A Thoughtful Relic!!

waynorth

waynorth

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Messages
32,694
In their golden era, the Robeson Cutlery Company built some wonderful pocketknives!
They were constantly making their knives better. Note their Pocket-Eze models which had sunk joints, to, obviously, save your pockets!!:cool:
They used nice jigging on the handles; they tried bronze, self-lubricating joints on some models, installed EO notches, and used other details to produce great knives!!
The wear on this one caught my attention! Notice how, even with 60 to 70 percent of the main blade worn away, the blade remains useful, and the point does not "peek" out of the knife!!
Take my word please, the action and snap are smooth, firm and satisfying!! Good steel obviously, and, credit must be given to the previous owner for careful use and lubrication!!
I will carry and use this knife today, as a tribute to a well-lived previous life, and I will try to continue the tradition!!:)Robey Pocketease 1.jpg Robey Pocketease 2.jpg Robey Pocketease 3.jpg Robey Pocketease 4.jpg Robey Pocketease 5.jpg

Please post your relics, and/or your Robesons for their great details!! :D
 
A little reliceze

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A Hibbard Spencer Bartlett from the last part of the 1800s that belonged to my Grandfather. He was born in 1875 and was in the Spanish American War in 1898. My Dad told me that he carried the knife in that war. He carried it everyday until he died in 1952. He was a dentist and probably didn't use the knife all that much. I do know that he broke off the second blade and used the stub to clean out the bowl of his pipes and used that end of the knife to tamp down his pipe tobacco. I saw him do it many times.

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waynorth said:
In their golden era, the Robeson Cutlery Company built some wonderful pocketknives!
They were constantly making their knives better. Note their Pocket-Eze models which had sunk joints, to, obviously, save your pockets!!:cool:
They used nice jigging on the handles; they tried bronze, self-lubricating joints on some models, installed EO notches, and used other details to produce great knives!!
The wear on this one caught my attention! Notice how, even with 60 to 70 percent of the main blade worn away, the blade remains useful, and the point does not "peek" out of the knife!!
Take my word please, the action and snap are smooth, firm and satisfying!! Good steel obviously, and, credit must be given to the previous owner for careful use and lubrication!!
I will carry and use this knife today, as a tribute to a well-lived previous life, and I will try to continue the tradition!!:)View attachment 1324391 View attachment 1324392 View attachment 1324393 View attachment 1324394 View attachment 1324395

Please post your relics, and/or your Robesons for their great details!! :D
Click to expand...

The bone on that knife has aged very well. The covers are in remarkable condition considering how much use that knife has seen.
 
Mr Charlie, whoever was the previous owner of that Robeson put a lot of thought into sharpening it! Some skill too.

I own only one Robeson, but that one really is mine. It had some previous use when I got it, but it still has full blades and it gets very nicely sharp. Glenbad rehandled it in some lovely stag, it had jigged black composite covers before.

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Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures tomorrow, I have a relic that I'd like to share with you.
 
This Case Tested XX is such a wreck that I couldn't bring myself to post it, but it is so very rare... Now, much to my surprise and my joy, we have a Relic page! A 5 1/4 inch clasp-type four-blade scout knife, with yellow plastic handle scales, 1920-40s:
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Oh, if I could only stumble across one of these in excellent condition! T-A
 
Nice!! I always liked the Valley Forge HJs, Rob!:thumbsup: I sent one to Ken Ericson to guide an HJ he made for me!!
Great Fairmount, John! A Camillus Brand, made by errrr - - - - - Camillus!!:D
 
Thanks Charlie:thumbsup:, once I remove the active rust I'll drop a picture in the HJ thread, a little WD40 followed by oil brought it right back to it's snappy old self:thumbsup:
Wrong thread for it but I would like to see the Erickson alongside the VF HJ Ken used as a guide.
 
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When the topic of relics comes around I always think of these 2 Gardners in my collection. They are pretty rare to begin with but looking at an unfinished Barlow from 140 years ago just blows my mind, I always wonder how a Barlow made it that long without being finished or just being lost to time.

Then we have the well used Gardner which was a generous gift from Charlie, whoever owned that one used it for many years and the blade is way dow but it down in a nice straight edge, plenty of use left in this relic, Thanks Charlie!


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Here's a not so thoughtful relic. It's a small 2.5 inches closed knife I saved from an antique shop some 7 years ago and it's this one that got me into traditional knives. On the tang you can halfway recognise two words stamped in: Rostfrei (stainless) and Iskra, which means "spark" in my language. I don't know how old this knife is nor anything about the maker, although it must have been a Yugoslav company. There is still an electronics company in Slovenia today with that name, but I never heard of them making pocket knives ... The world wide web hides a few photos of other Iskra knives, often of the same general shape (just bigger) and always with celluloid covers. Mine has a blunt tip and the blade had deep grinder marks. The liners are bent inwards in the blade well, which causes gaps at the spring end, the mark side shows some chips and dings in the celluloid and a "bite" mark in the brass bolster. It also had a bit of rust before I cleaned it. Yet for quite some time it was all that I needed. Frankly, it was more of a piece of chewed through pocket jewelry, a lucky charm if you will. Something to fiddle with when you have 5 min off. I figure it has seen quite a bit and whoever owned it years ago didn't spare it much. So now it is mostly retired.

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