pjsjr
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2005
- Messages
- 6,757
I'd guess, '...you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...'Why do they always look so good once they're gone?
I'd guess, '...you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...'Why do they always look so good once they're gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.I'd guess, '...you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...'
MANSON
'MANSON' and 'SHEFFIELD' were stamped on Bowie knives that have survived from the American Civil War era. Several feature in the study of Civil War knives by Marc Newman (1998). Manson Bowies are usually plain spear-points, with occasional acid-etched patriotic slogans. One knife in Newman (and also shown on the web-site of Ford's Theater, Washington, DC) is of particular interest, because it was said to have been carried by John Wilkes Booth, when he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. It is stamped 'MANSON/SHEFFIELD and etched: 'AMERICA LIBERTY INDEPENDANCE [sic]' 'THE LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE'. According to Dave Taylor (2013), however, that knife was more likely to have been collected from the house of Mary Surratt and that Booth's actual weapon was a 'Rio Grande Camp Knife' made by Wm. Jackson & Co (qv). Unfortunately, 'Manson' has proved impossible to track either in Sheffield or the US. Probably, he was an American import agent, who operated in the Civil War years. His knives belong to the same era as those produced by Westa and Wilson Swift (qqv) - also unidentified makers.
100% AWESOME! You've set a high bar to start Stag Saturday!About a half hour before midnight Friday, so technically this post is a Pre-Saturday post. But when talking about a knife that is 155+ years old, what's an hour or so either way, anyhow.
In the hand, this knife imparts a feel of history and untold stories. I found the knife in Elmira NY and was simply told it came from the estate of a collector.
It shows signs of use and possible abuse. The tip was slightly bent, which I've carefully straightened. Either it was abused or was met with fierce resistance at some point in its history.
The stamp on the ricasso is "Manson/Sheffield".
Tweedale's Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers 1740-2013 Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition by Geoffrey Tweedale has this to say about "Manson" on page 395 of his book:
So while this knife was made in Sheffield over a century and a half ago, we will likely never know who the Sheffield cutler was that produced this MANSON knife. Like so many modern SFO knives, this may have been a SFO. Who knows. This knife with original sheath is razor sharp and quite pointy. Ready, willing and able to perform.
Thank you sir ... some real beauties will be along shortly from others, I'm sure. This was just one of the old stuff.100% AWESOME! You've set a high bar to start Stag Saturday!
Thanks Charlie. Yours ain’t bad either. Lol. The more Lloyds the better.
Thank you sir !!! ... Gorgeous KA-BAR by the way !!!B BrotherJim
THAT is a Gawgeous example my friend...
Such a beautiful combo with its worked leather sheath intact and wonderfully worked tip to boot... very well done
This was a deal that just couldn’t be passed on. Possibly built in the late 60s, yet more likely into the 70s, a fine Ka•bar swell end jack at 4”1/8. It looks to be barely if at all used. Tight and smooth action with almost perfectly centered blades in their wells. Snappy with hardly any play, and of course covered in thick bark stag. A hairline end pin crack or possibly a fissure on the mark side, keeping it frugally priced.
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such a beauty.The Burly Dwarf