Imperial: carbon steel?

B

Buck268

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Nov 5, 2006
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Well I have a couple old Imperial slips, and two of them have developed a nice deep patina over the years (and before my time), but one of them is still quite shiny, but I suspect it is also of some type of carbon steel, though I don't know for sure.

Can anybody out there give a difinative answer? I'm talking about the faux mother of pearl scaled 2-blade on the top right.

web213.jpg
 
Most of those Imperials from the 50's had regular 1095 type carbon blades. I would be very surprised indeed if it was stainless, as that would have made it a more expencive to produce knife. Stainless steel is much harder on stamping dies and grinding belts because of the chrome in it. That was the good by-product of those old cheap slippies- in thier effort to keep cost down they used a plain basic carbon steel that actually cut better. The 1095 series steel was used very widely for industrial tools and scrapers, as it was a tough steel that held up well.

That silvered handle knife in the upper left corner looks like someone got alot of good cutting out of those blades. It must have rode in a pants pocket along time.
 
Yup, I would imagine. The Imperials were all my great uncle's (to my knowledge) and when cleaning out the 'estate' after my great aunt passed, I being the knife nut had first dibs on these. The faux mother of pearl and the delrin scaled ones are particularly sharp and in excellent condition. I keep the mother of pearl in my leather jacket as sort of a gentleman's folder for nicer occasions. I would carry the barlow, but I fear loosing it, but it slices like an absolute dream, it has accompanied me on more than one camping trip in years gone by.
 
I would go ahead and use the barlow, no greater tribute than to use your great uncles knives. Sort of a way to remember him. I recently gave alot of my knives that I accumulated over the years to my family, and I've went to my old cigar box and started using the old knives that belonged to passed on loved ones.

Aside from remembering them everytime I use the knife, I've discovered that alot of these old knives cut way better than the later stuff, and even seem to take a better edge. I don't know if its a continueing martinsite thing with the 50 plus year old steel, or they had "cleaner" steel then, or maybe they were just more carefull then. But my uncle Pat's old Imperial, my grandads 1950's era Hen and Rooster, and the pre-war Bruckman's my father always brought me and my sister from his trips over to West Germany seem to get and stay far sharper than most of my "later" knives.

Honor your great uncle, use the knives.
 
In the mid to late 1950's several patterns in the Imperial Jackmaster line were indeed offered in stainless steel.

Codger
 
This is one cool thread! I had both Imperials & can honestly say I prefferd the carbon versions. Gosh..I wish they were around today. My only bone to pick was their flimsy handles which tended to seperate over time.
 
Hey Codger- I don't know about that. We had to work with some 303 and 304 sheet stock, and after stamping, the holes had to be counter sunk. The stainless would dull up a counter sink faster than the same thickness of a regular shet steel. And on the lathes the 303 standoffs we had to turn would would take the edge off a cobalt lathe bit way faster than carbon steel. Its like a gummy stringy chip that comes off the tool, and you need a constant coolent stream on the part being cut or the tool burns. We used to hate it when a stainless steel job came up, because we knew we'd be doing tool re-grinding. Yuk!:eek:
 
I have posted these pics on other threads, but they do seem appropriate here as well:


This one is a shell handle Imperial
ImperialSRBS004.jpg


Here are 3 examples of shell handle Imperials, all in stainless
ImperialSRBS001.jpg


Here is a catalog cut for the staglon handled version
IRBScatalog1974.jpg


And examples of those staglons...
ImperialSRBS002.jpg


And last, a copy of the insert that comes with the knife
Imperial024.jpg



Glenn
 
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