Case / Bose Cotton Sampler blade

[glocktenman]

I noticed one of these in another area and thought the blade was very odd looking. Is it designed for something specific? Cutting cotton?

 

[Ozy]

Sampling cotton...

 

[Gmountain]

Cutting a cotton sample out of a bale of cotton.

 

[Berkley]

Cotton samplers were used by cotton buyers for cutting samples out of bales. Maher & Grosh of Ohio advertised them a century ago as folding skinning knives. I imagine they worked just fine in that capacity.

-Levine's Guide 4

 

[Suerte]

I've seen several fixed blade knives that were actually used for cutting cotton samples back when that was the method of sampling cotton at the gin. They all look like this knife http://www.knivesplus.com/QN-755-Old-Hickory.HTML

 

[Jenner 515]

Not so different. here is another cotton sampler folder from S&M

and the Case/Bose

and the above Old Hickory.

 

[JB in SC]

In modern gin operations, cotton samples are taken at the bale press with automated cutters.

I doubt there are a lot of folks that recall using a knife. The method used for years was taking a sample from each round side (the sides with the burlap) of a bale with the knife. You had to cut the burlap and stick the knife in to get a good sample. It's just a guess, but I think the "safe edge" was to protect the fingers when pulling the sample from the bale. You take the tag from the bale and put it between the two samples.

There was a cotton gin a couple of blocks from my parents house.

 

[reader1]

I like straight blades, and there were many informative comments. My thanks to all for waking me up.

Aaron, thank you for the huge picture dump. Many great examples and a nice mix of weird.

I have no idea how the many varied Ring knives are to be used.

Many of the straight S&M blades are similar to old rope knives or large, heavy Sheepsfoot blades.

More comments and information welcome.

The hawks were nice with the Mellon samplers.

Many great antiques if you follow the links.

Mike H.