William Rodgers Sheffield Knife. Tell me more about it.

T

Toolferone

Joined
Mar 22, 2015
Messages
39
I bought this knife used in 1977 in Canterbury England when I was 15. I paid £5 for it. I then had a local saddle shop make me the sheath. I paid more than the knife for it. The knife was in rough shape and I cleaned it up, removing the light rust. Still some pitting on the blade. I know nothing else about it. I would love to know more, like what about what year it was made or at least a range. TIA!

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eveled said:
Not another Canterbury tale!
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It was an interesting year my dad picked up and moved us from North Carolina to Canterbury for a year while he worked on a project at the University there. It was quite the education living in a different country for a year.
 
That must have been pretty neat. At least they speak the same language there. Well kind of the same.

I didn’t mean to ignore the knife. It’s beautiful, and nicely proportioned. Usually people call a knife a Bowie, and I think “um not to my eye.” But yours checks all the boxes to me. I’m looking forward to hearing/ learning more about it.
 
Post WWII bowie style hunter. Very popular knife under the Rodgers name and under the brand John Nowill ( https://www.gunstar.co.uk/john-nowi...-bowie-knife-sheath-by-john-no/Blades/1071451 ) with minor modification to the handle pinning and shape. They even did some for the gunsmithing firm Holland and Holland years ago -

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...n-a-scarce-cased-150th-anniv-252-c-8804016bde .

This is the newest version - https://sheffieldknives.co.uk/acatalog/5-52.html#SID=9 .

The version like yours was sold through the 90's at least.

A firm named Eggington bought the William Rodgers, Joseph Rodgers, and Wostenholm trademarks in the 70's, and still owns them now. J Adams owns Nowill, Hopkinson, and their own J Adams brand. Adams also owns J R Hopkinson, who forges / forged the blade blanks for a lot of the Sheffield cutlery industry post WWII, so that accounts for the knives being close in design between a bunch of companies.

Much like the American cutlery industry, there's a lot of friendly subcontracting between firms. In fact, Eggington and Adams are literally just a few doors down from each other in Sheffield.
 
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tltt said:
Post WWII bowie style hunter. Very popular knife under the Rodgers name and under the brand John Nowill ( https://www.gunstar.co.uk/john-nowi...-bowie-knife-sheath-by-john-no/Blades/1071451 ) with minor modification to the handle pinning and shape. They even did some for the gunsmithing firm Holland and Holland years ago -

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...n-a-scarce-cased-150th-anniv-252-c-8804016bde .

This is the newest version - https://sheffieldknives.co.uk/acatalog/5-52.html#SID=9 .

The version like yours was sold through the 90's at least.

A firm named Eggington bought the William Rodgers, Joseph Rodgers, and Wostenholm trademarks in the 70's, and still owns them now. J Adams owns Nowill, Hopkinson, and their own J Adams brand. Adams also owns J R Hopkinson, who forges / forged the blade blanks for a lot of the Sheffield cutlery industry post WWII, so that accounts for the knives being close in design between a bunch of companies.

Much like the American cutlery industry, there's a lot of friendly subcontracting between firms. In fact, Eggington and Adams are literally just a few doors down from each other in Sheffield.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for your time and expertise!
 
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