silenthunterstudios
Slipjoint Addict
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2005
- Messages
- 20,039
Theater knives. Blacksmith Bowles. Homemade knives on the range. The homemade knife is part of American culture. After reading books like Knife in Homespun America, and reading magazines like Backswoodman, it looks like all of the homemade blades out there from the dawn of the USA to the early 1900s were fixed blades.
Easier to make and finish to be sure. Bowes, camp blades and hunting knives in the USA and fighting knives in the "theater" of the Pacific were easier to make. Penny knives might be the only folders cheaper than a Barlow at the general store or rendezvous.
There are a few folders in the Knife in Homespun America book but they are penny knives or barlows or cheap jacks.
Was it cost effective to make your own folder? I'm guessing not. Even on the frontier for the Hudson Bay Company/vaqueros/Mtn men, a folder would not be the most effective knife, but cheap folders would be available at rendezvous. A listing of a Mtn mans trade goods inventoried at death were a large # of barlows. I'm guessing he carried a big butcher knife or Sheffield Bowie on him for the real work. No real need to make your own folder out there.
Does anyone have any pics of homemade folders, whether frontier/civil war or theater made? Any thoughts?
Easier to make and finish to be sure. Bowes, camp blades and hunting knives in the USA and fighting knives in the "theater" of the Pacific were easier to make. Penny knives might be the only folders cheaper than a Barlow at the general store or rendezvous.
There are a few folders in the Knife in Homespun America book but they are penny knives or barlows or cheap jacks.
Was it cost effective to make your own folder? I'm guessing not. Even on the frontier for the Hudson Bay Company/vaqueros/Mtn men, a folder would not be the most effective knife, but cheap folders would be available at rendezvous. A listing of a Mtn mans trade goods inventoried at death were a large # of barlows. I'm guessing he carried a big butcher knife or Sheffield Bowie on him for the real work. No real need to make your own folder out there.
Does anyone have any pics of homemade folders, whether frontier/civil war or theater made? Any thoughts?