Found something a couple of you talked about HHH plier knife.

[tinman]

I was at the flea market today and was looking through some old tackleboxes. In the bottom of one was this bone handled plier knife thing, rusty and the bolsters on the bottom turned black. It looked cool and old so I bought the tacklebox to get it.
I did a search on here and found where jayharley & lonediver were talking about one. I couldn't find the thread with lonedivers pics to be sure.
Its 4 1/4" long, bone handles, HHH mark on one side of plier handle, other side hard to read maybe PAT&few numbers 8600. 1 3/4" auger bit, 2 1/2" blade with scoop out of top forward.
How old is this thing? I have a couple different German made fishing tools but have never seen one of these before. Are they rare? and what does HHH stand for?
Thanks for any info you can share.

 

[lonediver]

I was at the flea market today and was looking through some old tackleboxes. In the bottom of one was this bone handled plier knife thing, rusty and the bolsters on the bottom turned black. It looked cool and old so I bought the tacklebox to get it.
I did a search on here and found where jayharley & lonediver were talking about one. I couldn't find the thread with lonedivers pics to be sure.
Its 4 1/4" long, bone handles, HHH mark on one side of plier handle, other side hard to read maybe PAT&few numbers 8600. 1 3/4" auger bit, 2 1/2" blade with scoop out of top forward.
How old is this thing? I have a couple different German made fishing tools but have never seen one of these before. Are they rare? and what does HHH stand for?
Thanks for any info you can share.

Finally someone who wants to discuss something other than Leatherman and Victorinox !

What you are refering to as the HHH plier knife is more properly called the O.D. Barnett plier knife sometimes the J. G. Lewis depending on the tang stampings on the knife blade or on the underside of the plier handle . The HHH you see , speculation is that it refers to House - Hasson - Hardware of Knoxville , Tn . who was the virtual exclusive distributor of this knife . It is actually the most common of earlier multi tools , at any given time usually 2 or 3 of these can be found on Ebay in a weeks time .


The German fishing tools that you mention , I have nearly 30 variations of, so if you have a couple you have a ways to go .

 

[lonediver]

I was at the flea market today and was looking through some old tackleboxes. In the bottom of one was this bone handled plier knife thing, rusty and the bolsters on the bottom turned black. It looked cool and old so I bought the tacklebox to get it.
I did a search on here and found where jayharley & lonediver were talking about one. I couldn't find the thread with lonedivers pics to be sure.
Its 4 1/4" long, bone handles, HHH mark on one side of plier handle, other side hard to read maybe PAT&few numbers 8600. 1 3/4" auger bit, 2 1/2" blade with scoop out of top forward.
How old is this thing? I have a couple different German made fishing tools but have never seen one of these before. Are they rare? and what does HHH stand for?
Thanks for any info you can share.

P.S.

You said that you could not find any pictures , you will find a picture of a J.C. Lewis similar to your HHH plier knife and a few other older multi tools at the thread - Multi tools that predate leatherman ?

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301977

 

[tinman]

Thanks for the reply lonediver, I enjoyed the pictures. I guess I've found something else to collect, old multi-tool-knives!(don't tell my wife though)

 

[lonediver]

Thanks for the reply lonediver, I enjoyed the pictures. I guess I've found something else to collect, old multi-tool-knives!(don't tell my wife though)

You better be ready to mortgage the house for some of them . This last spring I bid $870.00 or so on one that I had never seen before and I came in fifth place . It went for over $1800.00 .

Those German fishing pliers are neat and most are still very affordable . As I mentioned earlier I have close to 30 variations of those . The HHH 's or Barnetts went through a number of subtle variations . Some have an elongated nail nick . Some of these have a jagged edge that doubled as a matchstriker . Another variation of Barnett has a lanyard loop , most of the others do not . In some the inside of the plier jaws are checkered for better gripping , the earlier ones did not .

If you look into one of Levines knife guides , he has a few pages on the subject of multi tools but he does not go into any great depth on variations and there are a great many that he does not mention .

If you wish we can continue this discussion just so long as we do not talk about Leatherman or Victorinox . There is already too much of that on this board .

 

[tinman]

This one has a long nail nick 1.25", plier jaws have one groove cut across each one, knife blade is different than one in your pic. 9/16's wide base, 2.25 sharpened edge, spear shape w/scallop cut in top edge starting about 1/4" from tip extending about 9/16" back. My thumb nail fits the profile, edge up.
How many ABC fishing pliers do you have? Were they a big producer in Solingen Germany? Nice leather sheath with a fancy goldfish on the flap. I'll have to look for my other ones sometime, and see who made them.
I'm not a fan of Leathermans, I bought one when they first came out and broke the plier jaw trying to remove a rusted nut with hand pressure. Didn't bother sending it back, just figured they weren't for me.

 

[lonediver]

This one has a long nail nick 1.25", plier jaws have one groove cut across each one, knife blade is different than one in your pic. 9/16's wide base, 2.25 sharpened edge, spear shape w/scallop cut in top edge starting about 1/4" from tip extending about 9/16" back. My thumb nail fits the profile, edge up.

Somewhere I have an older article from a knife magazine on the Barnett variations . I will see if I can find it and see what it might have about one similar to yours . Btter yet if you would like we can explore the idea of me getting a copy of the article to you . I also have some old ad copy published when these were originally produced .

How many ABC fishing pliers do you have? Were they a big producer in Solingen Germany? Nice leather sheath with a fancy goldfish on the flap. I'll have to look for my other ones sometime, and see who made them.
I'm not a fan of Leathermans, I bought one when they first came out and broke the plier jaw trying to remove a rusted nut with hand pressure. Didn't bother sending it back, just figured they weren't for me.

That I know of ABC made 3 variations . The most common one has a combination bottle opener - can piercer on the side of one of the pliers jaws , then there was one where the bottle opener was placed on the side of the fish scaler - hook remover blade. That one I have not gotten with the ABC stamping but I have in other manufacturer stampings . ABC is an abbreviation of the Abe Baeurman Company ( I believe that is how it was spelled , I could be wrong off the top of my head .) The third variation of ABC fishing plier folded up like a leatherman . ( So much for Leathermans claim of original design , this one was made when Tim was still in diapers )

The most prolific maker ( distributor ) was the Fred Overland fishing tools . I seem to think that I have in excess of 10 variations of thier tools . There are many of these tools that appear identical to others except for the stamping on them such as Hoffritz who distributed a tool virtually identical to one with a Sportsmans Pal stamp and one by Overland .

 

[lonediver]

Tinman ,

Check out ebay auction listing # 6570382446 , a W.H. Morley multi tool or plier knife . I had yet to get it for my collection and am now very happy to have gotten it for a bargain price I believe .