were referred to back in the day. I remembered that because Bernard Levine did an article in the OKCA newsletter some time ago and featured an identical knife from that company. I was amazed by it as I've used regular draw shaves before and spent some time looking for one but they seem to be almost non existent. He showed another more modern version but I can't recall who the company was. I'll see if I can dig up the copy. I was sorely tempted to bid on the OP knife but that was too rich for me.

Eric

The knife in question is a 19th century Ploughman's knife.

It's used in the preparation of their lunch, which usually consisted of bread, cheese and an onion.

These were sold in England, I have not seen any American or German knife companies making them during this period. Not rare but seldom seen over here.

Thank you Dimitri, very interesting. I’m on the iPad and don’t know how to post a pic. Here is a link to another.


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/early-19t ... 708545573/

here's the OKCA article I mentioned, go to page 8:

http://www.oregonknifeclub.org/Newsletter%200510.pdf


The ploughman's suggestion is interesting too. Maybe it was a cheese draw knife LOL. Would actually make sense, especially considering how hard some cheeses are!

Eric

Thank you Eric, I knew it was unusual and I had never seen it, love the scales and the whole knife.

I have never seen this type of knife before but if MB says this is a Ploughman's knife that's good enough for me. The draw knife pictured in the ad has little in common with the OP knife.