40 (or so) year old J. L. Little knive.

M

mac62463

Joined
Aug 31, 2021
Messages
11
A friend brought me a knife his wifes mother bought for him as a gift for helping with harvest work one year. Its a 3-5/8" blade with a 4-1/2" handle, full 1/4" tang, and a brass finger guard. The blade steel looks to be stainless but I haven't verified that. My friend said the scales are walrus ivory and it has some scrimshaw of a salmon on one side and a big horn sheep on the other by T. Swan. The scales are really loose (one fell off as I was fondling it) and he wants me to stick the back on. There are no pins of any kind and the bonding surfaces are completely smooth. Kinda cheesy construction if you ask me but ? If anybody knows anything about this knife or JL Little or T Swan I would appreciate some info. Thanks
 
Hi Mac,

Once again, the NEED FOR PHOTOS in a 2-dimensional forum is mandatory. Your thread on Mammoth is hijacked for weeks because of this need.

You need to easily join Imgur.com and begin an account, then you may UPLOAD images from your phone to their site, and then link back to here.

It's how everyone does it, unless they purchase a Gold membership and. host (reduced size) images through here.

Beyond this, we are all speculating.

Good luck!
 
Seriously, your failure to provide pics, as Coop has previously mentioned, probably just saves us from even trying to help. Though from your post and explanation of the knife, sounds like it is not even worth the time or trouble anyway.
 
mac62463 said:
A friend brought me a knife his wifes mother bought for him as a gift for helping with harvest work one year. Its a 3-5/8" blade with a 4-1/2" handle, full 1/4" tang, and a brass finger guard. The blade steel looks to be stainless but I haven't verified that. My friend said the scales are walrus ivory and it has some scrimshaw of a salmon on one side and a big horn sheep on the other by T. Swan. The scales are really loose (one fell off as I was fondling it) and he wants me to stick the back on. There are no pins of any kind and the bonding surfaces are completely smooth. Kinda cheesy construction if you ask me but ? If anybody knows anything about this knife or JL Little or T Swan I would appreciate some info. Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi, T Swan is my mother. She worked as a professional wildlife artist in Alaska during the 80's. She was a very skilled scrimshaw artist. She used to work with a shop in Wasilla called "The Ivory Workshop." I believe that shop may have created the knife?
 
mswan said:
Hi, T Swan is my mother. She worked as a professional wildlife artist in Alaska during the 80's. She was a very skilled scrimshaw artist. She used to work with a shop in Wasilla called "The Ivory Workshop." I believe that shop may have created the knife?
Click to expand...

Wow that neat....I wish the above posters would post pics......Scrimshaw is a lost and almost forgotten art...
Do you have some pics of your Mom's work???? Thanks for sharing this here!!
 
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