Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

Good Morning Guardians.
3185D34A-372E-4A0C-A868-6423BD201705_zpsapzmzf2y.jpeg
 
Beauty in the morning light!

iNfpWbH.jpg


PXiBPcJ.jpg
Yes, very much so!
Thanks, Dave! Great looking stag!:thumbsup:



Thanks, Dwight. Great shot there!




:thumbsup: Love the fishing gear and tackle, Preston.



Thanks, Jack. Great to see and learn about the pantograph machine. Lots of moving parts in that!






Great pics, Dave and Jack! The old feller's beard looks like wool!;)







I am very fortunate to have some fishing gear and tackle from both my Grandpa and my wife's Grandpa. I will try to get some of it out for a pic. Here's an old metal baitcasting setup of my Grandad's, that was handy.
zOlsAmH.jpg

lQ6jTEz.jpg
Great knife, gear and lighting in your photos, Mark. Looking forward to seeing more.
We're are going to make the 1000 pages...
DSC_0308.JPG
 
Thank you, Jack,:thumbsup: thank you for all the historical information, it gives meaning to why one carries a Lambsfoot.:thumbsup::)

Thanks Dave :) :thumbsup:

Good morning, folks.

I am starting to get settled in with some coffee and such after my vacation. Back to the grind, as they say... I have a LOT of catching up to do and am not so certain that I will be successful as I have to balance that with getting caught up on work stuff that accumulated during my absence as well.







Thank you, fellas. One of the hallmarks of the 2017 special horn is that every one of them is different from the other.



A terrific capture of that Damascus, Dwight!



I am pretty certain that is my knife there in the center, getting its etch. How cool is that?


Well, I decided that since spring is fully upon us, the leaves are returning in force and the world is full of color, why not add a bit of my own?

NUmucSK.jpg

Hey Dylan, I am going to have to start balancing things a bit better myself, as I am neglecting my work - The Lambsfoot has taken over my life this year! :eek: :thumbsup:

That's very cool about your knife :)

I was only thinking yesterday that we haven't see your gorgeous red bone Lambsfoot, nice pic :thumbsup:

Guys, here are more detailed photos on the Crookes Lambs Foot for your perusal:

First a comparison shot:
i6x6Xfe.jpg


unmatched bolster
5nTRwPS.jpg


n2EIGFR.jpg


4FAhqFT.jpg


protruding cover pin inside frame:
xjO14pF.jpg


blade well
gtTsndi.jpg

unmatched bolster:
Ui3B39W.jpg


AHaMUef.jpg


kkKiMRQ.jpg


Cyj313x.jpg


3dq7vmz.jpg


D9X901W.jpg


the end:
rfkNmXb.jpg

Thanks for those detailed pics Barry, very interesting to see your knife in detail :) My original reply is so far back now that I thought I'd better bring it forward (took a LOT of finding):

Right, let's have a look at Barry's Johnathan Crookes knife.

First some history (I'm afraid I can only make this fairly brief, as I don't have enough spare time to do more digging around): Crookes is a common surname in Sheffield, and confusingly there were two cutlers by the name of Jonathan Crookes, who used the heart and pistol mark. The first Jonathan Crookes was based in Scotland Street, on the edge of the area once known as Cutler's Hill, because of the high preponderance of small cutlers living and working there. He was listed in local trade directories in 1774, 1787, and 1797, as a maker of 'common pocket and penknives'. The second Jonathan Crookes was very probably the grandson of the the first one, the son of Marmaduke and Martha Crookes, and baptised in 1788. Having served his apprenticeship, he became a Freeman in 1810, which means he now owned his own work, and had registered a mark with the Cutler's Company.

Jonathan Crookes was a skilled cutler, and did work for Joseph Rodgers & Son, and it was claimed that he was the 'Inventor and Sole Maker' of the famous Year Knife, which can still be seen in Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield, today. At the time of manufacture, it contained 1821 separate blades and 'accessories' (the other implements).

GPm9yoB.jpg


Crookes had a brief partnership with James Bingham in the 1820's, which was dissolved in 1827. They had manufactured penknives and razors. In 1828, Crookes established himself as a pen knife cutler in Rockingham Lane, moving to Bailey Lane in 1833, and Broad Lane in 1837. His residence was in Rockingham Lane, where he lived until 1817, with his first wife Ann, who died that year, and his son Henry, who joined the business. By 1839, Jonathan Crookes & Son had moved to Eldon St, where they stayed until the end of the nineteenth century. The firm specialised in 'superlatively finished Pen, Pocket, and Sporting Kives, Razors, etc.' In the 1830's and 1840's they made 'fly open knives' and Bowie knives. Crookes found a market for his high quality knives in the USA.

xehKIzZ.jpg


In 1841, father and son dissolved their partnership, and Jonathan Crookes is thought to have retired to live the life of a gentleman, dying in 1866, having been predeceased by his second wife Mary, in 1856. He left nearly £5,000.

While prestigious, the company never sought to become a large one, claiming in the census, to employ 30 workers in 1851, 25 men and nine boys in 1861, 36 men, 8 boys, and 6 girls in 1871, and only 15 hands a decade later.

Thomas Crookes continued the business after his father's death, and while American trade was in decline, the firm continued to produce quality cutlery, with Thomas preferring not to extend the firm's capacity beyond what he could supervise himself. He was still attending to business only days before his death in 1892, leaving more than £83,000 to his widow Ann. The couple had no children, and Ann died 4 years later, after which the firm's workshops at 95 Eldon Street were vacated, and the contents presumably sold off, or pillaged.

The prestigious mark itself was was acquired in 1893 by James Hibbert, and then, in 1907, by Joseph Allen, who continued to use the Crookes mark as a stand-alone brand on razors and pocket-knives pocket knives until at least 1951 (the advert below is from 1945). In the 1950's, H.M.Slater took over the mark, and owned it until they folded just a few years ago, using it on both pocket knives and Bowies.

Im1945Benn-Crookes8.jpg


Now to the knife, it appears to have a pre-1892 tang-stamp, but as happens in Sheffield, a pre-1892 tang-stamp could have been used many years later, by the later firms who owned it, or by a cutler who had access to it. The manufacture of the blade and the hafting of that blade may not have been at the same time, there are still antique blades being hafted in Sheffield today. As Levine tells us, accurately, it's the knife itself, not the stamp we must read. It may have deteriorated with age and with use, but does the knife look like it was produced in the heyday of Sheffield cutlery manufacture by one of its finest small cutlery houses? Bearing in mind what Barry says about the mismatched bolsters, possibly not. Perhaps it is more likely that the knife was manufactured at a later date when the Lambsfoot pattern had become more established, and when the firms that owned the mark produced more ordinary pocket-knives? An interesting Lambsfoot knife, and a nice one Barry :thumbsup:

So, once again, we're looking at an apparent anomaly, a tang-stamp which would appear to pre-date 1839 (the date is given incorrectly in the last paragraph of my post above), when the company was Jonathan Crookes & Son, on a pattern which did not appear until later in the 19th century, so far as our collective research has shown. So it would appear to be an older stamp being reused or a much earlier Lambsfoot. While there are certainly very old Sheffield knives which were rough and ready, Jonathan Crookes is not known for knives of that type, nor were the company. It's an old knife, made with parts that appear to be hand-forged, but they were still hand-forging in Sheffield in the 1960's (not that this knife is that recent). Thomas Crookes appears to have been at least as diligent as his father, but he died in 1892, which brings us into the era of the Lambsfoot. The name is then bought by other cutlers, lesser cutlers I think it may be fair to say, and they almost certainly supplied stamps and parts to outworkers, since this has always been the way of manufacturer in Sheffield. They may have supplied old stamps, they may have had new stamps made with just the name of the father, it was probably the 'Heart & Pistol' mark they cared about more than anything else. There are two key points when we see an increasing decline in the quality of Sheffield pocket cutlery, for fairly obvious reasons, World War I and World War II. However, there were always some firms and individuals who would knock out inferior goods, it depended to a certain extent what they were being paid, (and no Sheffield cutler was paid very much). Barry, if I had to guess, I'd say that knife was made after WWI, when the Crookes marks were owned by Joseph Allen, but it could have been made a decade or two earlier, or sometime later. If you missed it, please go back and read what I said a few pages back in relation to Sheffield knives. You might want to ask @herder if he has any catalogues relating to any of these companies :thumbsup:
 
Beauty in the morning light!

iNfpWbH.jpg


PXiBPcJ.jpg

Fine photos Barry, no problem dating that one ;) :thumbsup:

Thanks, Jack. Great to see and learn about the pantograph machine. Lots of moving parts in that!






Great pics, Dave and Jack! The old feller's beard looks like wool!;)







I am very fortunate to have some fishing gear and tackle from both my Grandpa and my wife's Grandpa. I will try to get some of it out for a pic. Here's an old metal baitcasting setup of my Grandad's, that was handy.
zOlsAmH.jpg

lQ6jTEz.jpg

Yes indeed, Wright's smallest one is much simpler, does just one blade at a time :) Thank you Mark, I like those pics :) :thumbsup:
 
Congratulations to us all on the rapidly approaching 1000 pages! :D It’s knives like this that have helped to make the Guardians of the Lambsfoot thread and the knives we all love into one of the most popular on this forum! :thumbsup:

33716411468_717745a913_b_d.jpg

That's a great pic Ron, I think I am yet to get a pic of mine that I am really pleased with. I haven't even carried or photographed my Ironwood yet :rolleyes: :thumbsup:

FmdXP2i.jpg
 
Yes, very much so!

Great knife, gear and lighting in your photos, Mark. Looking forward to seeing more.
We're are going to make the 1000 pages...
DSC_0308.JPG

That's a great photo Preston :) :thumbsup:

Even with all its faults, it's still a very cool knife. :thumbsup: :cool: :thumbsup:

Certainly is :) I have sometimes bought complete wrecks just to get an example of a particular tang-stamp or a certain feature. I would have bought that one, even with half a blade :D :thumbsup:

Adding another picture to nudge us closer to 1,000... My old roping spurs :)

Very cool John :cool: :thumbsup:

Good week to all, I've been out these three days and I see we're almost on page 1000!!!
To contribute to that, I put a new picture of Guardians 19;):thumbsup:

2pq6s85.jpg

Welcome back Jose, that Ironwood is superb :) :thumbsup:
 
Thanks Jack! That’s a beautiful setting for your new Stag Damascus. They’re all such beautiful knives my friend! :thumbsup: :)

What a fantastic picture with the waterfall in the background. :thumbsup: :cool: :thumbsup:

Thanks guys, I'm grateful :) I need to take some pics where I concentrate just on the beauty of the Damascus and the covers :) :thumbsup:

I was more pleased with this one, but in some of the pics I've taken, the blade just looks grey :(

PBJSF46.jpg
 
Hey Dylan, I am going to have to start balancing things a bit better myself, as I am neglecting my work - The Lambsfoot has taken over my life this year! :eek: :thumbsup:

That's very cool about your knife :)

I was only thinking yesterday that we haven't see your gorgeous red bone Lambsfoot, nice pic :thumbsup:

Thank you, Jack. Funny thing about work, it always seems to get in the way of things you'd rather be doing otherwise :D.

Congratulations to us all on the rapidly approaching 1000 pages! :D It’s knives like this that have helped to make the Guardians of the Lambsfoot thread and the knives we all love into one of the most popular on this forum! :thumbsup:

33716411468_717745a913_b_d.jpg

I echo those sentiments, Ron. What a terrific shot of that beauty! Absolutely stunning.


I thought it was time to get another family shot with the most recent acquisition.

mvfprwN.jpg
 
Back
Top