Irish made barlow with no bolster stamp?

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Fixall

Fixall

Brian
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Alright, you all are easily the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to slip joint history. I figure if you can’t answer this, the knife doesn’t exist.

I am on the hunt for an Irish made barlow with no bolster stamp. Does one exist? I think every Irish made Imperial barlow I’ve seen has “BARLOW” on the bolster. I’d like to find something suitable to re-cover and then have engraved. I don’t mind playing the waiting game for a particular model to pop up.

Any ideas?
 
Fixall said:
Alright, you all are easily the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to slip joint history. I figure if you can’t answer this, the knife doesn’t exist.

I am on the hunt for an Irish made barlow with no bolster stamp. Does one exist? I think every Irish made Imperial barlow I’ve seen has “BARLOW” on the bolster. I’d like to find something suitable to re-cover and then have engraved. I don’t mind playing the waiting game for a particular model to pop up.

Any ideas?
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Is there any particular reason you want one that's made by Jowika in Ireland and not made by Imperial themselves in Providence Rhode Island?
Are you looking for SS blades or something ?

For the imperial barlows, all except some of the new ones currently made in China are shell construction with a stamped sheet metal bolster.
You will have to flatten the liners or make new ones, and you'll need to make bolsters for it.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Is there any particular reason you want one that's made by Jowika in Ireland and not made by Imperial themselves in Providence Rhode Island?
Are you looking for SS blades or something ?

For the imperial barlows, all except some of the new ones currently made in China are shell construction with a stamped sheet metal bolster.
You will have to flatten the liners or make new ones, and you'll need to make bolsters for it.
Click to expand...

It doesn’t need to be an Imperial. That was just the only Irish made Barlow I could think of.

It’s going to be a theme piece for the collection. I didn’t realize the older Irish made Imperials we’re a shell construction with stamped bolsters though (I’ve never owned one). :confused:

Making new liners and/or bolsters isn’t a dealbreaker. In that case, I guess it wouldn’t matter if the current bolster is stamped with “BARLOW”.
 
Fixall said:
It doesn’t need to be an Imperial. That was just the only Irish made Barlow I could think of.

It’s going to be a theme piece for the collection. I didn’t realize the older Irish made Imperials we’re a shell construction with stamped bolsters though (I’ve never owned one). :confused:

Making new liners and/or bolsters isn’t a dealbreaker. In that case, I guess it wouldn’t matter if the current bolster is stamped with “BARLOW”.
Click to expand...
Maybe look into Jowika , they might have made something with regular bolsters.
 
There were Diamond Edge knives made in Ireland, I don't know if they made a Barlow. A tin shell Imperial would give you a frame, backspring, and a blade. I've never taken one apart, attaching bolsters and scales might be a tremendous pain.

There had to have been other Irish pocketknife makers, building them for export or domestic use. Whether or not they made Barlows might be another issue altogether.
 
Every knife I've ever seen stamped Ireland had the shell handles, until Imperial went to nylon shadow covers. The Imperials are easy to peel off because they're crimped over the ends of the liners. The Jowikas need more prying, but it's no big deal.
This nylon shadow jack is the same proportions as a barlow and would work, too. With any of them you'll have to cut and fit your own bolster.
ZxZGhfx.jpg

The big one is an Imperial I recovered in my unskilled way. The bolsters are from the rail of a garage door, because I had the material and it was the right size. My bolsters have an extra pin, because I can't solder and I didn't trust myself to keep them in place by means of carefully fitting the handles.
 
The Stag name is still out there; I don't know if today's Stag is related to the Stag that made your knife. The hollow tin shell handles were common on inexpensive knives after WWII. Really nice knives with shell handles might bring $10 to $20. They were made by the millions and were cheap things to begin with. There's not a lot of demand for them.

It probably dates from the 50s or 60s.

The plastic covering on those knives was usually celluloid. If you don't know about celluloid decomposition you should read up on it. Keep it away from anything metallic that you care for. if it starts getting crumbly or discolored you'll know it's time to take drastic measures.
 
Fixall said:
It doesn’t need to be an Imperial. That was just the only Irish made Barlow I could think of.

It’s going to be a theme piece for the collection. I didn’t realize the older Irish made Imperials we’re a shell construction with stamped bolsters though (I’ve never owned one). :confused:

Making new liners and/or bolsters isn’t a dealbreaker. In that case, I guess it wouldn’t matter if the current bolster is stamped with “BARLOW”.
Click to expand...
Let me have a look through my Big Box of Knives To Do Something With Sometime Brian, and I'll see if I have one for you mate :thumbsup:

I've written about Irish cutlery here on at least a couple of occasions, and not eager to repeat the exercise :D
 
There’s been a lot of necromancy lately but this one I enjoyed. I’m pretty sure I have a stag Ireland Barlow somewhere and now I have a reason to go hunt. 😁
 
Bigburly912 said:
There’s been a lot of necromancy lately but this one I enjoyed. I’m pretty sure I have a stag Ireland Barlow somewhere and now I have a reason to go hunt. 😁
Click to expand...
I've only just realised this is an old thread! 😖 Pretty pointless resurrection 🙄
 
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