Identifying old Barlow

ol_sc

ol_sc

Joined
Sep 12, 2011
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I recently rediscovered this knife in a drawer. It has no tang stamps and says "BARLOW" on both bolsters. I think the handles might be ebony, and they are cracking at the pins. The F&F on this knife is pretty bad and you can barely get to the nail nick on the main blade.

pics...
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This may seem funny, but I believe it is a knockoff Barlow they make in Pakistan. (Barlow knives in general are of poor quality). I have a Barlow made in the 50's by a US firm......the quality is pretty bad.
 
Yeah, I figured with the fact it says barlow on the side, it was probably made overseas.
 
ol_sc said:
Yeah, I figured with the fact it says barlow on the side, it was probably made overseas.
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Well, almost all Barlow knives have "BARLOW" stamped on the side. Here is a US made Imperial Barlow, with BARLOW stamped on the bolster.

barlow_2_sz.jpg
 
Barlows may be a tough working knife, but they come in very varied finishes (both from American and other manufacturers) some of excellent quality in fact e.g. Russell Green River from Böker Germany, GEC, CASE, Queen USA or even modern RRs from China.

Your example has a rather 'underdeveloped' pen blade on it, could well be a crude example from india/Pakistan or even a very early Japanese example from the 1950s- these are a far-cry from the Japanese knives on the last 30 years(excellent & admirable) I would doubt if it were ebony, it's rather costly and seldom cracks or warps. More like blackwood stained or even horn I would think.

Don't give up on Barlows, they can be very decent.
 
Levine over in the Levine Forum might be able to identify it for you.
 
Modoc ED said:
Levine over in the Levine Forum might be able to identify it for you.
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Thanks, I'll try that too.

I thought it was ebony because it had kind of a grain to it, but it is probably horn, the more I analyze it.
 
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