Joseph Rodgers Cutlers to her majesty

Ernie1980

Ernie1980

Joined
Apr 19, 2012
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I picked up this knife recently, and it came in rough shape. I forgot to take before pictures...but there was a fair amount of rust and neither of the blades had snap or talk due to corrosion and gunk. Luckily, the scales were in nice condition. The tang stamp reads cutlers to her majesty, and there is no "England" stamp so that leads me to date it between 1837-1890.
I finished it up today, and it turned out terrific! It cleaned up well, took a nice edge, and went to eat with me this evening:thumbup:


Now freshly cleaned, the blades both have terrific walk and talk and great snap. The blades look almost completely full. The secondary blade has a nice half stop, the main doesn't, which is a combo I see on a lot of the Sheffield pen knives from this era.
Thanks for letting me share, my wife won't even humor me anymore:)

If any of you can help me ID the cover material I would be grateful. I am pretty sure they are not celluloid due to the age of the knife, and they are definitely not Ivory. I am not sure of the composites available back then but information is difficult to find!
 
Looks good Ernie. It's always a good feeling to bring an old knife back to life.
 
- very nice indeed, Ernie :thumbup: Must be very satisfying bring life back into an old penknife like that :)

Yes, I agree, doesn't look like ivory.......difficult to tell from the pics
 
First of all excuse my manners, I did not mention how nice that knife is. Those blades don't look tired at all and the covers have survived quite a journey to you.

I'd be inclined to think it is ivory given the appearance of the covers and timeframe when you think it was produced. Does the grain pattern change at all as you rotate the knife under a light source?
 
No shift in the grain as I move it. It really looks like ivorydine (I think a misspelled that lol) based on a knife that I have that I know is that material. I am still searching for materials that Joseph Rodgers used. They made a lot of knives and razors from ivory, and I am hoping I am wrong about it being something else:)
 
Nice knife Ernie. I'm thinking the scales are ivory. It has the color of old ivory and doesn't have the regular pattern of wavy lines typically seen in ivorine. Not many knives were made with synthetic scales during Victorian times. I suspect that early celluloid type scales were quite unstable and would show shrinkage by now. Just my 2p.
 
Beautiful little knife Ernie, love that little fella, yours too Greg. I have a single blade Rogers of similar age (probably later) with what I first thought were synthetic scales because of the very straight and parallel striations, but which could possibly be bone judging by the smooth shiny surface. Whatever material it is, it's not like yours. However, I also have a small Turner equal end pen from the Edwardian period with what I'm pretty sure are Ivory scales, which do look very much like yours in that they have that random, mottled and blurry appearance along with a marble-like surface. Greg's knife seems to have that too. Hope that's helpful.

Untitled by Blake Blade, on Flickr

Untitled by Blake Blade, on FlickrUntitled by Blake Blade, on Flickr
 
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That is a beautiful little pen knife Blake! I have a similar one by the same maker but it has bone covers. Great knives:thumbup:
 
Beautiful Joseph Rodgers - those Scales are most definitely ivory - no doubt about - that knife is a beaut!
 
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