GEC #47 Harvester and #74 Cotton Sampler. First 2023 run.

All I could find was a very short film about how cotton changed Poteau, Oklahoma. It mentioned that bales of cotton were brought to the market place on horse drawn wagons and a small incision was cut in the bottom of the bales to sample quality.

Why any sharp knife wouldn't do the job is something of a mystery? Yet the Cotton Sampler has this very distinctive shape, perhaps it is to take a round, uniform plug out of the bale rather than stabbing into it?

There must be Americans here who have direct connexions or exp. with cotton farming and can shed light? Interesting that it's Europeans who are curious ;)

Of course, it could be the Cutlery industry seeing a promising niche to promote a must have tool back in more agricultural days? A kind of cutlers' whimsy at a time when pocket-knives of various sorts were ubiquitous. Bit like the Melon Tester whose actual use could be dubious...they do look cool though. Whether such knives were widely used for such a purpose must remain conjecture.

I do know that the 2 mini samplers I have from RR are very promising hard sausage/salami slicers!
 
Âchillepattada said:
Hello ,

I would be very interested to see a picture of even better a video showing how the cotton sampler is used. 🤓


Have a knife day ;):thumbsup:

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my theory is, that the scalpel shape of the Cotton Sampler knife can also be helpful when examining the cotton buds and flowers for boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) larvae, a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers.
en.wikipedia.org

Boll weevil - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Bulldog Brand Cotton Sampler Bug.jpgBulldog Brand Cotton Sampler Bug1.jpgcotton boll bug sampler1.jpgcotton boll bug sampler.jpg
 
I had a 47 Northfield Harvester around 2017? I believe it was from a 2016 run. Beautiful knife with orange bone handles. I’ll be keeping an eye on this run.
 
JoKr said:
my theory is, that the scalpel shape of the Cotton Sampler knife can also be helpful when examining the cotton buds and flowers for boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) larvae, a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers.
en.wikipedia.org

Boll weevil - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

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Any good sharp knife will cut a cotton boll and I’d actually prefer a more normal blade shape for that. I’ve always heard the sampler was for looking at fiber length and strength after harvest. The blade tip was for collecting a sample from a bale and the unsharpened spot was for rolling the fiber over to grade. That makes more sense to me as well
 
JoKr JoKr I'm not too sure about that weevil theory, if you find Bo Weevil on the crop it's already likely ruined . Small bi-planes were used to spray cotton fields already in the late 1920s against these pests.

I believe B BrotherJim posted a picture of a monument to Bo weevils in the town of Enterprise Alabama which was nearly destroyed by weevils wrecking the cotton crop, citizens & farmers turned to Peanut farming (think President Billy Carter...) and thus revived their fortunes.

That blade shape though....
 
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DustinK said:
Any good sharp knife will cut a cotton boll and I’d actually prefer a more normal blade shape for that. I’ve always heard the sampler was for looking at fiber length and strength after harvest. The blade tip was for collecting a sample from a bale and the unsharpened spot was for rolling the fiber over to grade. That makes more sense to me as well
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This comment is closer to the actual use of a cotton sampler!! The knife is inserted in the bale; the "step" pulls out some fibers, and the unsharpened flat is used to inspect the fibers!!
 
I'm extremely excited about this run! My 47 viper is my favorite and most-used GEC (username checks out). It would be nice to add another 47 to my collection as well as a 74 which I do not own. I will be sad if I miss out on these.

My only 47:

78vYbfv.jpg
 
Will Power said:
All I could find was a very short film about how cotton changed Poteau, Oklahoma. It mentioned that bales of cotton were brought to the market place on horse drawn wagons and a small incision was cut in the bottom of the bales to sample quality.

Why any sharp knife wouldn't do the job is something of a mystery? Yet the Cotton Sampler has this very distinctive shape, perhaps it is to take a round, uniform plug out of the bale rather than stabbing into it?

There must be Americans here who have direct connexions or exp. with cotton farming and can shed light? Interesting that it's Europeans who are curious ;)

Of course, it could be the Cutlery industry seeing a promising niche to promote a must have tool back in more agricultural days? A kind of cutlers' whimsy at a time when pocket-knives of various sorts were ubiquitous. Bit like the Melon Tester whose actual use could be dubious...they do look cool though. Whether such knives were widely used for such a purpose must remain conjecture.

I do know that the 2 mini samplers I have from RR are very promising hard sausage/salami slicers!
Click to expand...
Hi Will, my dad was a cotton farmer in northern Mexico, back in the 80’s it was white gold, I had never seen this Cotton sampler blade shape until 4-5 years ago, (back then everybody carried knives), I wouldnt know how its used.
 
It doesn’t have a modern application in cotton farming and hasn’t for quite awhile. We now have equipment that will accurately grade cotton fiber for loan value so if the cotton sampler knife truly was used for that, it’s no longer relevant. It doesn’t make it any less cool though from a historical and knife guy perspective though.
 
It's why they're 'bespoke knives' spoken for before they're even made :Do_O

On another theme, thanks to all those who contributed with knowledge about the use of cotton sampling. The blade's a curiosity and an interesting anachronism. Admirable that GEC decide to make such an odd knife , it's part of their original DNA :cool::thumbsup:
 
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