All American knife pattern.

It's the Barlow, hands down. No other pattern comes close in having the documented history of use and popularity as the Barlow. And it was the Barlow pattern that really started the modern popularity of knife collecting when a columnist with the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal started a club in the 1950's called the "Barlow Bearcats". This is detailed in a reference in one of the other responses.

Let's face it, when you're asking about stuff that's "original American" it's tough to beat something that Mark Twain wrote about,

"Mary gave him a bran-new "Barlow" knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a "sure-enough" Barlow, and there was inconceivable grandeur in that - though where the Western boys ever got the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its injury, is an imposing mystery and will always remain so, perhaps."
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

"All the stores was along one street. They had white domestic awnings in front, and the country-people hitched their horses to the awning-posts. There was empty dry-goods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting on them all day long, whittling them with their Barlow knives; and chawing tobacco, and gaping and yawning and stretching - a mighty ornery lot."
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I gotta go for the Barlow.

LANNY:cool:
 
I'll see Lanny's Twain quotes and raise with three from an industry giant, Albert Baer. For those of you not familiar with Baer, he, along with his brother Henry (Uncle Henry), was the owner of Schrade, Imperial, Kingston, and Ulster. He entered the cutlery field in 1922 with Adolph Kastor & Brothers, eventually coming to also control that company (Camillus).

These three snips are from his unpublished memoirs.



Michael
 
Could the Barlow be winning the All American Knife award??
BarlowRussells.jpg
 
Hey, are two bladed knives with the one larger blade (clip, spear, etc.) and one smaller pen blade like the Barlow, Peanut, etc., all "Jack" knives?
 
ElC, generally, a jack knife is pivoted at one end, and has one or two blades, of almost any size. Some like to call a larger knife with a full-sized blade at each end a double end jack.
If you get a copy of a knife book, like one of Levine's guides (1st through 4th editions- don't buy the 5th) most questions about knife terminology will be answered there.
 
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