Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

[Modoc ED]

Seriously!!! How do you guys and gals keep your keyboards so clean???

True, I've been using this keyboard since 2005 but still ...........................

 

[Jack Black]

Didn't he post that he was busy with things outside the forum and didn't have the time to devote time to Blade Forums?

Did he Ed, I can't remember? I hope he's ok

Seriously!!! How do you guys and gals keep your keyboards so clean???

True, I've been using this keyboard since 2005 but still ...........................

LOL! I'm not showing a pic of mine!

 

[waynorth]

I carry a lambsfoot...

...because it's my wedding anniversary!
How 'bout you?

Happy Anniversary Vince and Mrs. Vince!!!
Nice present for any (or many) occasions!!

 

[Prester John]

Happy Anniversary Vince and Mrs. Vince!!!
Nice present for any (or many) occasions!!

Thanks, Charlie!

 

[waynorth]

It is a Harrison Bros & Howson made in Sheffield.

Mark side tang stamp

Pile side tang stamp

I think the pile side stamp with "Made in Sheffield England" dates the knife to post 1890 construction to comply with the export/import requirement to mark the country of origin on items entering the United States after 1890. The knife is well made and has a fourth pin located at the well side of the cover most likely because of the length of the knife - 4 1/4". The bolster appears to be nickle silver.

I just wish that over time whoever had the knife wasn't more careful with their sharpening of the knife as a slight recurve has been sharpened into the blade but it's not a problem.

The stag on this knife is very nice but has been highly polished by an owner sometime in the past.

Modoc ED Great old knife, Ed!!!!

 

[cigarrodog]

Fine looking Barlow! Happy anniversary Vince. Today is my wedding anniversary too! I will be carrying my barlow for our dinner tonight.

Happy Anniversary to you both.

 

[waynorth]

Fine looking Barlow! Happy anniversary Vince. Today is my wedding anniversary too! I will be carrying my barlow for our dinner tonight.

Happy Anniversary to you and your Missus, Jon!!!

 

[JaxBaron]

Happy Anniversary to you both.

Thank you.

 

[JaxBaron]

Happy Anniversary to you and your Missus, Jon!!!

Thank you Charlie!!

 

[JaxBaron]

Thanks, Ed. I will be carrying it to dinner. Going to the Republic of Texas, top floor of the Omni Hotel overlooking Corpus Christi Bay.


Thanks, Jon. And congratulations to you and your wife!

Thank you Vince.

 

[JaxBaron]

Still can’t get over the awesome grain on this beautiful lambfoot.

 

[Modoc ED]

Jack Black - At the risk of making a complete fool of myself as to how I dated the Harrison Bros & Howson knife, here goes. The blade is carbon, the liners are steel, and the pins/nails are steel. The pins are not spun but instead are cut and peened. When viewed from inside the well of the frame, the cover pins are not flush with the liner as on newer traditionals but are slightly - just a tic - domed. I can't decide right off if the bolsters are nickle silver or steel but am leaning toward nickle silver. Lastly, for now, the stag covers are old stag. I don't know how to say it better but the stag just looks and feels old as if from the early 20th century. All of those things along with dates of the establishment and various locations of the company, etc. Have led me to the 1898 - 1905 manufacturing date of the knife. There's more to my thinking but I need to do some more thinking before spouting off anymore.

 

[Pt-Luso]

Fine looking Barlow! Happy anniversary Vince. Today is my wedding anniversary too! I will be carrying my barlow for our dinner tonight.

Happy anniversary too Jon, be very happy.

 

[Modoc ED]

Happy anniversary JaxBaron !!!! Just a tip from my vast years of marriage experience - Don't make her pay for dinner. Don't ask me how I know but it'll kill the mood.

 

[Jack Black]

Jack Black - At the risk of making a complete fool of myself as to how I dated the Harrison Bros & Howson knife, here goes. The blade is carbon, the liners are steel, and the pins/nails are steel. The pins are not spun but instead are cut and peened. When viewed from inside the well of the frame, the cover pins are not flush with the liner as on newer traditionals but are slightly - just a tic - domed. I can't decide right off if the bolsters are nickle silver or steel but am leaning toward nickle silver. Lastly, for now, the stag covers are old stag. I don't know how to say it better but the stag just looks and feels old as if from the early 20th century. All of those things along with dates of the establishment and various locations of the company, etc. Have led me to the 1898 - 1905 manufacturing date of the knife. There's more to my thinking but I need to do some more thinking before spouting off anymore.

Thank you very much for this Ed, this is a fascinating subject for me, so I greatly appreciate your reply. There are no fools here, we're all learning, and hopefully others can learn from your investigation. You are best placed to date your knife because you have it in hand Ed, but I think it's worth appreciating that there are certain differences between the way a Sheffield knife is manufactured and an American one, as these things can easily throw one off. For reasons which I have gone into before (but which I'm happy to go into again), I think they're also considerably harder to date, and it's very rare that you can date a Sheffield knife to within a couple of decades, let alone a few years. Your knife isn't held together with 'pins' strictly speaking, though a Sheffield cutler would call them that, but by lengths of wire. Holes are drilled in the liners and covers, and the wire is fed in in short lengths. The wire is peened on the inside (which is why they are slightly domed), and when the knife is assembled, the lengths of wire are snipped off, and in the case of an irregular surface, such as stag, are peened flat, and in the case of regular surfaces, such as wood, they are ground smooth. That is how Sheffield knives were made a hundred years ago, and they are still made the same way today. If you look carefully inside one of your modern Lambsfoot knives, you will be able to see the peened ends of the 'pins', just like on your old Harrison Brothers & Howson knife. So that form of construction doesn't help us with dating a Sheffield knife unfortunately. Steel liners were still being used in the 1980's, and even today, so in itself, that doesn't help either, though I think it's an indication of an older knife. Lambsfoot knives have always been working knives, so nickel silver bolsters would tend to indicate a later knife, but it would be useful to have sight of a Harrison Brothers & Howson catalogue, to see if, unusually, they made an earlier ones. The style of the bolster is not typical of an early 20th century Sheffield Lambsfoot, but that does not mean it is not from that period. In terms of stag, intuition is not a bad thing to go on, along with your experience of course, but stag is often decades old when it is used, and 50 year old stag is old stag. In terms of the blade, can that tell us anything? If it is hand-forged, hand-forging was still going on in Sheffield well after WW2. The kick is much the same as we might see on a Sheffield knife today. Might I suggest looking at the stamp, these can also be very misleading (again for reasons I've posted about before, but am happy to explore again), but you can probably find examples of other Harrison Brothers & Howson stamps online (well I know you can!), not just the stamps, but their style, and the fonts used. However, beware of dates given by sellers in relation to those stamps. Finding catalogue images would be a great help. This is an example of an early 20th century Harrison Brothers & Howson tang stamp (I know it's from that period because it's on a military knife, the pattern of which I can date):

My apologies for the very poor quality image (I'll try and get a better one tomorrow, and find some more examples - I actually got out of bed to make this post, found the knife, and snapped the pic in poor light in my kitchen!). It might be worth noting the kick on that knife too.

Here's a Victorian one:

You'll find others online, and you may find knives with the same stamp as on your Lambsfoot knife (though bear in mind that the same stamp could be used for decades). The fonts used on older stamps tends to be different to those on newer stamps (and note the small 'S' in 'Bros' for example).

We know that the Lambsfoot doesn't date back before the late 19th century, but became popular quickly. Someone like @herder, with his superb collection of Sheffield catalogues, may have an idea when Harrison Brothers & Howson put the first Lambsfoot in their catalogue, or at least be able to narrow it down. Lots to think about (I'm off back to bed!)

 

[Modoc ED]

Thank you very much for this Ed, this is a fascinating subject for me, so I greatly appreciate your reply. There are no fools here, we're all learning, and hopefully others can learn from your investigation. You are best placed to date your knife because you have it in hand Ed, but I think it's worth appreciating that there are certain differences between the way a Sheffield knife is manufactured and an American one, as these things can easily throw one off. For reasons which I have gone into before (but which I'm happy to go into again), I think they're also considerably harder to date, and it's very rare that you can date a Sheffield knife to within a couple of decades, let alone a few years. Your knife isn't held together with 'pins' strictly speaking, though a Sheffield cutler would call them that, but by lengths of wire. Holes are drilled in the liners and covers, and the wire is fed in in short lengths. The wire is peened on the inside (which is why they are slightly domed), and when the knife is assembled, the lengths of wire are snipped off, and in the case of an irregular surface, such as stag, are peened flat, and in the case of regular surfaces, such as wood, they are ground smooth. That is how Sheffield knives were made a hundred years ago, and they are still made the same way today. If you look carefully inside one of your modern Lambsfoot knives, you will be able to see the peened ends of the 'pins', just like on your old Harrison Brothers & Howson knife. So that form of construction doesn't help us with dating a Sheffield knife unfortunately. Steel liners were still being used in the 1980's, and even today, so in itself, that doesn't help either, though I think it's an indication of an older knife. Lambsfoot knives have always been working knives, so nickel silver bolsters would tend to indicate a later knife, but it would be useful to have sight of a Harrison Brothers & Howson catalogue, to see if, unusually, they made an earlier ones. The style of the bolster is not typical of an early 20th century Sheffield Lambsfoot, but that does not mean it is not from that period. In terms of stag, intuition is not a bad thing to go on, along with your experience of course, but stag is often decades old when it is used, and 50 year old stag is old stag. In terms of the blade, can that tell us anything? If it is hand-forged, hand-forging was still going on in Sheffield well after WW2. The kick is much the same as we might see on a Sheffield knife today. Might I suggest looking at the stamp, these can also be very misleading (again for reasons I've posted about before, but am happy to explore again), but you can probably find examples of other Harrison Brothers & Howson stamps online (well I know you can!), not just the stamps, but their style, and the fonts used. However, beware of dates given by sellers in relation to those stamps. Finding catalogue images would be a great help. This is an example of an early 20th century Harrison Brothers & Howson tang stamp (I know it's from that period because it's on a military knife, the pattern of which I can date):

My apologies for the very poor quality image (I'll try and get a better one tomorrow, and find some more examples - I actually got out of bed to make this post, found the knife, and snapped the pic in poor light in my kitchen!). It might be worth noting the kick on that knife too.

Here's a Victorian one:

You'll find others online, and you may find knives with the same stamp as on your Lambsfoot knife (though bear in mind that the same stamp could be used for decades). The fonts used on older stamps tends to be different to those on newer stamps (and note the small 'S' in 'Bros' for example).

We know that the Lambsfoot doesn't date back before the late 19th century, but became popular quickly. Someone like @herder, with his superb collection of Sheffield catalogues, may have an idea when Harrison Brothers & Howson put the first Lambsfoot in their catalogue, or at least be able to narrow it down. Lots to think about (I'm off back to bed!)

Thanks for your reply Jack Black . It is thoughtful and gives a lot of information to think on and I appreciate all the information you've given. Remember, I did say in an earlier post that nothing I've presented is written in stone. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of reference material about
Sheffield knives but do try to do some research, especially since I've gotten involved with Lambfoot knives.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Happy Friday, Guardians. Haven't been very active the last couple weeks, but have been trying to keep up. Was about a week behind today, but caught back up again. I've been doing a challenge at my local yoga studio for 30 classes in 30 days, and the times are all over the place.

Have a pot of chili simmering on the stove - should be ready in another hour or so, and man, does my house smell amazing right now

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and that my fellow Canucks have a great Thanksgiving!

 

[JohnDF]

Today is my wedding anniversary too!

Happy Anniversary, Jon.

It's been very wet here recently, the rivers are high, and the ground is sodden. Decided to skip going for a hike tomorrow, and visit the town of Pontefract, and Pontefract Castle, which I've not been to for over 6 years. Think I'm going to take Charlie Lamb with me Hope everyone has a great weekend

Hope you have a great trip tomorrow, Jack.

Seriously!!! How do you guys and gals keep your keyboards so clean???

True, I've been using this keyboard since 2005 but still ...........................

I aint gonna show you mine either.

 

[Cambertree]

Thank you Chin !
I've been walking more in the last few weeks motivated by finding pics to share for the series and actually feeling stronger and with more endurance. Most days we go with my wife and kids for 6 km ( and once a while we may do 8 to 10 km).
The sun is setting earlier and earlier this days and old winter is around the corner, we'll try to keep active as much as possible and beat our Canadian winter.
Carrying my lambsfoot on my walks is now habit. I may carry/rotate other knives during the day but if i go walking it does not feel right unless is my lamb

Thanks Dan, that’s great you’re able to get out for some good walks with your family while the weather’s good. I likewise often find myself looking for good Lambsfoot backdrops and photo opportunities whenever I’m out walking, and don’t consider myself ‘properly dressed’ unless I have a Lambsfoot knife in pocket when I leave the house!

Thanks pal, an excellent post, as always Nice to see you're still eating well my friend I had a large bowl of Pho in Leeds market just yesterday, as I do at least once a week, and had a Thai Pad-Ma-Muang Him-Ma-Pam in the evening The accompanying Aussie Chardonnay went down well too

Thanks mate, yes I’ve enjoyed seeing your Pho pics in the Leeds market - it’s addictive stuff, hey? Nice to see you’re enjoying some Aussie grapes too.

I think I might have posted these before, but oh well, they turned out OK. You can see the yellow vineyards again, off in the distance to the left of this pic:

Cambertree - Thank you Chin for the kind words. Very tasty images of those spicy dishes. My mouth literally watered as I gazed.

Cheers Harvey. I must admit, I often get a strange craving for caramel bars after viewing your photos of well worn Lambsfoot handles! And I don’t even really like caramel!

Another Lambsfoot with food pic for you, my friend :

I don't think they call it that, but it looks like Leatherman are now using a Lambsfoot blade on some of their new models

That’s an interesting evolution of the modern Lambsfoot blade, Jack. I wonder what the provenance for that choice of blade shape was? I imagine Tim Leatherman is probably a collector of old knives and tools, but I don’t really know.

It’ll certainly get a worldwide distribution, so it’s good to see the Lambsfoot being adapted and preserved in that way.

Speaking of tools, this pic is one I had left over from the series John JohnDF inspired of ‘Show Your Lambsfoot with Some Old Tools’.

These tools shown with my wonderful SFO Hartshead Barlow, are only a few years old, as I bought them new, but they’re certainly very well used, and are some of my favourites:

Some German medical tweezers. These are so well made that the tiny grooves at the pinch point actually intermesh perfectly with the opposite side. All surfaces are contoured and edges smoothly chamfered.

A pair of Shozaburo scissors made by an old former sword smithing family in Tokyo. These are made out of SLD steel, the Japanese equivalent of D2, and are a wonder to use.

And a pair of springloaded Suwada Japanese nail clippers, forged out of SK5 high carbon steel, and made to be resharpenable for lifetime use.

And of course, the Hartshead SFO needs no introduction here, and is another lovely Old World crafted, heirloom quality tool.

 

[JaxBaron]

Happy anniversary JaxBaron !!!! Just a tip from my vast years of marriage experience - Don't make her pay for dinner. Don't ask me how I know but it'll kill the mood.

Lol thank you Ed. I made sure I paid the bill lol