congress pattern knives

[caseman]

MY question is simply this: where did they get the pattern name congress from?

[Mossdancer]

Hey;
IMO the word came from the gathering of southern gentlemen on saturday or sunday afternoon, whittling trading and just generally showing off there newest or latest acquisation. (congregating)

When you find out for sure I would like as several thousand other people to know the answer to Congress and Senatorboth.

Who woulda thought there was bling in the early 19th century.

Thanks,
W.B.

[smiling-knife]

The short answer is I don't know and haven't been able to find out from a few hours research, but here is some background.

Geoffery Tweedale in his Sheffield Knife Book suggests it is not really known why the congress is named as it is. He provides some interesting history on this pattern. Knives with crescent shaped handles, a sheepsfoot master blade and four or more blades were popular before the time of the US civil war. Sheffield exported large numbers of the congress knives to the US and they were almost exclusively sold in the South. Tweedale cites Levine as the source of the following information... On the night that Lincoln was assinated he had an ivory-handled six-bladed congress knife in his pocket.... At the time of publication of this book (1996), Lincoln's knife resided in the Library of Congress. I don't know if it still does. Coincidence? The question about when and why the name emerged remains and maybe someone else will uncover the answer for us. I also read somewhere that the sheepsfoot blade on the congress knife was ideal for cutting portions of chewing tobacco from the plug. Maybe that explains it popularity in the South and has something to do with the name itself. No evidence of this though. Many pattern names are much more recent than the designs. Whittler's go way back, but were simply know as three-bladed pen knives in the early days. I don't think this sheds much light on the actual question, but I thought this was some interesting background to the issue. My 2p worth. s-k

[sunburst]

This is why I keep coming back to this forum, the original question may still be in doubt but the information swirling around the question is worth it's weight in gold....

Thanks for researching guys...


Sunburst