Knife found in wall...help identify please

T

Tesla_HV

Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
8
I found this knife lodged in a wall of a 1850's era house that my wife and I were renovating here in New England. The house was built about 1850 but who knows when the knife fell down between the inner and outer outside wall. The house was built only about a hundred yards from the old Christopher Roby sword factory in West Chelmsford MA. The blade bears no markings so it is likely not an official C. Roby forging. The handle looks as if it was hand made. As you can see the blade is about 16" long and the handle is about 6" long. Both edges at the tip were sharpened. After about a hundred years in the wall, some blade surfaces were rusty but the edges that weren't were still very sharp. Any idea what kind of blade this was?
Thanks,
Monty

Knife1.jpg


Knife3.jpg


Knife2.jpg
 
The builder and original owner of the house may have worked in management at Roby. Built for his own use, there would be no need for Co. markings. You may have a murder weapon in your possession.LOL. See if you can find some old newspapers in the local library. Most likely it was accidentally lost behind the wall during construction. Nice find!
 
Yea, that's pretty cool looking , like something out the 'Gangs of NY' film.
To me it looks almost 'bayonet-ish' and with both edges at the tip sharpened I dont see it for being used to slice up Aunt Ruth's holiday ham.
How thick is it ? It doesnt look too thick. Hmm for a 'sticker' though , you would think it might have some sort of guard , I mean what would keep your mitt from getting cut if you were to stab with it.
Hmmmmmmm
 
That's a great find. I think you should re-post this same question, with photos, down in the Bernard Levine Knife Identification area of the forum.

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
Nice find!
The pictures is not of the highest quality..
But, the length and width of the blade tells (?) that this knife was made for a very special need. Probably for craftsmen who build houses.

I think I can se some scratchmarks on the handle. Try to se how they are made, in what directions they are made, how deep they are and so on and be a detective. What use can make just that type of scratches? What power is needed to make the depth of the scratchmarks?
It is slicing? Then the scratches will go in the length direction. Is is used as a axe, then they go in other directions.

How what the knife carried? In the belt? Can this be shown by the handle? Is it polished by fabrics on some of the sides?

I am sorry but my English is not the best, but I think you understand what I try to say. Let the knife tells its story, or some part of the story.

Come back and tell us more!

Thomas
 
It looks like a pig sticker for use in butchering large animals. (Kosher butchering) I would suggest moving this thread to the Bernard Levine forum and getting his feedback.
STR
 
STR said:
It looks like a pig sticker for use in butchering large animals. (Kosher butchering) I would suggest moving this thread to the Bernard Levine forum and getting his feedback.
STR
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention Kosher. In one of the upper rooms of the house we removed the wallpaper to find some rather elaborate drawings on the walls. They were elaborate in their detail but done I think by a child. The drawings were of what looked like Hasitic Jews. Another thing that we found in the walls was a teachers reference book to geography dated 1850. Now that is interesting reading to see what the world looked like in 1850. Perhaps the original resident was a Jewish teacher who also performed kosher butchering.
 
Yup Pig sticker. I work inn the area for a concrete company and see these things all the time in peoples barns and when excavation is made. They are neet knives and quite a find.

My home is from 1813 and we allways find treasure in the walls. Bottles and newspapers. Infact in my reinacting I have used now 6 bottles found in the walls.

If you are renovating have fun. If ya need concrete let me know.:thumbup:
 
No not a pig sticker if it belonged to a Jewish butcher. It was most likely used on everything else though. I think you can put two and two together to see that it was probably used for that if the original occupants were Jewish.

STR
 
STR, that knife is not even approximately like the knives used in "schechita", kosher Jewish slaughter.

Ask Rabbi Lerner
Kosher - Slaughtering Animals

... a ritual slaughterer must move to the animal quickly, use a knife that is incredibly sharp and without even the slightest nick, and cut through the animal's trachea and esophagus in a single motion (at least one of these for fowl). All this is required in order to try to minimize the animal's suffering.
Click to expand...
 
Big Ugly Tall Texan said:
I am no expert, but it looks to me like the handle for a sword cane.
Click to expand...

I agree, it looks like part of a sword cane to me too.

n2s
 
Its just a guess Esav. The knife is certainly long enough to be used the way I've seen it done and there is no telling how sharp it was before sitting in the wall all those years.

It seems a little small for a sword cane to me. Maybe a short one was available at one time or something. Usually those have some sort of clip or some other mechanism to snap them in place securely in the sheath and I don't see that on the metal of the handle. Maybe the handle or sheath is still in the wall somewhere yet to be found???

STR
 
Jewish is entirely possible. On the grounds of my company(800 acres) in stow we have a golf course that Babe Ruth used to play golf at and also on the property is a old Jewish campground that abuts the assabet river. The book History of stow has the whole Jewish community thing in it. Maybee there is someone to contact on it.

The reason I said Pig sticker is that is the knife we used on our farm . Long narrow thin and sharp.
 
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