Jack's Knife- Unidentified Scrimshaw...help?

Codger_64

Moderator
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
62,324
Our buddy tmbrjack sent me some photos of a knife he has, asking for identification. It is an SC524 Folding Hunter pattern, with a colorized scrim art I had not seen before. Niether can I positively place what appears to be the art signature. Hopefully someone here can I.D. it positively. Is it a limited production? An SFO? Or a custom? The knife is genuine enough, but what about the art?




Perhaps if no one here can I.D. that mark as Frank Giogianni's sig, someone can e-mail his son to see if he can I.D. it. The art looks to me to be more like John Duffy's, or even Linda Karst's style, but Frank did do some colorized scrims too.

Michael
 
Also another possibility is Bill Feeney who scrimshawed the " Heralds of the Sea" series. These were the Schrade Wostenholm I*XL sets that were made in the early 1980's. Only a guess.

Rusty1
 
Thanks for the lead. I emailed Mr. Feeney to see if he can recognize the art, and asked him to note any other scrims he performed for Schrade as well. I'm yet to get in touch with Linda Karst (now Linda K. Stone) and John Duffy as well. All very important in the scrimshaw lines research, I believe.

Thanks also to Jack for bringing this obscure scrim to my attention!

Michael
 


And I have one noted as M. Barbour:


I hope to some day be able to properly attribute all of the scrimshaw designs to the correct artists. I think it is important, though it wasn't important to Schrade at the time.

Mr. Giorgianni retired in 1992, I believe. At that time, John Duffy was hired as the in-house Schrade artist. Both before and after Mr. Giorgianni's retirement, outside artists were occasionally comissioned to do scrimshaw designs. I remember Tom Giorgianni stating here that his father had to rework a goodly portion of the American Express Presidents series to deepen the engraving because they were too lightly scrimmed and inked.

This Presidential Series was produced by Schrade. The artwork was not however done by the artist of the time Frank Giorgianni. The artwork was outsourced, however, all of the knives that were faint or poor quality were hand touched up by Frank Giorgianni. Hope this was helpful.
Tom


So far, the artists I have listed are:
Frank Giorgianni
John Duffy
Linda Karst Stone
M. Barbour
Bill Feeney

There are more I am yet to discover and properly credit. Any help with obscure artists, and obscure scrims will be greatly appreciated.

Michael
 
He identified this scrim as one of his done for Schrade some time between 1978 and 1980. I've asked for further information on other patterns and designs.

Michael
 
Great stuff Michael, all the more rewarding when a request like this can be positively identified. it will also be good to see what other designs that were used, mostly seafaring subjects I would think.

Rusty1
 
Just wondering if you guys could help identify this oil and lube scrimshaw Ive got here. It came in the regular blue and white scrimshaw box. but it says the great american outdoors on the box so maybe its not the right box, I dont know and I was just wondering if you guys knew who the artist was?
 
Thanks for getting Mr. Feeney to identify this as his artwork. I'm very happy with the knife and have become a schrade searcher.I'm most attracted to the unusual and hope to find more. Thanks again. Tmbrjack
 
I am sure that you will, Jack. The scrims are a good field for the unusual. While most are familiar with the standard "Scrimshaw Of The Great American Outdoors" series (heat stamped Delrin), quite a few more limited special editions are out there, many of which are genuine scrims hand drawn by the original artists on bone, ivory (old and new), Delrin, and Micarta. Many were produced for small local organizations and events in the Ellenville area as well. Enjoy the hunt! And be sure to show us what you find.

Michael:thumbup:
 
Back
Top