18th c. English Trade Scalper

L

LRB

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Feb 28, 2006
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Just finished this one. A PC version of the classic English scalper knife. 7 1/8" blade of 01 steel, tapered in both directions. Blade and tang. A Boxwood handle secured with iron rivet pins. The handle is oversized as were the originals, having a slight overlapped gap on the under side, and extending into the blade area a tad bit. This is the typical English trade scalper of the 18th c., but with a superior steel, and an epoxy sealed tang to prevent water intrusion. The sheath is a center seam up the backside, of 6/7 oz vege-tan tooling leather, stained black with the vinegar/iron natural stain. I am beginning to love this stuff. It does not rub off onto your clothing. Hope you enjoy a look. I am well pleased as to how it all came out. I plan to do the French type also, when I get some time. Thankyou for any comments, or critiques.

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Good to see you post one up Wick !

After I heard about dying leather with vinegaroon (???) I couldn't believe my red looking concoction was going to dye leather black so I just had to try it.

Amazing the info that can be picked up along the way.

Just curious, would the French version be the ball end style ?

Take care Buddy, Josh
 
Hi Josh. The basic difference in the French scalper is simply a dropped point, and as time and competition continued, both countries began copying each others knives in order to compete in different regions where one design might be more popular than the other. Ball grips were as popular with the English, as the French, but rarely found on scalpers unless as a replacement grip, or special order, and it could be that these were intended as table knives. Although the French are commonly given credit for the ball grips, no one knows for sure where they started.
 
Wick, that is freakin awesome! (This is where I bow to the master!):thumbup:

Your knack for making a piece that has some how been transported through time is one of the reasons I got reinterested in knife making after years of doing other pursuits!

The sheath is fantastic and the lines that adorn it speak volumes about how to get it right!

LRB
"Just finished this one. A PC version of the classic English scalper knife. 7 1/8" blade of 01 steel, tapered in both directions. Blade and tang."

Have you got a shot of the other taper? I would like to see exactly how that worked out! I didn't suspect that they would have even done that back then! Your knowledge of that time period always amazes me
 
Hi Dixie. Just picture where the heel meets the tang. From here the tang is tapered to a near edge from front to rear, the blade spine tapers slowly forward to the point. These tapers were a result of forging to get the most from a smaller piece of precious steel. They were forged slightly oversized, then ground to a selected pattern. The English blade thicknesses ran from around 1/16" to 3/32". The French usually ran thicker blades at about 3/32" to 1/8", some even a tad more. Both English and French used a one size fits all handle pattern, leaving an overlapping gap underneath between the tang level and the grip level on smaller than large blades, and I suspect even on the large so as to make fitting faster and easier. Knife sizes are listed in the original manifests as small, medium , and large, with no specific measurements.
 
I have made some of these in the Sheffield pattern trade knives and have a question about blade thickness. I know that the Sheffield guys used thin blades to conserve the valuable knife steel. The first batch of scalpers and butchers I did, I tried to forge 3/32 1095 and was not successful due to my skill with a hammer not being up to the Sheffield cutlers' standards. I switched to 1/8 stock and did much better, but at the expense of having the spine and tang a little thicker than PC.

How do you deal with blade thickness on your PC pieces??

I attached a photo of one of my Warranted Red Handled Scalpers.

I looked at some of your other stuff posted on Historical Trekking. NICE!! I need to do a French knife that might have be used in the early New England trade.

thanks,
Dave Suitor (Sheffield Cutler Wannabe)

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Nice clean knife Wick. I love the pin placement.
I'll have to look up that vinegar/iron stain. I also need to learn how to make those center seem sheaths. Can't have a older/period knife without one.

Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:
 
Patrice Lemée;9272970 said:
Nice clean knife Wick. I love the pin placement.
I'll have to look up that vinegar/iron stain. I also need to learn how to make those center seem sheaths. Can't have a older/period knife without one.

Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

It's called vinegaroon
That will help your searches.

wild rose has some good info and he points to more on a Kentucky long rifle forum

It's the same dye used on maple handles too.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?75951-Vinegaroon-Tutorial
 
Dsuitor, I just grind them from 3/32" 01. The originals were finished on a stone grinder so it all comes out the same anyway. 1/8" may be a tad thick for English, but just about right for French. Since the thicknesses vary from knife to knife, with both English and French I took the middleground between them so I use the same thickness for either without needing to charge extra for the French. As far as the vinegaroon, A friend mixed up what I'm using, and took no pains in doing it. Steel wool and a little bit of small scrap iron pieces. I believe he used white vinegar, though I doubt it would matter. We let it sit for a week, tried it on scrap leather, and it worked. I think it was Chuck Burrows that mentioned adding a little oak bark to the mix to make it even blacker.
 
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