What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

[waynorth]

Nice trio Tiger!
There is something about that juxtaposition of details! Amber hilights in sawcut bone, lined, clearly stamped bolsters. Classic blades, in a regular Jack format!
What's not to love???

 

[Wurrwulf]

Atiger, if I ever win the lottery, I'm finding you and throwing wads of cash into your hands until you open up that Barlow vault! I am constantly in awe of your collection. Beautiful knives, as always!

 

[Camillus]

My latest - I really like the flatter profile on the bone on this bluegrass - similar to the TC but even flatter- i prefer it to a more rounded style.

 

[texmex03]

Here's a trio of old, traditional barlows...

Do your old barlows have most of the blades left and good function or do you buy some just for the stamp and closed look?

Your collection is too good to be true.

 

[MartyNC]

My mother in law gave me one of her fathers barlows the other day. I need to work on removing some rust but it looks pretty good. I have no clue who made it, can't read the tag stamp.... I just know it's pre-1980

 

[r8shell]

Hammer Brand. Looks like 1945-1955.
Are the bolsters pinned through, or clipped on?

 

[MartyNC]

Hammer Brand. Looks like 1945-1955.
Are the bolsters pinned through, or clipped on?

View attachment 735887

Thank you so much, I had never heard of Hammer brand. Now it's easier to see the stamp with a reference The bolsters are clipped on.

 

[Atiger]

Do your old barlows have most of the blades left and good function or do you buy some just for the stamp and closed look?

Your collection is too good to be true.

Thank you for the compliment. While it's hard to find old knives that have complete and unused full blades, most of mine have decent blades with good snap and have been well taken care of by their previous owners. They get carried regularly and used for typical pocketknife chores. A few of the really old ones get what I call an "honor carry" occasionally but aren't used for much cutting. While I do have a few that I picked up as "conversion pieces" only, I try to stick with those knives that are interesting, in good shape and are fully functioning. Generally the knives I post on the forum meet that standard. Honestly, knives with broken or extremely worn blades, wobble or worn-out springs aren't as much fun to carry no matter how rare they are. That's just my opinion - others may disagree and I can certainly see their point also.

Again, thank you for the nice compliment.

 

[Pomsbz]

Thanks Randy - your not doing too bad yourself my friend!

I can't get over that blade shape, what a great knife!

 

[Campbellclanman]

Thank you kind Sir.
@Markesharp made these amazing Knives! I am extremely happy with them both! You should contact him

 

[skivic]

My soup and sawcut

_DSC6763 by Alex Carrasquillo, on Flickr

 

[waynorth]

Nice brace of Barlows, skivic!!
2 of the better looking ones!

 

[Camillus]

I agree - that bone on the right is spectacular- what is it called?

 

[Pt-Luso]

My soup and sawcut

_DSC6763 by Alex Carrasquillo, on Flickr

Nice couple of TC's, "skivic" is a lucky guy.

 

[pertinux]

My soup and sawcut

_DSC6763 by Alex Carrasquillo, on Flickr

That's Antique Amber from the first run of clip blades. (There is other bone so named, but none looks as good as THIS.)

Vintage from the get-go!

~ P.

 

[Camillus]

Right then, we need to convince Charlie to run some smooth (like my Bluegrass above) and saw cut antique amber Barlows!

 

[Jfowler]

Nice barlow's Pertinux ! Love that old schrade!

 

[Travman]

Queen made Northwoods Everyday Barlow with a CPM 154 blade. The nice thing about this steel is that if you are familiar with good 1095 or other carbon steels then you will still enjoy sharpening CPM 154.

 

[waynorth]

Nice! When were those "everydays" made, Trav?

 

[waynorth]

Beautiful group/collection/picture, Sarah!!