America's Peasant Knife?

The Russell knife company of Green River Massachusetts, was started in 1832. At one point, 60,000 Russell green river knives were shipped west every year. They were used by almost everyone who had need of a knife. By 1850, the Russell works was shipping their famed barrows west in as huge numbers.

In Harold Petersons book, American Knives, they had a table of knives shipped to jobbers and trading posts, and the Russell barlow was the most sold knife in the country between 1850 and 1870. The barrows were manufactured in both one and two blade models, and late in the 1890's they were shipping the daddy barlow. Russell continued to be a top maker of the barlow well into the 20th century, falling off only during the great depression in the 1930's.

On years manufactured and numbers produced, the Russell barlow would be the top choice.
 
Barlow, from one of the low-price brands. Imperial seems the most common, but Colonial and Sabre are two others that come to mind.
 
jackknife said:
The Russell knife company of Green River Massachusetts, was started in 1832. At one point, 60,000 Russell green river knives were shipped west every year. They were used by almost everyone who had need of a knife. By 1850, the Russell works was shipping their famed barrows west in as huge numbers.

In Harold Petersons book, American Knives, they had a table of knives shipped to jobbers and trading posts, and the Russell barlow was the most sold knife in the country between 1850 and 1870. The barrows were manufactured in both one and two blade models, and late in the 1890's they were shipping the daddy barlow. Russell continued to be a top maker of the barlow well into the 20th century, falling off only during the great depression in the 1930's.

On years manufactured and numbers produced, the Russell barlow would be the top choice.
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+1 for American fixed blade although Dexter came about earlier these seem to be the icon for early settlers.
 
A certain source for mora helle brusletto and puuko style knives carries a fairly accurate Hudson Bay knife repro. Rag dandilion forge....
 
Slipperyfish said:
Pinnah, I don't think it has to be a friction folder, but it seems that most of them are around the world.

I didn't think this was going to be easy. I've been struggling to identify an American peasant/working class/everyman knife and have yet to do so. Looks like I'm not the only one.
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It's your thread and your question so I'll follow your lead and clarification.

For those of us who hang in the Traditional sub-forum, we tend to think in terms of patterns. Patterns are sets of knives with the same design features. In this context, a "peasant" knife refers to a specific design, namely an inexpensive friction folder, generally with a wooden handle. These two references are consistent with that definiiton.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_knife#Peasant_knife
http://pocketknifecollectibles.com/Pocket_Knife_History.html

Strictly speaking, I don't think there is an American peasants knife, in that I don't the US has had any iconic friction folders.

Now, if the question really is, is there an iconic American pattern that is associated with the American worker in the same way that many peasant knives are in other cultures, then I think the 3 top patterns have already been identified: the Barlow, the stockman and the Buck 110 (and its lookalikes, as a pattern). To this, I would add the Spyderco Worker (and it's lookalikes, as a pattern). All of this to say, which knife was the most popular really depends on what time frame you're looking at.

I would narrow it down to the Barlow and stockman, myself. I suspect more Barlows have been made but the Barlow, like the Sodbuster, is more of a European import. I think the stockman pattern is an actual development of the western US knives of the late 1800s.
 
jackknife said:
The Russell knife company of Green River Massachusetts, was started in 1832. At one point, 60,000 Russell green river knives were shipped west every year. They were used by almost everyone who had need of a knife. By 1850, the Russell works was shipping their famed barlows west in as huge numbers.
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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

During the early 1840's, the Green River Knife became a favorite of emigrants, buffalo hunters, Indians, miners, and settlers. Between 1840 and 1860, it is estimated seven hundred and twenty thousand Green River knives were shipped west.
http://www.thefurtrapper.com/fur_trappers.htm

'Course there's always Bowie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowie_knife

Says the sandbar fight was 1827.

I vote Green River and Barlow also though.
 
Barlow design is English in origin. Sodbuster origins are not clear to me, many saying it's originally German, others simply saying it's an old European design. Mox nix. America's a melting pot that takes all influences and stirs them together and claims the result as its own.

I would vote Stockman except I can't see an expensive 3-blade knife actually being affordable to American's equivalent of the "peasant" class. A simple single-blade folder of whatever design would cost less and suffice for most daily tasks.

But more than likely, a truly simple working knife would have been a fixed blade that a person with blacksmithing skills could make for himself with materials on hand and sell or give away as the spirit moved him. Or we can look to the American Indians who patiently made flint knives.

All a "peasant" would need is something sharp with a point.
 
Barlows ARE very "American". The classic barlows are exemptified by barlows being made by GEC via CC (Tom's Choice)-styling, craftsmanship, and beauty. Sadly, the new peasant knives are modern in design and manufactured in China these days here. Ask a young person who wants their first, it is often a SAK or a cheap modern.
 
The Barlow seems to be winning out, but Lee48 brings up some good points. Perhaps I will have to make my American peasant knife, as many of the pioneers and sellers of this great land have done before me. That should turn out interesting. I'll still buy a Barlow as it seems to be the iconic American design.

Thanks for everyone's input. It's been a fun discussion so far.
 
mtangent said:
I'm Australian, & we have a similar melting pot history, but very biased toward Britain. I don't think the convicts came up with a style.
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I think its funny to consider the results of inbreeding in the English Upper class vs. the descendants of the convicts.
news-graphics-2007-_651117a.jpg


Nicole-Kidman-4.jpg
 
Lee48 said:
Barlow design is English in origin. Sodbuster origins are not clear to me, many saying it's originally German, others simply saying it's an old European design. Mox nix. America's a melting pot that takes all influences and stirs them together and claims the result as its own.

I would vote Stockman except I can't see an expensive 3-blade knife actually being affordable to American's equivalent of the "peasant" class. A simple single-blade folder of whatever design would cost less and suffice for most daily tasks.
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Sheffield in England made a huge number of fixed blade and multiblade slip joints for import to the young US. English and German immigrants set up there own knife making in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and most prominently, in New York. In the early 1800s, I'm not sure it made sense to talk about a home-grown American pattern. Many of the knives were 2 blade jack knives with the Barlow style being one. The Russell made Barlows that Carl gave the good reference on is the one that I think most people point to as *THE* American Barlow. When a knife gets referenced by name in literature like the Barlow, then it's an icon, imo.

Regarding the sodbuster, search on Messer Hippekniep. My understanding is that this design comes from northern Germany (and Holland and such like). Solligen is something like the German version of Sheffield, being the traditional center of German export knives. My understanding is that it is the Hippekneip that came over with German immigrant farmers and being used primarily used on farms (as opposed to by cowboys) got the name "Sodbuster" and old term of derision for farmers.

My understanding is that knife making moved west (like a lot of industry) during the mid to late 1800s. Case, Marbles, Western.

I would love it if somebody has access to something like Levines Guide, but I think the3 blade equal end cattle knife was the first, closely followed by the equal end 4 blade camper (many variants) and the 3 and 4 blade stockman. I *think* these patterns all emerged in the mid 1800s and I think the cattle and stockman knives are more purely American than the Barlow and Sodbuster.

They wouldn't have been any more expensive than any other of the pocket knives, I don't think.
 
America is a melting pot and certainly many of the old designs originated in Europe. I think we took the barlow pattern and made it American with Tom Sawyer. I don't think it is the most popular pattern of traditional knife anymore and probably the Stockman pattern has more supporters today due primarily to the mulitple blade design. I believe Jackknife carries a Stockman now.

A purely American knife is probably the Buck 110 and it's many immitators. But I don't think it rivals the barlow as the classic American knife. But the 110 really is an American classic and created a stir politically where I believe Texas outlawed the carry of the knife specifically due to gangs at the time. I carried one for years as the "big knife" I used in the field (woods and field), but essentially rural use.
 
22-rimfire said:
America is a melting pot and certainly many of the old designs originated in Europe. I think we took the barlow pattern and made it American with Tom Sawyer. I don't think it is the most popular pattern of traditional knife anymore and probably the Stockman pattern has more supporters today due primarily to the mulitple blade design. I believe Jackknife carries a Stockman now.

A purely American knife is probably the Buck 110 and it's many immitators. But I don't think it rivals the barlow as the classic American knife. But the 110 really is an American classic and created a stir politically where I believe Texas outlawed the carry of the knife specifically due to gangs at the time. I carried one for years as the "big knife" I used in the field (woods and field), but essentially rural use.
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Good point on the Buck 110. When it came out in 1963ish or so, it was a game changing event.

Before that, it may have been a mixed bag, depending on what era we are talking about. The Barlow goes all the way back to pre-civil war era, but in the 1870's it gave way a bit to the cattle knife out west. Then in the 1880's, the cattle knife evolved into the premium stockman. I think a heck of a lot of the other traditional pattern pocket knives came about between the 1890's and 1910ish. The trapper, the muskrat, the scout knife, the different small jack patterns.

But when Buck came out with the 110, it was like a revolution in the knife world. By the end of the 1960's, the black pouch was on the hips of police, construction workers, bikers, firemen, soldiers, sailors, truck drivers, and just about everyone who didn't work in an office. It's a lot like when discussing the so called "American knife" we have to specify pre-Vietnam era vs post Vietnam era. A lot things changed in a very short time frame. Everyone with a knife factory was making Buck 110 clones. From Puma of Germany to some back alley shop in Pakistan. Good, bad, and the ugly, you still see the big brass framed knife around.
 
Slipperyfish said:
France has the Opinel...Japan the Higo No Kami...etc.

Got me thinking, what is America's peasant knife? Must be US made and iconic.
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Before they went under (and maybe even still, since so many of them are still in service) I'd say a Schrade 34OT carbon steel stockman.
 
jackknife said:
Good point on the Buck 110. When it came out in 1963ish or so, it was a game changing event. ... By the end of the 1960's, the black pouch was on the hips of police, construction workers, bikers, firemen, soldiers, sailors, truck drivers, and just about everyone who didn't work in an office.
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Hey, don't forget hippies and folkies. Do I spy a 110 on Jim Croce's hip here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLKhUnl_yhc 1:42

You can see it here too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwhxXjdMPd8 around 1:22
 
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