"Old Knives"

Great old knives being shown everyone, Lyle, I am always awed by your wonderful collection of Farmers Jacks, hope to see them again at the Rendezvous.

Picked up this 3 5/8 Wards equal end jack, pretty nice condition with full blades, suspect was made by Winchester.
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Found in city business directories in Chemung County Archives:

1886 – Charles Kenning (116 Lake Street) sold hardware and cutlery

1900-1901 – Carrier Cutlery Co. (206 Steele Memorial Building) manufactured cutlery

1902-1917 – Cronk & Carrier Manufacturing Co. (made cultlery)

1902-1903 – located at 206 Steele Memorial Building

1904-1905 – located at 515-519 Robinson Building

1905-1917 – located at 150 Lake Street

Still looking for Robeson. According to Goins' they were only in Elmira from 1893 to 1896.


Great detective work and old city directories are a good source for various business information.
 
The M&G on top is more worn than the Ulster below it. The bone is very similar,but the resounding tell in a farmers jack is usually the frame, the small bolster being the most prevalent way to differentiate between makers.

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Two more wonderful examples!!!
I wish there was an article written on these models, if only there was someone who had a large collection and diverse knowledge of these neat knives??? :)
 
Great old knives being shown everyone, Lyle, I am always awed by your wonderful collection of Farmers Jacks, hope to see them again at the Rendezvous.

Picked up this 3 5/8 Wards equal end jack, pretty nice condition with full blades, suspect was made by Winchester.
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Nice old Wards Knife. Always fun to see some examples with hardware store connections.
 
Wonderful paper and pictures, and history, Charlie!!
And great Elmira box!!
Is there a book that has collected all that is known about Robeson (and Terrier) cutlery??


I believe Tom Kalcevic is the expert on Robeson knives and has written two books on the subject.
One book is "Knives Can Talk", and the other is "Robeson Collectibles and Rarities".
 
Here is an all metal "Boys" knife stamped "Armstrong Cutlery" from the late 1800s.
Boys knives were quite popular for young lads from around the mid 1800s onward, and were always priced at a point that most any boy could afford.
Note the price of this two blade knife from an 1896 catalog at $0.12 cents each or $1.25 for a dozen. :)

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Tom Kalcevic self published his books.

I've been told that he is now deceased.

Knives Can Talk! has been long out of print. It contains the history as compiled by Tom. There is a copy listed on a popular auction site, but the seller is asking a lot for it. Price has been reduced just this past week.

Robeson Collectibles and Rarities might still be available somewhere, but it is what it sounds like, a compendium of Robeson collectible items and rare objects.

There are some errors in Knives Can Talk!, but they are minor.

I wrote a pretty good history on my website, but it is down and I don't know if it will ever be back up.

It can be accessed via some archived web page screen shots at https://web.archive.org/web/20140929012623/http://www.RobesonsRme.com.

You should be able to navigate the site at that URL.
 
Great Boys' knife, Neal!
And a very enjoyable Boys' Knife article in Knife Magazine!:thumbsup:
 
Any chance of producing hard copy of your writing and pictures, Charlie N??
 
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The history I put on my website utilized a good bit of Tom Kalcevic's published research, used with his permission. I put it in a narrative form.

I have no desire to publish a book.

But, I suspect you might be able to download to your PC or just highlight and print the material from my website on that Way Back Archive site.

None of it is copyrighted, as far as I know.

I suspect the illustrations would not print, though.
 
Excellent Wards knife John :thumbsup:...

Super looking IXL NorthShore :thumbsup:... What is the closed length of that jack??

Neal - Great looking Armstrong Cutlery knife :thumbsup: ... Too bad we didn't have this one either for the article ;) ...

Great Boys' knife, Neal!
And a very enjoyable Boys' Knife article in Knife Magazine!:thumbsup:

Glad you liked the article Charlie - I was Neal's co-author for that Boys Knife article and we had some fun putting it together :D...

Here is a recent Boys Knife pickup I found that came 6 weeks after the article was submitted but would have been another good one to include.. This Frary knife was another great example of metal handles in early Boys Knives and along with the Russell "Boy of America" knife with malleable cast handles and the coined brass classic like the Union Knife Naugatuck (both in the article) this would have been the other classic metal handle to include that was made of pewter... "Our Boy" on the mark side and "Frary" on the pile side. I am also attaching a photo where one can see the frame was folded over and the spring is within the folded frame... As an aside Frary left Landers, Frary & Clark in the 1870s and started his own cutlery in Bridgeport CT - interestingly I always thought LF&C was following Frary but apparently they kept Frary's name as part of LF&C name until they terminated production in 1965.

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Cheers
Lee
 
Wonderful Boys Knife Lee! Yes, this knife would have been another perfect example in your written presentation. Really enjoyed your article "The Boys Knife" in Knife Magazine. Well written, researched and the photographs of specimen Boys Knives are outstanding! Overall A++++ and well worth the cover price just for this article:thumbsup:. I would pay two or three times the current subscription price if Knife Magazine was just only composed of articles like yours each month. Congratulations!! Lloyd
 
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Excellent Wards knife John :thumbsup:...

Super looking IXL NorthShore :thumbsup:... What is the closed length of that jack??

Neal - Great looking Armstrong Cutlery knife :thumbsup: ... Too bad we didn't have this one either for the article ;) ...



Glad you liked the article Charlie - I was Neal's co-author for that Boys Knife article and we had some fun putting it together :D...

Here is a recent Boys Knife pickup I found that came 6 weeks after the article was submitted but would have been another good one to include.. This Frary knife was another great example of metal handles in early Boys Knives and along with the Russell "Boy of America" knife with malleable cast handles and the coined brass classic like the Union Knife Naugatuck (both in the article) this would have been the other classic metal handle to include that was made of pewter... "Our Boy" on the mark side and "Frary" on the pile side. I am also attaching a photo where one can see the frame was folded over and the spring is within the folded frame... As an aside Frary left Landers, Frary & Clark in the 1870s and started his own cutlery in Bridgeport CT - interestingly I always thought LF&C was following Frary but apparently they kept Frary's name as part of LF&C name until they terminated production in 1965.

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4y0Ji3k.jpg


JPbW6ch.jpg


Cheers
Lee

That's a really great old Boy's knife!!!
James D. Frary patented that style of "cast handle with ornamental designs" in 1880.
 
Congratulations to you also Neal on the article! Everything I said about the article in my above post I say to you also. Sorry I didn't know Neal and herder were the same person and that you were the co-authoro_O. Anyway great stuff, Lloyd
 
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