Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

[dc50]

I'll stay with the HHB theme
SFO

 

[CelloDan]

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

Happy Thanksgiving Mike and to all the Canuck Guardians

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Cookin' up a storm this Thanksgiving weekend! Finished up around 5 dozen stuffing balls with my wife. Leftover chili for lunch, then smoking a couple turkey legs for tonight.

 

[akaMatt]

Jose, Your Stag is AWESOME! By far the most unique one of the bunch, that I've seen. How could you not love that?!

I was thinking the same thing! Great looking HHB! Pt-Luso

 

[flatblackcapo]

I carry a lambsfoot...

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

Happy anniversary to you and your wife, Vince!

I haven't show it before Jack Black . 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.

What a wonderfully fine example of the Lambsfoot pattern, a fine catch!
How does the blade thickness compare with Charlies Lambsfoot?


@JaxBaron A Happy Anniversary to you and your missus, Jon.

 

[Jack Black]

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! This really made me laugh Ed

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.

Thanks Ed, a big part of it, I think, is understanding how the system of cutlery production in Sheffield worked, which is not always easy for a rational and intelligent person to comprehend!

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!

Great to see you here Mike, that chilli looks delicious Wishing you and all our Canadian Guardians (and adopted Canadians ) a very Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you have a great trip tomorrow, Jack.

Thank you John, after sitting up too late last night, I have been pretty tired today, but it was a nice enough day when I could stay awake! I'll try and post up a few pics from my trip tomorrow. I'm pretty beat at the moment, and just hope I can manage to get to the end of this post!

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!

Same here!

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:

Thanks mate, I could eat it every day, and have become good friends with the family who run the stall Thank you for those fantastic pics, I have been a fan of Aussie wine for decades, had some really great ones over the years, Penfold's Grange being the ultimate, but you can't get hold of it for love nor money here anymore These days though, I get most of mine from the supermarket, and rarely spend more than ten to fifteen quid, but Aussie wines have always been great value I think, as well as being great to drink

What a great pic!

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.

I'd be very interested to know mate, I doubt it's a coincidence that they dropped on that blade shape

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.

Those are extremely interesting Chin, and make for another great pic, the scissors sound incredible

Jack Black - Have a good, safe weekend adventure.

Thanks Harvey

Whoa- first of all -NICE Photo's everyone - I am just about to head out the door so liking everyone will have my already patient wife tapping her feet with arms crossed bless her.

Secondly - Jon and Vince- Happy anniversaries to you both- a special time to honour your Loved ones! Hope the day turned out well for you both!

Third, Interesting dating the English knives, Jack and Ed- great discussion- i love this and tend to over examine- and totally space everyone out by the time they have even got 1/4 of the way through my Theory of thoughts as to why and when.
As I said- really interesting, sometimes depending on the firm the jigged Bone pattern can tell a story, but to be honest, I find this a lot harder in English Knives as I do with American Knives.
Jack touched on this as the Stampings- not only do the wordings of course change in the Stampings but the Fonts used as well, and at times the type of Kick - as in Stove Piping can vary- but with me- Early English dating is bloody hard, but enjoyable- and I can say with such pride that every English Knife I have dated is........... probably miles out

I enjoyed viewing that Harrison Bros- and I think that even though this knife has been sharpened- it was meant to be! and it still looks Great - Really Great!

Heres my Lunch - my favourite, a good dose of Protein with my extra Mushrooms as well! and my way cool Knife!

Good points my friend, it certainly is not easy, sometimes you get a break, sometimes you're left wondering and guessing When I see knives on sale in antique shops with exact dating, it always makes me laugh, and they are more often misleading than not. Most of the time, the average antique dealer doesn't even know the pattern, let alone the right century the knife was made! I was looking at an old knife in a place the other week, and the dealer was telling me how unusual it was that the silver-bladed fruit knife I was looking at had a secondary pick, which folded out underneath the frame (lobster fashion). I had to point out that the 'pick' was actually the broken spring!

Looking good Mike Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you're having a good one Dave

Oops! Had to split my post!

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks Jack. Sorry to hear that you are having issues with them regarding your IP. I look forward to seeing more pile sides then!

Thank you Mark, they've behaved pretty appallingly I'm afraid Definitely more pile sides coming! Talking of which, that is a very nice shot of your 2019 Guardians Lambsfoot, and the ironwood complements the ebony of that fine WCLF very well

Good Morning Guardians
Off to the Apple Orchards this morning...

Looking good John, hope apple pie is on the menu my friend

Good morning Guardians!
Here my HHB is posing with the owner's guide for another made in Sheffield tool I own. This manual air pump will power my air rifle to 3,000 psi. I get 16 shots until the pressure falls to 2,000 psi. Then I pump it back up. But, I take my time doing that.

That sounds very impressive Anything over 2,000 psi constitutes a firearm here Nice pic of your Hartshead Barlow

A wonderful summarization!!!
Jack's thorough knowledge of Sheffield cutlery is well paired with his skill in conveying that information to others.
I can't add much to Jack's concise statements other than to emphasize his point that dating a Sheffield knife can often be difficult. Sheffield cutlers commonly offered "classic" patterns, often unchanged, for decades on end. While I don't have any Sheffield cutlery catalogs specific to Harrison Bros. & Howson, I do have many other catalogs for comparing various models such as the Lambsfoot. Without having the knife in question in hand, I would venture a guess that it dates to around the WWII era, mostly based around the bolster style and use of nickel silver for it. As Jack mentioned, the Lambsfoot was a "working man's" knife and those early models nearly always had steel bolsters. And the majority of bolsters seen on older Lambsfoot models from the late 1800s to early 1900s were generally "rat tail", "fluted", or "pinched" types. Flat styled bolsters were mostly a later product of cost cutting in an increasingly competitive market. A fine old knife regardless of its age.

A picture to remember summer by, bye summer...

View attachment 1212114

Thank you, you're very kind my friend Ah, summer...I miss those light evenings already Lovely photo

I'll stay with the HHB theme
SFO

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Smashing pic Dave

Cookin' up a storm this Thanksgiving weekend! Finished up around 5 dozen stuffing balls with my wife. Leftover chili for lunch, then smoking a couple turkey legs for tonight.

Sounds like you're going for it Mike, hope you and your family are having a great time

Evening Guardians - well that's what it is here anyway! I hope everyone is having a fab weekend, and hope to spend a bit more time hanging out here tomorrow

 

[Prester John]

Happy anniversary to you and your wife, Vince!

Thanks, Kevin!

Thanks mate, I could eat it every day, and have become good friends with the family who run the stall Thank you for those fantastic pics, I have been a fan of Aussie wine for decades, had some really great ones over the years, Penfold's Grange being the ultimate, but you can't get hold of it for love nor money here anymore These days though, I get most of mine from the supermarket, and rarely spend more than ten to fifteen quid, but Aussie wines have always been great value I think, as well as being great to drink

Had some Penfold's Shiraz-Cabernet last night with dinner. Very nice.

 

[Pt-Luso]

Jose, Your Stag is AWESOME! By far the most unique one of the bunch, that I've seen. How could you not love that?!

Thanks Mark, I understand your admiration, but I like the brown stag better.

 

[Pt-Luso]

I was thinking the same thing! Great looking HHB! Pt-Luso

Ok my friend, but the tastes are very different from person to person.

 

[Modoc ED]

Cookin' up a storm this Thanksgiving weekend! Finished up around 5 dozen stuffing balls with my wife. Leftover chili for lunch, then smoking a couple turkey legs for tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving Mike. Those look really good. I bet I could polish off about a dozen of them. That knife is a good choice for today.

 

[Pt-Luso]

 

[Modoc ED]

What a wonderfully fine example of the Lambsfoot pattern, a fine catch!
How does the blade thickness compare with Charlies Lambsfoot?

The tang on the Harrison is thicker but tapers at the start of the blade while Charlie's is the same from tang to tip and both are the very close in thickness for the length of both blades. I don't have a pair of calipers in the house but I measured both of them with my engineering steel rule and I'd say Charlie's blade is 1/64" narrower than the Harrison. Really not enough to make a distinction to the naked eye. As with Charlie's Lambfoot, the blade of the Harrison is stout enough to handle most tasks.

 

[cigarrodog]

Hope everyone’s Weekend is a good one.

 

[herder]

H herder - Thanks very much for your input. Well thought out and presented. Any nugget of information is always appreciated not only by myself but by others too.

Thanks, and glad to be able to add a few thoughts to that classic vintage model.

Woke up to light snow on the deck this morning, fortunately I have a few good knives to help warm my soul...
Here is one of my favorites.

View attachment 1212338

 

[Modoc ED]

Hope everyone’s Weekend is a good one.
View attachment 1212336

Very, very, nice stag on that knife Harvey.

 

[natchezz]

It would be interesting, at least to me , to see the variations in cover thickness on the HHBs. Mine is on the slimmer side.

 

[cigarrodog]

Very, very, nice stag on that knife Harvey.

Thank you kindly, Ed. Thoroughly enjoy the discussion you initiated. Discussions like this gives me a better grasp of the granular nuances of the Sheffield Cutlery History.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Hope everyone’s Weekend is a good one.
View attachment 1212336

Oh be still my beating Heart! I just love this Knife of yours my friend- it has everything!

 

[flatblackcapo]

The tang on the Harrison is thicker but tapers at the start of the blade while Charlie's is the same from tang to tip and both are the very close in thickness for the length of both blades. I don't have a pair of calipers in the house but I measured both of them with my engineering steel rule and I'd say Charlie's blade is 1/64" narrower than the Harrison. Really not enough to make a distinction to the naked eye. As with Charlie's Lambfoot, the blade of the Harrison is stout enough to handle most tasks.

Thanks for the info, Ed. Your Harrison looks like it would be a nice slicer.
Btw, I know what you mean about the keyboard thing.

It would be interesting, at least to me , to see the variations in cover thickness on the HHBs. Mine is on the slimmer side.

Here ya go, Natchezz. The HHB next to my '19 iron wood.