Define "Shirtboard" pattern

[Mort Canard]

From seeing people use the term "shirtboard" I have a general idea of the meaning. I also remember as a kid seeing the specialty ironing boards from which I believe the term is derived, but I have never seen a formal definition of the term as it refers to folding knives. So what is the standard shirtboard pattern? Can there be a serpentine shirtboard pattern?

Mort

 

[Jack Black]

Do you mean 'Sleeveboard'?

 

[Morrow]

Do you mean "sleeveboard"?

EDIT: Jack Black beat me by 30 seconds.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Someone might correct me if I'm wrong, but I think 'sleeveboard' is the pattern I'm familiar with. Basically a wide(ish) round-bolstered pattern, often with opposing blades sharing a common spring (I think often a broad spear and a pen blade), and one bolster is of wider radius than the other. As I understand it, the handle pattern emulates small ironing boards around which a sleeve of a shirt would be placed for ironing.


David

 

[ken erickson]

http://www.englishcut.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo.jpg

I think "sleeveboard" is one of the knife pattern names that pretty much defines what the frame should look like.
Many different knives can be built around sleeveboard frames from large Sheffield styled sportsman's knives to diminutive pen knives.

At the risk of being redundant (I just posted pictures of this knife in a few places on BF) here is a lockback whittler based on a sleeveboard pattern.

 

[cairndude]

More on sleeveboards and other patterns in this thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/563972-Knife-Patterns

 

[Mort Canard]

Alright, YES, I mean sleeveboard! Sorry, must have been a senior moment!
As Obsessed with Edges said, most of the knives I have seen that are called this pattern remind me of the old smaller ironing boards that were used for ironing sleeves. The knives have a rounded big end and a tapered width. I don't know if the smaller end needs also to be rounded or if the more squared small end of a barlow would also qualify as a sleeveboard.

cairndude,
Thanks for the link! I had not found that list of patterns.

 

[Mort Canard]

Ken,
Very handsome knife!

 

[sceva]

I like the Sleeveboard pattern too.

This is the only one I currently have though.

An AG Russell Catteraugus marked Sleeveboard whittler.

 

[Jack Black]

Do you mean "sleeveboard"?

EDIT: Jack Black beat me by 30 seconds.

:thumbup:

 

[esnyx]

Oh wow, I completely misread the title to be something somewhat inappropriate... My dyslexia is having fun with me today...:foot:

 

[Jack Black]

I have a lot of Sleeveboard Penknives, a very common Sheffield pattern. Here's one of my favourites, by John Petty & Sons.



Both ends need to be rounded for a Sleeveboard :thumbup:

Beautiful knives guys :thumbup:

 

[5K Qs]

More on sleeveboards and other patterns in this thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/563972-Knife-Patterns

Does anyone know if there's more to this "series"? It looks to me as if waynorth (and possibly others) planned to put together an encyclopedia of knife patterns. The thread cairndude mentions contains very helpful and informative descriptions and photos of a number of types of jack knife patterns that leave me hungry for a similar treatment of other patterns, but I haven't been able to locate any more "installments" of the series.

- GT

 

[Jack Black]

That's the start of a great thread there :thumbup:

 

[black mamba]

Are knives only called sleeveboards if they are penknives? If the same frame was used on a jack it would be a swell end or a regular jack, wouldn't it?

GEC's #25 Jack is just that, a swell end jack, but the exact same frame as a penknife, the #26, is called a sleeveboard. What say you?

My only sleeveboard, a Boker USA pen.

 

[pistonsandgears]

I always assumed they were called sleeveboard because they are shaped somewhat like an ironing board, narrower on one end than the other.

 

[Jack Black]

Are knives only called sleeveboards if they are penknives?

No, there are Sleeveboard Jacks too :thumbup:

 

[jc57]

Seems that sleeveboard knives have the main blade pivoted at the wide end. If you pivot the main blade at the narrow end, it is usually called something else. I am getting this just from observation, not from any specific knowledge about the pattern so I may be wrong.

But I know one when I see one.

 

[Mort Canard]

I always assumed they were called sleeveboard because they are shaped somewhat like an ironing board, narrower on one end than the other.

There was a smaller version of the standard ironing board that was called a sleeve board. It was clamped to the standard ironing board and functioned for ironing the sleeves of dress shirts and blouses. If you google sleeveboard you can see images of these ironing board accessories and you can see where the term came from.

 

[pertinux]

From an earlier thread (easier to copy and paste than try to recapture the multi-quotes from their original threads):

I'm not positive about this, but I think it's only called a sleeveboard if in pen form, blades at both ends. If in jack form, then it's called a regular jack or a swell end jack. This GEC #78 American Jack is the same frame as the #79 Workhorse, only in jack form.

Interesting! I hadn't heard that as a distinction (sleeveboard vs. swell end jack), only as one description trumping another. From an earlier pattern ramble (sadly, Blues's image link is now broken):

Perhaps?

Going off of that thought, however: does a sleeveboard pattern typically have its main blade at the larger end, thus distinguishing it from a swell-end jack (as one example) that would have its blade(s) at the smaller end?

~ P.

On a sleeveboard jack, (both blades on same end), most had the blades from the smaller end but either method of construction was common enough.

On a sleeveboard pen, (blades on each end), normally the master blade was on the wider end.

Sooo... is it possible for a sleeveboard jack and a swell-end jack to be two different names for the same thing (not universally, but in specific instances)?

~ P.

The careful observer will notice a difference in the elongation and swell between the patterns. It is sometimes subtle but where the sleeveboard is generally straight sided with a rounded end, the swell end...well, swells. Look at some images of (especially) older patterns and you'll see the difference pretty clearly.

Hang on a moment and I'll post an image just by way of one example...

Subtle, but nonetheless not a sleeveboard:

In person the gentle swell is a bit more apparent and it has a bit of a "waist". The sleeveboard would be more rigidly straight sided until the curved end (like the ironing board) in most cases.

Companies did and do take liberties with the nomenclature.

Thanks, Elliot-- pictures really do help. I would not have called the above knife a sleeveboard, but have seen some (what I now know to be) sleeveboards called swell-end jacks.

Most illuminating for me so far is that neither single spring nor pen configuration has anything to do with defining a sleeveboard. The Venn intersection of sleeveboard knives I've seen that also contained those two features had led me to wrongly conclude otherwise.

~ P.

Sleeveboards also have the master blade coming out of the wide end of the knife.

Take from that what you will. I do enjoy these pattern explorations-- better yet with knives in-hand, although that is a rare treat. I'm grateful for everyone's specific examples, as pictured, in the meantime. :thumbup:

Speaking of which...

This may count. My GEC 26 in Primitive Bone, a small sturdy knife with monster snap

I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying seeing your pictures of the knives you've mentioned throughout.

The sleeveboard has revealed itself to be one of my favorite patterns, if the jack form is acceptable as "sleeveboard."

To whit:

GEC 25s - Gots em?

and

Photos and Impressions: GEC #79 Workhorse Whittler (3-spring)

Finally, don't miss Lambertiana's photographic look here:

The Old and the New - Sleeveboard

Such goodness shared, here in our midst.

~ P.