All in on jacks

Mike Robuck

Mike Robuck

Joined
Oct 11, 2001
Messages
3,649
After seeing some nice jackknives in some other threads here recently I thought it would be fun to have a thread on all of the various patterns of them. (Although there already is one started by Greg McKenna on dogleg jacks.)

There are lots of patterns and main blade shapes to include from production companies both past and present. If you know anything about the pattern or the company that made the knife your posting please include it as well. If it’s a custom jack, maybe you can say what the maker based it on.

I think it’s interesting that jackknives were the working man’s knives back in the day, and therefore more affordable, but now they are the more desired knives today by collectors. It’s hard to find good, clean examples of older jacks since they were often well used.

On the other hand, fancy pen knives cost a lot more than jackknives back when both were being made, but they don’t seem to attract as much interest today.
 
For some reason I seem to assosciate jack knives with soddies more blue collar work and pen knife more of white collar workers of past time... I guess workers knives are cheaper than those in management.

I still love jack knives as well soddies.
 
Here's one that has been used quite a bit, but retains it's attractiveness. The Eureka Jack was probably not the cheapest, but might entice you to spend a few extra pennies, just by the way it looked!
EmpireEureka-1.jpg
 
Charlie, that is gorgeous! I wonder if some custom maker would make that kind of jack, but single blade... You gotta love ebony :D I already see that in ebony with 154CM steel blade... *drools*
 
Great knife, Charlie. One of my all-time favorite patterns!!! :thumbup:
 
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Four assorted Schrade knives from the 60's, 70's and 80's. This is a two blade serpentine jack. Some might call it a Texas Jack. Schrade closed shop in 2004, but they left behind over 100 years of great cutlery. This pattern is a 33 or 34 pattern, and came in wide variety of handle materials.
 
thejamppa said:
Charlie, that is gorgeous! I wonder if some custom maker would make that kind of jack, but single blade... You gotta love ebony :D I already see that in ebony with 154CM steel blade... *drools*
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I asked Rick Menefee to build me a modified wharncliffe single blade "Eureka" in a shadow pattern. Tony Bose was gracious enough to provide the pattern for the frame and Rick scaled it to my requested 3.75" size.
I think he did a pretty fine job:

orig.jpg



(I've had a couple of other "Eureka" jacks on order with custom makers for a while now.)
 
Mike Robuck said:
I think it’s interesting that jackknives were the working man’s knives back in the day, and therefore more affordable, but now they are the more desired knives today by collectors. It’s hard to find good, clean examples of older jacks since they were often well used.
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That's pretty much how I remember it.

Growing up in a working class area, all men who had pants on had a pocket knife in them. And most of them had a small two blade serpintine jack. I don't know why, but most of the knives I saw in the early to mid 50's were of that type. Maybe 3 to 3 1/4 inches, a clip main and pen blade, in a serpintine handle. These were guys who wore Dickies work clothes, and drove some kind of pickup truck. The only other knife I saw a lot of back then was the TL-29. Since a lot of these guys were WW2 vets, they seemed to have thier share of the TL's.

The reason you don't see many of these in nice shape anymore, is that they were just a low cost all around whatever tol to the men who carried them. They were not knife knuts like us, but practical hard working men who used their stuff hard. If they broke a knife blade, they reground it and used it till nothing was left. Then it got tossed in the trash can and they bought a new pocket knife. They didn't care like we do.

One of our nieghbors was a welder. He had a truck with his welding rig on the back, and often in the evenings, he'd be out there after dinner getting ready for the next day, making sure all his gear was up to snuff. One day I was walking by, and I saw him scraping some inulation off a cable he was doing something with. At this time I was maybe 12 or 13 years old, but already had our affliction. He was being pretty hard on his little jackknife, and I said something to him about 'Ain't you afraid of breaking your knife?"

He gave me a funny look, and I'll never forget his reply.

"Hell boy, if it breaks I'll just get another one! It's just a pocket knife."
 
This is a classic Case large jack knife pattern based on a Case Stockman frame. The knife is a Case 6292 jack commonly called a "Texas Jack". This particular knife is a 1-dot (manufactured in 1979). As a point of interest, the scale on the shield side of this knife is brown while the back side scale is black.
casetexasjack1.jpg

casetexasjack2.jpg

casetexasjack3.jpg

When I was a youngster in the 1940s and 1950s, a jack knife or a barlow knife were the two most common patterns carried by guys and gals in my schools.
 
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Nice examples Hal, Elliott and Ed!
This is your basic Jack knife. Nothing fancy, but downright desireable!
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Schrade2153Pile-1.jpg
 
jackknife said:
That's pretty much how I remember it.

Growing up in a working class area, all men who had pants on had a pocket knife in them. And most of them had a small two blade serpintine jack. I don't know why, but most of the knives I saw in the early to mid 50's were of that type. Maybe 3 to 3 1/4 inches, a clip main and pen blade, in a serpintine handle. These were guys who wore Dickies work clothes, and drove some kind of pickup truck. .....
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jackknife, I think you must have known my grandfather. This was his knife.....

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A little Ulster...

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Albany Felt Camco....

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and an old Filmore Cutlery from Austria. This one was an import from the early Robeson days.


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and this Case. I kick myself again for auctioning this one off. Whoever got it, got it cheap. One of those days.

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One of my little EO's, this one with a shield.

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Good idea for a thread Mike
I'll show some,I've experienced that I no longer own.

T Bose Lanny's clip

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Swayback Jack

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Reese Bose Swayback Jack

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Marked U.S.A (only) ,I believe
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Electric Cutlery Co.
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Joe Allen Case Slimline

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Ken Erickson
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C.Wolfertz & Co.
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This old guy wasn't a family knife or anything, but it imbues me with a sense of growing up in the land of the free . . .
British influence, American made! A rich history.
EmpireOldIvoryJack.jpg

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EmpireOldIvoryJackpile.jpg

EmpireOldIvoryJacktang.jpg
 
Oops, didn't see you coming, Vince! Nice collection!
Have I asked you about that Wolfertz before?
 
waynorth said:
Oops, didn't see you coming, Vince! Nice collection!
Have I asked you about that Wolfertz before?
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Charlie,no worries,we're in a posting frenzy,lol

Yes sir, you asked about it once.
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-Vince :)
 
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navihawk said:
I'de like to hear about that one too. Nice.
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OK I met a guy parting with it,he gave me a pretty fair deal.

Another knife guy hooked me up w/some stuff & made me so freakin' tickled,one time,so I sent it to him, as a token of appreciation.

I think ,no I know,it was the most magnificent old knife I ever snagged.

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