Grandpa's knife

Unfortunatley, My Grandmother on my Dad's side got rid of most of my Grandfathers tools before anyone had a chance to save them. On my Mother's side, no contact after Grandparents divorce led to nothing past down, (not sure if He had any tools or knives anyway). My Dad doesn't really have much in the way of interesting knives or tools to pass down to me or my kids. I intend my knives to get passed down to my boys and their kids, (when they have some, they're just tikes themselves right now). Hopefully they are appreciated by someone other than myself some day.
 
Thanks for sharing your heirloom knives, folks! :thumbup::thumbup: I really enjoy seeing the photos and hearing the stories. I don't have any knives from my own ancestors, but I have a couple of knives that once belonged to my father-in-law: an Imperial serpentine jack and a Belknap Blue Grass Barlow.

gQ9h7UAl.jpg


mgXcUihl.jpg


- GT
 

This was my grandad's. He carried it until he died and then my dad carried another 10 years or so after that until he retired it. It takes pocket worn to a whole nother level.

Jeremy
 
I was given the Uncle Henry a couple weeks ago by my mother in law. It belonged to her dad and I got close to him over the 5 years I had in his company. I actually have had it in my pocket since Thursday. We are currenty at the hospital . We just had our 2nd lil girl. I have the oppotunity to use it to cut a silly bow of my daughter's first teddy bear and open a couple baby warming gifts. It is an honor to have and use. Im thankful I have it.

Pictured with my 73.

 
Nice thread! Thanks to all! This is my paternal grandfather's last known knife; he was a professional hunter and trapper, among other things. Born just before Custer took his last medicine in 1876.

aavgqx.jpg
 
My grandfather was an immigrant from Italy. He worked in the coal mines of Carbon County Pennsylvania before opening his own shoe repair shop and running that for the rest of his life. He was a great man and had the most influence on me growing up. He shaped my integrity, my work ethic, my love of food and most importantly, my first fascination of knives. I coveted the shiny black bone, multi-bladed pocket knife that he would pull out when he needed to cut something. It was always on him, always in his pocket.
He knew I loved it so much that one day when he got very old, he gave it to me.

Unfortunately, I lost that pocket knife and it is sincerely one of the greatest regrets of my life. I just didn't have a respect for things at 9 years old that I should have had.
I could never replace that knife, but when I met my girlfriends family and got to know and love them, her father (who is also a great great man) handed me his old knife that was very similar to the one my grandfather had given me.
This one doesn't get carried and I would protect it with my life.. To me, it's an homage to the great men that came before us... even though it's just a cheap knife that was picked up in a general store.



 
Such cherished items have nothing to do with monetary value, they mean so much more than that don't they. I suppose they are a link to the people we have admired and wish to be more like. A pocket knife is a particularly personal thing and an honour to receive from someone respected.
 
That knife is one of two on the nightstand the other is my Old Man's Buffalo Skinner...

I'm always happy to pay it Jack.
 
I just got a few of my Granddaddy's knives during a visit with my dad.

I don't have any memories of him using them (he died when I was 6) but they are still cherished.

Case Texas Jack
aac40a7ecccbb80db1075b3bb99cadaa.jpg


Theater Knife from his time in the Navy
e2df80a7154f9d5dbddf9516982b5159.jpg
 
My Grandfather's Marble's Woodcraft. It is a "pat pend" model which dates it back to 1915. He was born in 1892 and was a sharecropper for a good part of his life. he obviously placed a value on his knife.

image.jpg1_zpsfokjmq3o.jpg
 
My grandpa always had an Uncle Henry either a jack knife or a stockman. I really like the 855UH because it honestly reminds me of him. He was a great role model.
20150728_095751.jpg
[/URL]
20150826_102926.jpg
[/URL]
 
Jack Black said:
Always a pleasure to see these special heirloom knives :thumbup:



Hey Frank, I have one just like that, mine says T H Pradel on the main blade to the right of the nail nick, and I have always assumed it was French. Does your dad's have a tang stamp?
Click to expand...

I share your thoughts, Inox is French for stainless, German would use Rostrfrei.
 
knarfeng said:
No tang stamp aside from "INOX".
It may be Swiss, not German. The handle has "Interlaken" imprinted on it. My father traveled for some months through Europe in the late 1930's. I had always assumed he acquired it during that time period, but I never asked him. I just remember that this was the knife he carried every day when I was growing up in the 50's and 60's.
Click to expand...

Your knife is probably Swiss, a clue being the old patent pigtail corkscrew, which lasted until the 90's. But I'm unsure it is pre-WWII.
The can opener seems of a quite recent kind, different of those on period Swiss knives more like those on French knives.
INOX stands for inoxydable (stainless) used in France, Swiss, Spain and sometimes Italy. Stainless was used on SAKs from 1951.
The "Swiss" cross means not a lot, as makers in Thiers and others made such "swiss type" knives including cross (the Savoy cross is exactly the same, btw), generally more squared at the ends (but not always).

The fact most people call these knives SAK is a problem as they are NOT the soldier's knife replica, but the Swiss Officer's (Officier Suisse - some blade show it) replica.
An excellent site for Swiss soldier knife recognition : http://www.couteaux-du-soldat-suisse.ch/J01/index.php/fr/les-couteaux-du-soldat I guess you can contact them.
You can see it is quite different of the officer's. : http://www.victorinox.com/ch/content/development_SAK?lang=fr&
There were lots of swiss knives makers but most disappeared and there 's not much info except on Wenger and Victoria. This little tool is more distined to recent knives, but amusing to look at!
http://sakselector.info/cgi-bin/sak_selector.cgi
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top