HUGE NY Knife Company Folding Knife ~WHAT IS IT?~

[cosmiccutter]

I have found a GIGANTIC (26-1/2" opened) two blade knife. Has walnut handles and the blades are marked, 'NEW YORK KNIFE CO., WALDEN'. Does not appear to have been sharpened, but each of the blades has darkened. There is an elongated emblem, probably stainless steel, on one side of the handles. Does anyone have any info on this Paul Bunyan sticker or history on the New York Knife Co?

 

[Daniel Koster]

What is it?

Junk.


sorry...just my jaded view.....get it on ebay perchance?


Oh....lest you mistake my intentions...

Welcome to Bladeforums!

Hopefully someone will be around that can give you a second opinion. The ones I've seen were crap.

 

[Ken C.]

I have found a GIGANTIC (26-1/2" opened) two blade knife. Has walnut handles and the blades are marked, 'NEW YORK KNIFE CO., WALDEN'. Does not appear to have been sharpened, but each of the blades has darkened. There is an elongated emblem, probably stainless steel, on one side of the handles. Does anyone have any info on this Paul Bunyan sticker or history on the New York Knife Co?

Sounds like a store display piece.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I agree that it is a store display piece. Some people collect these, but I do not know what its value would be.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Cosmiccutter, welcome to Bladeforums.

I suggest you refer your question to The Bernard Levine Knife Collecting and Identification Forum. According to Levine's Guide to Knives, 4th Edition:

The first recorded upstate knife company grew to be one of the most important. This was THE NEW YORK KNIFE COMPANY. New York Knife Co. was founded in 1852 in Matteawan (since renamed Beacon) by 16 Sheffield cutlers who had quit Waterville in a pay dispute. In 1856 the young firm was moved across the Hudson to Walden. Almost all of its considerable output was pocketknives, and these were among the finest ever produced anywhere.

By the end of 1930 they seem to have gone out of business. That would make your unusual folder something like 75 years old or more.

Check with Mr. Levine, who might know if it's for real and if it may have any exceptional value. Do not try to clean or restore it until you learn more about how this might reduce its value as a collectible piece.

I also suggest, if you are at all interested in knives and their values, that you get a copy of the Levine's Guide to Knives, 4th Edition, but don't get suckered into buying the 5th Edition, which is not what it purports to be.