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Anybody Like The Old Herter`s Knives?

JK Knives

JK Knives

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Just some Improved Bowie photos with some other old gear and knives. I like these darn things!









 
My understanding is that they were made by R Murphy Co in Ayer MA. Murphy has a nice website, they still make mention of the Herters knives.
 
I have one like the bottom one in your photo. I bought it when I was resupplying my kitchen with old carbon steel knives thinking it was a steak or large pareing knife. Bernard set me straight when I enquired. Nope, a hunting knife. Well it makes one heck of a good kitchen knife I can tell you. No frills, nice patina. Holds an edge well. And not expensive. It keeps good company with my Landers Frairy & Clark knives and gets used often.

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I have one like the top in OP's photo. The handle is stamped "Herter's, Inc." and "Waseta[?], Minn. USA".
 
Interesting stuff, OH.
I don't know where Herter fits in with the Russell/Grohmann creation myth I've always heard for the Canadian belt knife.
And is that really a crooked knife, curved toward the flat? It looks like a skinner.
Anyway, more stuff to look out for.
 
SP, as someone pointed out, R. Murphy in MA made several of Herter's fixed blade knives (they still have some for sell that are marked Herter's). I don't think Herter's really invented anything - but they were the "marketeer" of their day - selling famous brands and their own store brands made by someone for them, they really put a sales spin on their stuff. Their old catalogs were famous; I have two that my uncle gave me years ago (1971 & 1979) - I used to love to read through them when he got them in the mail. OH
 
Old Hunter, thanks for the advertisement, it looks like there are more models I need to hunt for, (or make myself), that`s all part of the fun!
 
Evidently they sold like hotcakes back in the day. They show up regularly for very reasonable prices on auction sites. The steel quaity of mine is excellent and I use it in the kitchen on a regular basis. I had no idea if they were maker or merchant.
 
Hi JK,

Ah! I too like these knives! I recently found (per you first pictured knife) an Authentic Herter's Improved Bowie Knife at a "Yard Sale" for fifty cents! It wasn't until I started to "detail/clean" the knife that I realized what I had purchased. This "Improved Bowie" is in BEAUTIFUL condition and only needs to be sharpened. I VERY much (at the top of my list) want a CANADIAN style R.Murphy/Herter's Skinner and/or an original Grohmann Canadian #1 Belt knife although I must admit....I have been Eye balling the Bark River Mini Canadian. Also,perhaps some day, I will (hope to) have the funds to purchase one of your beautiful version/take on the Canadian #1 Knife.

Regards,
HARDBALL
 
Herter's made great recurve bows too. George Herter was a cool old school gent.. None of his type around today sad to say.

In day of yore- used to be a treat to go to his stores in the midwest..
 
Herters in Waseca, Minnesota was a very strong store in the 1960s when I was growing up. I bought a number of items mailorder in those days, including two of his personally scribed books. That man was so full of bull he made Jim Parker look like a straight man in a Smothers Brothers skit. But what a marketeer! These knives are ordinary cheap hardware kitchen knives of good quality, which, of course, is exactly what was used indoors and outdoors for centuries. Nothing wrong with them, but apparently the marketing goes on.... just sayin'. Some of that old very ordinary stuff goes high these days, including the catalogs and books. Remember P.T. Barnum's famous saying? :D
 
ha ha! so true! he was a great writer too (according to him at least). One of his titles was " How To Live With A Witch."

His catalog's were almost required reading for sportsmen in the midwest up to the 70's, full of cool and wacky stuff!

Remember the 401 powermag??
 
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