Horace Kephart era Jack Knives

Halfneck

Halfneck

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I am currently reading "Our Southern Highlanders" by Horace Kephart. I am a little more than halfway through the book and so far the most mentioned knife is the Jack Knife. This has gotten me curious what type of Jack Knife the author is referencing. What make? What pattern? Pictures?

Took a pic of one of my favorite jack knives on top of the book. Enjoyable reading so far, especially if you are from the area.
 
In Camping and Woodcraft, he gives this description:

"The jackknife has one stout blade equal to whittling seasoned hickory, and two small blades, of which one is ground thin for such surgery as you may have to perform (keep it clean). Beware of combination knives; they may be passable corkscrews and can openers, but that is about all."

Having one stout main and two small blades makes me think of the traditional whittler pattern, second one down in this 1886 HSB catalog:


Also seen in this 1885 Maher & Grosh ad


And this 1902 catalog (the three bladed congress below it could be a candidate, but the specific mention of a stout main blade and two small blades leads me to think that he had the traditional whittler in mind):


The closest you will get to a modern version are the GEC 79 or 57 patterns.
 
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Good reply Lambertiana, very interesting :thumbup:
 
The 79 Work Horse is a tough sturdy knife for sure, seeing your one motivated me to get my own some years back.

The 38 Whittler has credibility too: decent large Clip and 2 secondaries.

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I always thought he meant a stockman, but I've only recently distinguished stockmans from whittlers. And it just occurs to me that if he didn't like the dime-novel design invented by Colonel Bowie, he might have preferred a spear-point folder to a clip. So I second Lambertiana.
 
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One of my favorite books. If I can remember to do so, I will take a look in my copy of Camping and Woodcraft.
 
I'd forgotten about that description in Camping and Woodcraft, thanks lambertiana. I'd just automatically assumed jack knife to refer to a slipjoint with 2 blades at the same end. I can easily understand why Kephart would prefer a whittler pattern having grown up and hiked a lot of the area mentioned in the book.
 
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