Stockman History

Joined
Jan 7, 2015
Messages
41
Does anyone know what year the first Stockman pattern knives were made, or who first started making them?

I'd love to see some pictures of any 19th century stockman.

Thanks
 
I believe that I posted a thread concerning the history of the stockman a couple years ago. Can't find it though. Many cowboys carried big clasp knives, trappers, basically anything they could afford. Their sheath knives were usually carried in their bedrolls.
 
I believe the stockman pattern was well represented in the recovered contents of the 1856 wreck of the steamboat Arabia in Missouri. More of the patterns seemed to be simpler one and two blade pocket knives. Most look to be of imported English manufacture which makes sense because cutlery manufacture in the states was still in it's infancy and what was produced here was in numbers far too small to supply the growing Western market.
 
from Bernard Levine...

Trapper - probably 1920s, a slimmed down version of the larger trapper such as the R1123 Remington Bullet, introduced 9/1922. Those are in turn a 2-blade version of the swell-center regular hunting knife (see below).

Stockman - 1880s. The earliest ones were of uniform width, round ended, and often had a long slim spear master blade. The clip master blade had become standard by 1900, as did the slightly tapering frame.

Barlow - the earliest barlows, characterized by long front bolster and no cap bolster, go back to the 17th century. The modern regular jack barlow probably goes back to the 3rd quarter of the 19th century (1850-75), or maybe a few years before that. For earlier styles, from 1816, see page 210 of LG4.

Sodbuster - originally a German pattern with wooden handles, called a Folding Butcher Knife. I've seen them from the early part of the 20th century, and they might go back a lot further, since both the handle shape and the blade shape go back to ancient times (on fixed blades). But I have not SEEN any that were older.

Folding Hunter (like the non-locking Camillus Model 26) - clasp-type folding hunters first appeared around 1900. They are American versions of the clasp knives made in France, Spain, Italy, Bohemia, etc. However the swell-center folding hunter (Winchester 1920, etc) is a lot older; I have seen Sheffield examples from before 1850. And the swell-center regular hunting knife (mis-named 1-blade trapper, though it is much older than the trapper) is nearly that old.

All this information is in the pattern chapters of LG4.

BRL...
------------------
 
I have seen a lot of this before, but nothing more specific. does anyone have a date more specific than 1880s or an early/first maker?

I had not heard of any being found on the Arabia, or that early. I also can't see any in the pictures of knives recovered on the Arabia. Does anyone have any info on that possibility?
 
Heh. I'm not going to argue with Bernard Levine.
 
I have seen a lot of this before, but nothing more specific. does anyone have a date more specific than 1880s or an early/first maker?

I had not heard of any being found on the Arabia, or that early. I also can't see any in the pictures of knives recovered on the Arabia. Does anyone have any info on that possibility?
I just relooked at the available Arabia pictures and did not see a stockman. What I remembered were congress patterns. I've not located pictures of the Twilight cargo yet. She sank in 1865 and knives were said to be among the cargo recovered.
 
IMO, the comments from Bernard Levine are pretty definitive. He is a renowned knife historian.

If you want more information, buy the 4th version of "Levine's Guide to Knives". Out of print, but a copy shows up on eBay from time to time. (The current 5th version was not written by Levine and contains errors.)
 
Does anyone know what year the first Stockman pattern knives were made, or who first started making them?

I'd love to see some pictures of any 19th century stockman.

Thanks

Great website, my first post. Thought I would add to this interesting (old) thread :)

There is a bit of mis-information regarding the origin of the Stockman. Considering that a Stockman began turning up in Australia around the 1790's during the period of British settlement you can be sure that these knives were being brought over from Sheffield, England.

Throwing 3 blades onto one knife does what exactly? Makes it multipurpose and lightens the load. Exactly what the Australian Stockman needed when dealing with livestock on an export ship.

These were the first Lightweight multitools designed for travel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockman_(Australia)

Cheers
James, Nottingham England
 
Back
Top