"Old Knives"

Two new ones for me, a Challenge Cut Co and a nice John Pritzlaff:
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Luger1952 said:
I know some of you enjoyed a recent photo of some of my celluloid handled knives so here are some more. I know I am sick but heck they don't call me CelluLloyd for nothing:eek:! LloydView attachment 713696 View attachment 713695
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Lloyd - I especially like the fine examples of waterfall celluloid. If I were ever to make the leap and get an old celluloid knife, it would be waterfall celluloid.
 
LongBlade said:
Wow - this thread really moves fast and lots of beauties posted above :thumbsup::thumbsup: - just can't keep up with all at this pace !! So to keep this moving I would like to share one old knife and cutlery stamp I am not sure has ever been posted in this thread according to my search. I hope you don't mind the background to give it some intro and historical perspective:

Of the many cutleries that existed in the late 1800s there appears to be a mystery surrounding the exact location and anything about the BB Knife Co /BeaverBrook/Mass – and indeed to find a knife from this cutlery is rare. I have looked through all my resources and Phil P’s New England Cutlery book in particular where he admitted he could not find anything and his leads all ended up not revealing anything of note. He thought it may have been a subdivision of Danvers MA but the town hall records indicated there was not a cutlery located there. He had some wild speculation that Joseph Kennedy had a friend Lord Beaverbrook and maybe that was the key – but he admits that is just a wild guess with no factual background in terms of a cutlery. I have also read and heard perhaps it was a town that was flooded out as part of the Swift Valley due to the Quabbin Reservoir construction in 1930 but again no factual records indicate that Beaverbrook was one of the towns. Now there is a Beaver Brook Reservation in MA that has a “Beaver Brook” running through it (but no town named Beaverbrook) – it is an area west of Boston and considered a suburb of Boston – it is slightly northeast of Waltham – actually between Belmont and Waltham. Interestingly the Beaver Brook had a Fulling Mill at one time but again no mention of a cutlery – even though it would appear that Beaver Brook could have indeed been a waterway that could support the power for a cutlery and runs quite a distance in the area. The Beaver Brook not only has waterfalls but holding ponds as well – and we know that holding ponds are needed for continued power when water levels are low. As an aside there are multiple Beaver Brooks in MA – but the one noted above appears to be the largest. Nonetheless who and where the company was remains a mystery.

In addition I had read that BB Knife Co supplied knives to Pacific Hardware and Steel Co in San Francisco CA according to Goins but I find no information outside that statement to support it. In fact Levines and Price/Zalesky note ca 1880 for BB Knife Co in a location of Beaverbrook MA but Goins lists Beaverbrook Knife Co as ca. 1902 (notably however Pacific Hardware and Steel Co was noted as 1901-1918 with knives made by Stiletto Cutlery Co of Napanoch). So not alot of agreement in the references. I have heard through word of mouth but from a very knowledgable collector that BB Knife Co may have had a connection to Turner’s Falls MA and there may be documentation… I will follow-up on that as well in the future ;-))

I have not seen many knives made by BB Knife Co other than the one I am sharing below – only BB knives I have seen in the past are a large 2 blade jack and a fixed blade Hunter with stag handles.

This knife is a MOP Wharncliffe at a size of 2 & ¾” closed. Interesting Wharncliffe pattern that has a pivot bolster but is a barehead … I have not seen many Wharncliffes like this as well. Unfortunately the master blade was tipped but other than that in pretty good condition… I wasn't passing on this knife despite the tipped blade and for good reason based on rarity... Long pulls on both the master and pen blades as well ...

If anyone has another BB Knife to share please do so as I would be most interested. Thanks for looking!!









Cheers!
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Very unusual knife in that wharncliffe barehead pattern and with those blade types. I can't find anything on the "BB Knife Co." but did find two similar examples which may help in dating the BB knife.
One is from the late 1880s and the other is from an 1890 Maher & Grosh catalog (picture enclosed). I'll keep digging...

 
As said - David two nice oldies there, has a Challenge Knife ever disappointed anyone before ? :cool:
- I especially like the Pritzlaff!
 
herder said:
Very unusual knife in that wharncliffe barehead pattern and with those blade types. I can't find anything on the "BB Knife Co." but did find two similar examples which may help in dating the BB knife.
One is from the late 1880s and the other is from an 1890 Maher & Grosh catalog (picture enclosed). I'll keep digging...

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Thanks Herder :thumbsup: ... Indeed a nice example of a similar barehead wharncliffe and given it was M&G who obtained knives from other makers interesting... the blade types match and while I have seen wharncliffe frames with spear point blades (I have one with spear point blades from LF&C which is also MOP but not a barehead) your M&G example looks close in size to the BB Knife Co example... again much speculation on BB Knife Co and from a collectors standpoint these appear to be highly collectable but rare to find - one opinion I have heard was that they were a retailer that had knives made by others and than supplied other retailers... a good mystery for sure :).. I was given the name of a collector from MA that appears to have info based on documentation with yet another "spin" but I need to contact him...
 
Camillus and Challenge 1.jpg Just Jacks, but nice old ones!
The Ebony is a 3 5/8" Challenge. Both blades stamped, scratched and worn but pretty full, tight and snappy! Really nice barehead!!
That killer bone on the 3 1/2" came from Camillus, maybe the best they have ever done:eek:, on a very full, gator-snap machine! Crossed swords on the main, 4 lines on the pen. If I could only have one knife, this one might be it!!:D
 
Charlie- Those are STUNNING Jacks! the Bone that Camillus used at that time was quite incredible- it seems to be a relation to the older and awesome Pic- Bone but with a mix of either a Miller Bros or Robeson jig work.
If you can follow that your doing well - I nearly hit list myself trying to put that thought down :oops:.

There seems to be a Camillus theme running very strong in the Campagna corner as of late!
I'm loving every bit of it I have always stated Camillus were one of THE Greats.
 
I understood every word you typed, Duncan. :D
It's easy to get lost in that jigging! I've been chickeneye-ing it with my 5X glass!:p
Camillus has been under-appreciated by me, and I am making up for lost time!!
 
Thanks Duncan!! At this point any speculation is possible and I assume you base that on the pin color contrasting from the bolster - I do have to say that many of the pins in german knives (and I am not at all an expert nor collector of german brands) appear to have much more iron content and contrast to the nickel silver or brass bolsters though of course that is a generalization - there are fine examples of german knives with nickel silver pins. For me hard to make that conclusion on this knife as I have seen other american made knives with this slight contrast in pin color etc... However to the many folks with a good knowledge base as collectors and all I have found in references (including Levines and many others as I noted above in my OP) it appears that BB Knife Co was not importing from Germany (possibly Sheffield) - and alot of that is based on the few knives others have seen as well. Of course many think that BB Knife Co did in fact make their own knives and were located either on a Beaver Brook or a town that was called Beaver Brook but disappeared over time as did many old american towns from floods or being re-named. One follow-up I alluded to above was a connection to Turner's Falls and possibly companies such as Lamson & Goodman or Gardner making the knives (I heard these 2 companies as possibilities but it needs to be confirmed) - I need to contact someone who has been a long term collector of MASS made knives and a resident of MASS for many years as he seems to know more about the Turner's Falls connection including possible documentation... I will report back if I can get ahold of him :)
 
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Yes my friend that pin led me to thinking that - you have really researched this and this is so interesting!
Thank you for the reply and please keep us posted if you find out any more about this knife ! :) :thumbsup:
 
I love this little Catt I got, cool clear advertising inlay and McCallum is a family name as well. Nice bone and patina.
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Edit: am I not allowed to host images as a basic member anymore? I've tried three different hosting sites and none of them are working.
 
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