Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

[JohnDF]

we had good friends over, and played games about half time.

Sounds like fun. I was by myself, so I suffered through the boredom of it all.

Where's the eggs?

I had to have sausages to keep the pig farmers in business.
Since Jack is on the wagon, I'm sure they have felt the market shrink

 

[mitch4ging]

Sounds like fun. I was by myself, so I suffered through the boredom of it all.

I had to have sausages to keep the pig farmers in business.
Since Jack is on the wagon, I'm sure they have felt the market shrink

...

 

[dc50]

Spoke too soon, new lass in the clinic, first time I've had a bruise from giving a blood sample for years

Oh boy, those nurses are a tough bunch.

 

[Jack Black]

Almost all of the first 50 2019 Guardians Lambsfoot knives are now on their way, just a couple to go in the mail tomorrow. Hope they reach their respective Guardians soon, and I look forward to seeing lots more of them

 

[Jack Black]

I've been after a pocket slip for The White Rose, but they're not so easy to find over here, and Rose is a tall lady I have a couple of belt pouches made by Max Capadebarthes, and they're very nice quality, so I ordered a Max C pocket slip off the big river site the other week, and have been awaiting its arrival towards the middle of this month. I've been flat-out busy this past week, and a few days back, I didn't even have time to open my mail, which included what I thought was a replacement Zebra pen, for one I'd mislaid under the piles of packaging materials. By the time, the package came, I'd found the pen, so was in no hurry to open it. I finally did so tonight, and was surprised to find that the cardboard envelope didn't contain a pen, but my new pocket slip. I have to say, it's a little more complicated than I'd have chosen, not quite of the quality of my other Max Capadebarthes products, and was overpriced, but it'll do until I can get something better made

 

[cigarrodog]

It’s hard to outshine the White Rose. Still ...the Max Capadebarthes looks very nice next to the Star of the show.

 

[Jack Black]

It’s hard to outshine the White Rose. Still ...the Max Capadebarthes looks very nice next to the Star of the show.

Thank you very much

 

[mitch4ging]

I've been after a pocket slip for The White Rose, but they're not so easy to find over here, and Rose is a tall lady I have a couple of belt pouches made by Max Capadebarthes, and they're very nice quality, so I ordered a Max C pocket slip off the big river site the other week, and have been awaiting its arrival towards the middle of this month. I've been flat-out busy this past week, and a few days back, I didn't even have time to open my mail, which included what I thought was a replacement Zebra pen, for one I'd mislaid under the piles of packaging materials. By the time, the package came, I'd found the pen, so was in no hurry to open it. I finally did so tonight, and was surprised to find that the cardboard envelope didn't contain a pen, but my new pocket slip. I have to say, it's a little more complicated than I'd have chosen, not quite of the quality of my other Max Capadebarthes products, and was overpriced, but it'll do until I can get something better made

It’s hard to outshine the White Rose. Still ...the Max Capadebarthes looks very nice next to the Star of the show.

Yes, she deserves some pampering with just a touch of elegance!

 

[JohnDF]

Almost all of the first 50 2019 Guardians Lambsfoot knives are now on their way, just a couple to go in the mail tomorrow. Hope they reach their respective Guardians soon, and I look forward to seeing lots more of them

Thanks for all your hard work, Jack.

 

[Pàdruig]

Good evening, Guardians.

About a week or so ago, I decided to do some casual knife hunting. It can often be fun seeing where various rabbit holes will take you but to make a long story short, I came across an old Lambsfoot that caught my eye. Now, it can be relatively easy to find old Lambsfoot knives but they generally are in rather poor shape, having blades ground to toothpicks or covers that are either broken or completely missing.

This particular knife had lovely horn covers and a blade that appeared to be relatively full. Sporting what remained of the "Real Lambfoot" etch (later revealed to be a stamp) and rat tail bolsters, I had to pull the trigger. Fast forward a little less than a week, the knife arrived in my mailbox after a brief trip over the pond.

One of the most eye-catching things about this knife is the nicely matched horn covers. Obviously an older knife, the covers are in surprisingly good condition, there are some gaps here and there but overall, I am very pleased. The knife itself appears to be uncannily similar to A. Wright's smaller Lambsfoot knives. Though it is close to an 1/8" longer than my AC and Oxhorn, the shape and curvature are almost identical. However, there is no identifying tang stamp, not even anything that states whether it came from Sheffield or even England, for that matter.

This knife appears to have been rather aggressively cleaned at some point and I can see the evidence on the blade as well as the frame itself. The blade is ground very thin (this will be one heck of a slicer) and the Real Lambfoot stamp is still partially visible. I suspect that whoever cleaned the knife up took away a fair amount of metal up by the nail nick and blade stamp.

What mostly sets this apart from my other Wrights knives are the rat tail bolsters, steel liners (instead of the typical brass), and either steel pins or nickel silver. I suspect the former due to the nickel silver of the bolsters being a different color altogether.

Sporting the typical rugged construction that I have come to expect and very much appreciate in Sheffield cutlery, this knife has a bear trap pull and it snaps like a hell spawned gator. No play whatsoever in this knife and the blade is very nicely centered and quite straight.

Overall, I am very pleased with this acquisition and even though I do not know much about its provenance, it will have a most welcome place in my collection.

 

[Frailer]

...Hope they reach their respective Guardians soon, and I look forward to seeing lots more of them

From your mouth to God’s ear (and those of the Royal Mail and the US Postal Service). ;-)

Sincere thanks for your efforts, Jack.

 

[Jody744]

I'm at page 303 and nothing about a South African maker for now. But I'll keep in mind to look for it
(now back to reading, I'll catch up with you all later! Well, not no late otherwise there will be too many pages on either end of the thread )

Someone was going to have a custom made by Timothy LaCombre of S Africa, I can’t recall whom

 

[Cambertree]

The Guardians Express is racing along, and as usual I’m running after it hobo-style - trying to catch a hold of the back carriage, before it disappears away up the tracks!

Yes, that's right Chin I think so too, I had a long chat with Michael the other day, and I said that he must be very proud with the work Ashley is doing. He told me that when his own father trained him, he told him that he didn't want him to be as good as him, he wanted him to be better. He told me, "I said the same to Ashley, and he is." I know the Guardians knives are valuable to you all already, but one day they may be even more so

I can't reveal the full content of a conversation I had on Friday yet, but we may yet see some 'new' Sheffield jigged bone Yes, a few of them followed things in the US a little, but most didn't even know what was happening over here!

I put that because Wright's got the bolsters wrong last time, and because they generally refer to fluted bolsters as 'hollow' bolsters. I'd call them fluted, hollow bolsters are the sort of thing firms like Richards used to use! I asked for 'rat-tail bolsters' last time, and got thread bolsters. They look very nice, and suit the AC knives better, for example, but I wanted something different this time

That's interesting Chin, and handy you shoot right-handed

I love the look of checkered ivory, the ivory on my 'Big 'Un is actually very 'plain' (if such a word Can be considered), and would suit checkering well. I might consider scrimshaw too, but it's getting hard shipping these knives around. Stan Shaw checkers some of his

Thank you again Chin, York was absolutely rammed, but it was nice to get the smell of tape and jiffy bags out of my nostrils for a bit!

I could look at that all day Thanks again my friend

Thanks Jack. I enjoyed hearing that comment about Ashley - that must be very gratifying for his dad to see. He’s doing great work, and will only get better from here.

Intriguing comment about the jigged bone, mate, and I look forward to hearing more in due course. This is one of the areas of traditional knifemaking about which there seems to be very little available information - those in the trade play their cards very close to their chest regarding jigging techniques and patterns.

Thanks for the clarification on the bolster types. I love those old Sheffield bolsters - and very much appreciate seeing the classic forms resurrected in these Guardians knives.

Any scent from these knives en masse? I recall you had a strong smell of eau de burning hair from the freshly buffed 2017 horn knives.

Thanks Chin, Oldguy contacted me as well I think I know now what sharpening system I'm going to get but I know what you mean; I'm trying not to spend so much money on it as well....
Great pic; another Anitpodean photo that "looks" warm.

Thanks mate, really enjoying your posts.

Yeah, if I had to make a single recommendation for Lambsfoot knife sharpening, it would be for the Sharpmaker, along with either the coarse diamond or CBN rods, or a coarse benchstone for thinning out the initial edge thickness. I think there’s a simpler, cheaper system coming out soon, too - the Gauntlet.

Thank you, Chin, coming from you it's a huge compliment...you take such great pictures. Preston

I appreciate that, Preston my friend, I get lucky with my pics sometimes. I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Colorado, and your outdoors adventures in future.

I once knew a guy in Belfast, thick as PS, and didn't seem to have an artistic bone in his body, but he had a go at chain-saw carving when he was in his late 30's, and now has stuff in the parks in Belfast There are some great chain-saw carvings I come across on one of my walks, here's one of them

Great pics mate, yeah I’ve seen his work in some of those parks along the River Lagan, yeah? Down towards the Giants Ring? That’s an amazing piece.

I went for a hike down that way, with some Belfast mates. One of them - born and bred in Ballymurphy (about 4 miles/6.5 km away) - was astounded to ‘discover’ that parks and paths like that existed in Belfast, and said so more than a few times!

Some sort of hat?

Any other guesses?

It's actually a piece of hiking furniture

You cut the sticks, lash them together, and hope you don't end up on your backside!

Ha ha, you beat me to it Rachel! I was going to guess that Jack had a new Tricorne hat!

Or that it was a roundabout way of announcing that he’d been elected Lord Mayor of Sheffield!

“In the UK, a black feathered tricorne hat is part of the ceremonial dress of most Lord Mayors; at the annual Lord Mayor's Show in November, the newly elected Lord Mayor of the City of London can usually be seen enthusiastically waving his tricorne at the crowds.” (Wikipedia)

Very cool piece of kit, Jack!

Yes, and I have the coffee cup to prove it!
View attachment 1066192

LOL, I haven’t laughed so hard in a while, Vince. Great stuff, my brainiac friend!

I carry a Lambsfoot...
View attachment 1066208
because it Leeds to satisfaction.

 

[HEMI 49]

Lambsfoot getting ready to meet an 06 Pemberton....

 

[Cambertree]

Yeah, I'm going to have to stop following other threads just to keep up with this one!

Seriously!!! Between the Guardian thread and the Totin' thread, it's getting tough to keep up.

Oh I did that ages ago; I stopped posting in the Traditional EDC thread. I spend a lot of time on computers for work nowadays and my eyes were going square. So I still follow other threads and will occasionally post in one or two, but only really post regularly in this and the 'Beverages' thread.

This is my favorite thread though, I'm so glad for Jack's gift so I can participate more fully.
I like that this thread combines some off-topic as well as some on-topic discussion. I also like how this thread doesn't disintegrate into passive aggressive behavior, like many others on the forum. And I like that Jack runs a pretty tight ship and looks out for all of us. Long live the Lambsfoot!

I use the hunt and peck method but I have the use of both hands and I can't either. I just do what I can.

I don't know how some of these guys do it with all the replies in one post with all the quotes...my hat is off to them. Preston

Yeah, I hear that, my friends. I’ve given up on trying to keep up with the Totin’ thread too.

I’m the same, @donn, although I have been quite enjoying posting in the Adventures of Pearl thread too.

Yes, I completely agree John. Jack’s done an amazing job of hosting, curating, and fostering this thread. And Gary and Frank too, of course with regard to the wider Porch atmosphere. This is certainly the best community on the net, IMHO.

Yeah, Preston, I’m a hunt and peck typer as well! It’s very time consuming and frustrating at times, writing posts on the phone. I’m growing to loathe that 10,000 character limit on posts - it’s quite painful having to go back and edit down and excise material to break up a long post into two, on the phone screen and ‘keyboard’. The old software would tell you how many charcters you were over by - now I have to either guess, or copy and paste into an external site for a count.

Anyway, that’s my rant done.

I'm at page 303 and nothing about a South African maker for now. But I'll keep in mind to look for it
(now back to reading, I'll catch up with you all later! Well, not no late otherwise there will be too many pages on either end of the thread )

Thankyou Mescladis, that’s very kind of you. Barrett actually managed to track down the relevant material. That’s an epic journey you’ve undertaken, my friend - I trust you’re enjoying the read - there’s some great stuff there.

 

[Fodderwing]

place in my collection

Beautiful horn on your new mystery lamb Dylan. She is a real looker.

 

[Prester John]

A joy to carry and use. It will have a companion soon!

 

[Cambertree]

Good evening, Guardians.

About a week or so ago, I decided to do some casual knife hunting. It can often be fun seeing where various rabbit holes will take you but to make a long story short, I came across an old Lambsfoot that caught my eye. Now, it can be relatively easy to find old Lambsfoot knives but they generally are in rather poor shape, having blades ground to toothpicks or covers that are either broken or completely missing.

This particular knife had lovely horn covers and a blade that appeared to be relatively full. Sporting what remained of the "Real Lambfoot" etch (later revealed to be a stamp) and rat tail bolsters, I had to pull the trigger. Fast forward a little less than a week, the knife arrived in my mailbox after a brief trip over the pond.

One of the most eye-catching things about this knife is the nicely matched horn covers. Obviously an older knife, the covers are in surprisingly good condition, there are some gaps here and there but overall, I am very pleased. The knife itself appears to be uncannily similar to A. Wright's smaller Lambsfoot knives. Though it is close to an 1/8" longer than my AC and Oxhorn, the shape and curvature are almost identical. However, there is no identifying tang stamp, not even anything that states whether it came from Sheffield or even England, for that matter.

This knife appears to have been rather aggressively cleaned at some point and I can see the evidence on the blade as well as the frame itself. The blade is ground very thin (this will be one heck of a slicer) and the Real Lambfoot stamp is still partially visible. I suspect that whoever cleaned the knife up took away a fair amount of metal up by the nail nick and blade stamp.

What mostly sets this apart from my other Wrights knives are the rat tail bolsters, steel liners (instead of the typical brass), and either steel pins or nickel silver. I suspect the former due to the nickel silver of the bolsters being a different color altogether.

Sporting the typical rugged construction that I have come to expect and very much appreciate in Sheffield cutlery, this knife has a bear trap pull and it snaps like a hell spawned gator. No play whatsoever in this knife and the blade is very nicely centered and quite straight.

Overall, I am very pleased with this acquisition and even though I do not know much about its provenance, it will have a most welcome place in my collection.

That’s a fine score, Dylan, you must be very pleased. Beautiful horn covers.

Yes it does look very ‘Wright-like’.

But those bolsters and pins are very curious, in that context.

I wonder if there was a light maker etch on the blade tang which was buffed away, or if the blade was supplied as a unmarked blank which the customer would put their own stamp on?

Is it possible it’s reworked from some different parts, I wonder?

In any case, a nice piece, thanks for sharing it, my friend.

 

[Prester John]

Good evening, Guardians.

About a week or so ago, I decided to do some casual knife hunting. It can often be fun seeing where various rabbit holes will take you but to make a long story short, I came across an old Lambsfoot that caught my eye. Now, it can be relatively easy to find old Lambsfoot knives but they generally are in rather poor shape, having blades ground to toothpicks or covers that are either broken or completely missing.

This particular knife had lovely horn covers and a blade that appeared to be relatively full. Sporting what remained of the "Real Lambfoot" etch (later revealed to be a stamp) and rat tail bolsters, I had to pull the trigger. Fast forward a little less than a week, the knife arrived in my mailbox after a brief trip over the pond.

One of the most eye-catching things about this knife is the nicely matched horn covers. Obviously an older knife, the covers are in surprisingly good condition, there are some gaps here and there but overall, I am very pleased. The knife itself appears to be uncannily similar to A. Wright's smaller Lambsfoot knives. Though it is close to an 1/8" longer than my AC and Oxhorn, the shape and curvature are almost identical. However, there is no identifying tang stamp, not even anything that states whether it came from Sheffield or even England, for that matter.

This knife appears to have been rather aggressively cleaned at some point and I can see the evidence on the blade as well as the frame itself. The blade is ground very thin (this will be one heck of a slicer) and the Real Lambfoot stamp is still partially visible. I suspect that whoever cleaned the knife up took away a fair amount of metal up by the nail nick and blade stamp.

What mostly sets this apart from my other Wrights knives are the rat tail bolsters, steel liners (instead of the typical brass), and either steel pins or nickel silver. I suspect the former due to the nickel silver of the bolsters being a different color altogether.

Sporting the typical rugged construction that I have come to expect and very much appreciate in Sheffield cutlery, this knife has a bear trap pull and it snaps like a hell spawned gator. No play whatsoever in this knife and the blade is very nicely centered and quite straight.

Overall, I am very pleased with this acquisition and even though I do not know much about its provenance, it will have a most welcome place in my collection.

Very nice, Dylan. Thanks for showing it.

 

[Prester John]

The Guardians Express is racing along, and as usual I’m running along after it hobo-style - trying to catch a hold of the back carriage, before it disappears away up the tracks!



Thanks Jack. I enjoyed hearing that comment about Ashley - that must be very gratifying for his dad to see. He’s doing great work, and will only get better from here.

Intriguing comment about the jigged bone, mate, and I look forward to hearing more in due course. This is one of the areas of traditional knifemaking about which there seems to be very little available information - those in the trade play their cards very close to their chest regarding jigging techniques and patterns.

Thanks for the clarification on the bolster types. I love those old Sheffield bolsters - and very much appreciate seeing the classic forms resurrected in these Guardians knives.

Any scent from these knives en masse? I recall you had a strong smell of eau de burning hair from the freshly buffed 2017 horn knives.



Thanks mate, really enjoying your posts.

Yeah, if I had to make a single recommendation for Lambsfoot knife sharpening, it would be for the Sharpmaker, along with either the coarse diamond or CBN rods, or a coarse benchstone for thinning out the initial edge thickness. I think there’s a simpler, cheaper system coming out soon, too - the Gauntlet.



I appreciate that, Preston my friend, I get lucky with my pics sometimes. I’m really looking to seeing more of Colorado, and your outdoors adventures in future.



Great pics mate, yeah I’ve seen his work in some of those parks along the River Lagan, yeah? Down towards the Giants Ring? That’s an amazing piece.

I went for a hike down that way, with some Belfast mates. One of them - born and bred in Ballymurphy (about 4 miles/6.5 km away) - was astounded to ‘discover’ that parks and paths like that existed in Belfast, and said so more than a few times!

Ha ha, you beat me to it Rachel! I was going to guess that Jack had a new Tricorne hat!

Or that it was a roundabout way of announcing that he’d been elected Lord Mayor of Sheffield!

“In the UK, a black feathered tricorne hat is part of the ceremonial dress of most Lord Mayors; at the annual Lord Mayor's Show in November, the newly elected Lord Mayor of the City of London can usually be seen enthusiastically waving his tricorne at the crowds.” (Wikipedia)

Very cool piece of kit, Jack!



LOL, I haven’t laughed so hard in a while, Vince. Great stuff, my brainiac friend!

It's good to see you posting regularly, Chin. I read this thread from the beginning a few months ago, like @Mescladis is doing now, and your posts were very informative and interesting. I looked forward to reading them, and then it seemed like you disappeared for awhile. Or went on a walkabout!