Age and origins of the toothpick.

[hornetguy]

My thoughts are that GEC got the blade shape exactly right on the toothpick.... not flimsy looking, not bulky looking, just fully functional.... to me, it's more in line with the laguioles than the "Texas toothpicks".... whose blades look delicate to me. ..
I have a Winchester toothpick that is sort of in between the two, but still a little slender for my taste....
A GEC and some lags....

 

[GaiusJulius]

Kind of cool to see a 2012 thread that still has pictures

I think cutlery companies would name their patterns anything at all they thought would make guys buy their knives. It’s probably best to take the ad copy from the 1890s-1930s with a grain of salt. But it’s clear the pattern is old and probably descended from the European friction folders made in Spain and elsewhere for centuries. I agree that GECs version is very nice. I appreciate the smooth cam tang pull without half stops on this one. Case’s version is a delicate little dress knife, but I feel like the GEC 12 can do some work.

 

[Just Tom.]

I think cutlery companies would name their patterns anything at all they thought would make guys buy their knives. It’s probably best to take the ad copy from the 1890s-1930s with a grain of salt.

I’m pretty sure this practice did not end in the 1930’s…

I did notice that American catalogs stopped advertising bolsters as being “German silver” around the time of WW1.

 

[Jolipapa]

Carl the way I have come to understand it is the Navaja was the inspiration for the Laguiole and the Laguiole was the inspiration for the toothpick.

Pete

No

 

[Jolipapa]

Oh, I've long had the suspicion that it is of Spanish or French origin, but I guess what I want to know, from an author standpoint, would a cowboy in 1870's southern Colorado have a toothpick type of knife? Or was it a product of the deep south in the late 1800's. I know that it was a popular pattern in the south and rural areas in the 1920's and 30's. There's a ton of lure about the toothpick pattern being the choice of cross roads tavern tuffs as a rural fighting knife. There's the old matchstick trick where you wedge it into the blade slot to make the blade ride a bit high, so's easier to grab in a pinch grip to open fast. But I'm speculating on how far back this goes? There had to be in interlude between the fall from popularity of the Bowie and Arkansas toothpick after the Colt revolver came out, and the folding knives of the 1870's to 1900's.

Carl.

Probably derives of an old European pattern.
The trditional Hungarian fishing knife (Horgász) is very similar. The top knife under has been created by Sziraky, cutler in Szeged during the XIXth century. The wide bolster is reminiscent of an other traditional, the Fejesgörbe (rounded head).

Fejesgörbe

No link with the Laguiole, which at the beginning was a straight knife. The actual shape came toward the end of the XIXth cent.