A New Camillus Addition

[ea42]

Thanks folks! Ken, I've been thinking about the handles on the old knives myself lately. On this knife for instance, the bolsters rise pretty much exactly 3/32" over the liners. That would mean that the bone would have had to be almost exactly the same thickness to achieve the full length jigging. I'm wondering how thick the slabs were back in those days, cause I'm staring at three pieces of jigged bone right now that are exactly 1/8" thick. If you were to put them on a knife with a bolster thickness the same as this one, the hafting would probably take out most of the jigging at the bolsters. The only thing to do to bring it closer would be to take material off the back of the slab 'till its a hair over 3/32" thick. I've seen this done on upright disc sanders (mighty dangerous slippage involved), but I wonder if back in the old days the cutlers took this extra step to get that perfect fit. Maybe on the other hand like Charlie said the bone was more custom cut to the individual knives. I'd imagine with the volume of knives they pumped out back then it would have been cost effective. Anyone have any ideas on this?

Eric

 

[ken erickson]

Eric,

I have a feeling that Charlie is pretty much correct. I am sure that Camillus knew what size scales they needed for this model and that the bone was cut to size pretty darn close. Not only does the dye process go quicker, more thru and thru, less bone waste and much faster in the long run. The jigged bone from the knife supply houses is thick for this size of knife. Many new makers , myself included would haft half of the jigging off, common mistake. Its the small details like this that I would think about selling my soul to the devil to be able to step back in time and spend time in the old cutlery factories.

Ken