"Old Knives"

black mamba black mamba Nice one Jeff. Love the colors of the b&m cell! Probably my favorite color of celluloid covers.

TheChunk91 TheChunk91 Thanks Paul! Beautiful peach seed stock knife you have there.

Campbellclanman Campbellclanman Thank you Duncan! It’s all good if Paul TheChunk91 TheChunk91 shows up at my doorstep with some of his beauties so we can do some trading and we both walk away happy and unharmed!:);)
 
Fresh catch off the bay. Schrade Cut Co barehead jack in really nice condition. The few Schrade Cut Co’s I have are all such well built knives!


@SteveC @JJ Cahill Thanks guys. JJ, the glazed finish on all blades including the front of the main made me question if it saw the wheel. I looked up the Schrade catalog for this knife and I’m pretty sure it’s correct with the description stating glazed finish on all blades, not crocus polished on main front. I wonder if it has been “professionally” cleaned? Or was it stored away all this time and somehow stayed in such good condition, is that even possible?

It sure looks like factory crocus on the mark side of the main, and glaze on the pile side. The swedge on the mark side is still crisp, which is usually not the case with knives that have been polished up later because to do it properly requires a hard wheel (usually walrus hide coated with crocus on a solid wheel back when this was made) in order to get a sharp swedge. Modern polishers usually use a rag buffer and round off the swedge.

I wonder how many knives went out with different finishes that what the catalog says. Crocus mark side and glaze pile side was a pretty common configuration.
 
It sure looks like factory crocus on the mark side of the main, and glaze on the pile side. The swedge on the mark side is still crisp, which is usually not the case with knives that have been polished up later because to do it properly requires a hard wheel (usually walrus hide coated with crocus on a solid wheel back when this was made) in order to get a sharp swedge. Modern polishers usually use a rag buffer and round off the swedge.

I wonder how many knives went out with different finishes that what the catalog says. Crocus mark side and glaze pile side was a pretty common configuration.

I think you may have misunderstood what I meant or more likely, I was being unclear. My knife has the glazed finish on all blades even on the front of the main blade. The glazed finish doesn’t show in the photo I originally posted so here’s another photo below that shows it a little better. I didn’t know till yesterday when I received this knife that Schrade Cut Co did made knives with all glazed finish blades. Prior to that, I thought all their knives were crocus polished on the front of the main blades and glazed on the rest or, crocus polished on all blades(for the deluxe knives). So, when I noticed the glazed finish on all blades of my knife, it got me thinking if this knife saw the wheel when someone tried to clean it? I then went to look up the old Schrade catalog for my knife which was stated in the description “glaze finished blades”. Only then I learned that Schrade did make some knives with the glaze finish on all blades and that my knife is probably correct and hopefully wasn’t messed with.
 
Last edited:
I think you may have misunderstood what I meant or more likely, I was being unclear. My knife has the glazed finish on all blades even on the front of the main blade. The glazed finish doesn’t show in the photo I originally posted so here’s another photo below that shows it a little better. I didn’t know till yesterday when I received this knife that Schrade Cut Co did made knives with all glazed finish blades. Prior to that, I thought all their knives were crocus polished on the front of the main blades and glazed on the rest or, crocus polished on all blades(for the deluxe knives). So, when I noticed the glazed finish on all blades of my knife, it got me thinking if this knife saw the wheel when someone tried to clean it? I then went to look up the old Schrade catalog for my knife which was stated in the description “glaze finished blades”. Only then I learned that Schrade did make some knives with the glaze finish on all blades and that my knife is probably correct and hopefully wasn’t messed with.

It looks original to me.
 
Here is a Terrier Cutlery Company (1910–1916) take-apart Slot knife sometimes called a Hobo Knife. This was as Charlie Noyes has suggested a premium knife brand made by Robeson Cutlery Co. It is 4 & 1/2 inches closed and the handles are Cocobolo. It is a very scarce knife to find. This one is in good condition with with hardly any evidence of use (spear blade is full) other than scattered corrosion, minor frosting (micro pitting) in a few areas including bolsters but no active rust. When I got the knife it would not separate so I soaked it overnight in a solution of Kroil (a creeping penetrating oil) and some Hoppe’s 9. This seemed to do the trick and with some gentle persuasion and encouragement from a hard rubber head hammer she started to separate. I then scrubbed all the metal surfaces with this same solution and 0000 steel wool. Sprayed it down with non chlorinated brake cleaner and dried with compressed air. Finished it off with a couple applications of Renaissance Wax and here it is.

The Spear blade tang (mark side) is marked Terrier/Cutlery/Rochester NY and the fork tang is also marked the same. No markings on the spoon. Mechanically the knife functions perfectly with positive and crisp action with blade, spoon and fork all snapping closed and open. No blade, spoon or fork lateral movement when fully open or extended.

A8D32173-8440-4B07-9B8A-9EEB53CEE48F.jpeg C6C74F46-3FB3-4FF6-AA10-9615612863F2.jpeg C56AAD85-F3A8-4B7E-A9FA-671F21390E33.jpeg 6FB1F5F1-4A92-471B-B1F5-0454E40420B0.jpeg FB4DB641-A63C-46AD-A90F-457F9A73F2C6.jpeg 816453DF-8963-4610-8E8E-203F0368268F.jpeg FAFCD9C9-B73A-4B56-832A-A5BDD8B77BC6.jpeg 24DC1FEC-985D-4099-AD2D-5753CD16A88D.jpeg
 
Nick, that pen blade has a good amount of straight-edge past the nick . . . a perfect candidate to turn into a coping blade. :eek: ;) :p
Yeah Jeff that’s a really great idea, let’s see it on your b&m jack which has the same pen blade!:p

Luger1952 Luger1952 That's a neat Terrier hobo knife in such great condition. I really like the shape of the spear blade.
 
Last edited:
Thanks gentlemen for your kind comments on the Terrier slot knife!

As a follow up regarding this Terrier. I posted this on AAPK also and Charlie Noyes (noted expert on Robeson and Terrier knives) warned me that this Terrier slot knife could not be separated unless the master spear blade was open. I knew this early on but still the knife would not separate or break apart. Thus the overnight soaking in solvent and Kroil. Well, as you are aware from my first post on this it did separate with some gentle persuasion:). Apparently the Terrier slot knife has a kick lock that will not allow separation until the spear blade is open. The kick/tang on the master spear blocks the pin on the opposing spoon/fork side preventing disengagement until the spear blade is elevated at least about 20 degrees in the blade opening arc from fully closed. The half stop is a welcomed destination for separation with the spring strength of this over 100 year old knife if you know what I mean:eek:

Charlie, said he was not aware of any other slot knife with this slot lock feature. I have one other slot knife a NYKC example but it does NOT have this feature. Anyone else aware of any other slot knife with this locking mechanism?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Hey Lloyd I cannot help you with any questions about the break up mechanisms on these Knives, but I wonder why this knife of yours does not have the Terriers Head stamped as other Terriers do?
 
Duncan, thanks for making me take a better look at this Terrier. Surprise there is a terrier dog head on the pile side spear blade. I had missed it initially because it was well covered with surface corrosion and age discoloring. I took some 0000 steel wool and cleaned it some and although the left side of the terrier face is lost to some pitting you can clearly make it out. Thanks my friend for prompting me to take a deeper look at this knife!!

0759179D-F0E1-4515-95E9-36397EF22852.jpeg
 
Last edited:
View attachment 1187654 View attachment 1187655 Latest old knife, straight line Russell, saw plenty of use, still nice and tight.


Rob, great old Russell with very nice stag! You just don't see that many Russell jacks, Barlows seem to have been most of their pocket knife production. At their height of production Russell churned out 2500 to 3000 dozen of cutlery per day.
Pretty good read here on the history of Russell,

http://industrialhistory.org/histories/john-russell-mfg-co-and-the-russell-cutlery/


Only Russell jack I have, may be older than yours as it uses the Green River Works tang stamp.


IMG_0569.jpg
 
Back
Top