Around Edmonton with a knife! Or.......Should wizards visit Alberta?

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

So at the end of April I went to the big yearly event in my knife collecting calendar, the Wild Rose Antique show!! A yearly gathering of antiques and the items that the antiques collect!! (Hey- I'm sure the average age is over 65 at these events, I'm a pup in comparison!)

While not as big as it once was, and nowhere as big as in larger markets, it's a yearly tradition in our family that I've carried on after my mom passed away. Always a lot of fun, spending money that should go elsewhere, seeing old acquaintances (and older goods!).

This year was especially good for "man items", usually the tables I visit are downsizing seniors, but almost everybody seemed like they had something interesting this year. Well maybe not the tables full of plates and cups, but I don't notice those anyways!! And they keep the little old ladies busy! {Watch out for those little old ladies! They are mean! Our last show I watched a 4' tall woman place the back of her head against my brothers chest and push him away! (Excuse me would have worked too!!), apparently because he was too close to the "antique" plain glass ashtray!!😳}

Well this year had its fill of things that were interesting but not coming home with me, like every year:

(this sharpener was about 8" diameter wheel! But if course they wanted full sized wheel prices!)

Hey look! It's only $500 with half of its back spring MISSING!!

So I wandered the show, grabbing some small things here and there- pretty good show for me actually! Got some new punches attached to some Slipjoints (I love the extra tool on a cutting implement!). Prices were a little higher than the $10/knife I usually pay, but it's only money, and how else will I die broke!!

Continued next post...

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

On my second trip around the stalls I always look closer at the vendors I ignore the first time around. Remember those tables that are filled with plates and cups that I ignore? Well I took a quick glance at one and...... And there it was!!! A quest knife!! Okay, so it isn't my quest, and the parties involved in the real quest are on two different continents from me, but a quest knife spoke to me nonetheless!!

Now I don't recall all of the rules for the wizards quest, but I do believe it had to be a traditional slipjoint with natural handles, made in the local area. I know I have my knife to now remember another's search mission, and am kind of hoping its brethren completes the quest on the other side of the oceans.

Okay, enough beating around the bush! My new prize!!

Alfred Blackwell swayback wharncliffe in horn! Rat tail bolster, this old girl opens and closes with a heartening snap! I have to watch my hands when using it wet, one slip and I'm sure fingers could be separated!! Scales are in very good condition- minimal lifting off of the liners. Sharpens up beautifully, and will hopefully patina up nicely in my time with it (unsure if carbon or stainless). A great knife that I think was a very good deal, haggled down to less than thirty dollars!

Hmmm.... Did a modern cutler do a version of this old girl?

Looks like a pretty close match!!



Well me finding a quest knife was the reason for writing, but here is the totality of a day of leisure for myself! And I missed last year so I had to make up for it! And YES!! I found a Jews harp, my first gold one! Too bad it plays with a muffled sound!

Oh! Just for S & giggles I couldn't resist trying on a Norman Helm! Sorry if I keep you up at night!

If anybody knows more about the Alfred Blackwell brand I would appreciate anything I can find. Limited information in my searches, and my knife seems in much better condition than other examples, both blade shape and tang stamp.

 

[stargawker]

I used to love the Wild Rose Antique show when I lived in Edmonton. Haven't found one on Vancouver Island that is as large and varied.

 

[waynorth]

If anybody knows more about the Alfred Blackwell brand I would appreciate anything I can find. Limited information in my searches, and my knife seems in much better condition than other examples, both blade shape and tang stamp.

Bernie Levine suggests your Blackwell knife was made ca. 1893. He doesn't give any other information. Goins' book doesn't seem to mention it.

 

[redcanoe]

That is just an incredible find at one antique show. I haven't found that much neat stuff in all of last years hunting around.

 

[Nerfin]

Very nice haul Cuts Like a Kris, that Alfred Blackwell knife is amazing!

 

[meako]

BACK VARLET!!...Oh 'tis you Sir Cutslikeakris.Forgive me. I didst not recognise ye with yon overpriced Norman Helm on.
Nice going -you have amassed an instant collection.Your Blackwell has made me wonder if theres a difference between Ox/cow horn and Buffalo horn with regard to lift and warping.
You are the Perceval to Jacks Lancelot.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Much thanks my liege!! Tis an honor to have your lordship pass his gilded helm's gaze in my direction!

I don't have any examples of buffalo horn on any Slipjoints, but I was surprised to see such little lifting, our dry winters shrink stabilized wood so I expected worse. The previous owner(s) took great care of this knife, even though it was obviously used.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

I forgot to add that these old knives can walk, talk, and bite!!

 

[festerfromnzed]

Kris...fantastic knife you got there and i love the pick head too...
Meako....whatever that is on your head??...Surrender it now!!..Even fake battlefields have standards.
Fes

 

[smiling-knife]

Great score at the antiques show. Joseph Blackwell and Son dates back to the mid 1800s. Joseph died in 1884 and his son Alfred Blackwell continued manufacturing knives in Holly street. Alfred died in 1911. I don't know if another company acquired and used the name after that time. I hope this helps.

 

[Jack Black]

Wow Kris, thanks for the great report and pics, I am salivating here! that looks like a great event to attend, and you have a beauty there in that Alfred Blackwell. I only have one knife from this cutler, pretty beat up, but a firm favourite nonetheless.

Jack

 

[arrowhd]

Nice find! Love to find a Swayback like that.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

Great haul. I love poking around antique shops down here for knives, going to have to find an antique fair now.

 

[Ryan Sumner]

I think it's safe to say I'm a little jealous... Great haul!

 

[Faiaoga]

"Think I'll go down to Alberta, the weather's good there in the fall; got some friends that I can go to working for......."
I have never been to Canada but I have worked with quite a few. Nice people, good songwriters, fine singers.