Lean Times In Leeds Market

Jack Black

Jack Black

Seize the Lambsfoot! Seize the Day!
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The knife pickings in Leeds market have been lean these past few weeks, and even when I’ve ventured further afield I’ve picked up little of interest. Here are the few pieces I’ve had.

I like this Dawes & Ball pipe tool, it has a good solid feel, with plenty of ‘meat’ to the tools. Maybe it could double up as a smoking Doctor’s knife ;)







This three-blade Richards Scout knife is in good shape.



This Tyzack Hawkbill is a leather knife, but I thought it might be useful in the garden. I picked up the other Hawkbill around the same time, seller reckoned it was a putty knife. It’s certainly a dead ringer for the knife in the filmEastern Promises! :D







I’ve already posted pics of this Slater Brothers WW1 pattern British Army Clasp Knife from 1938 in the Military Clasp Knives threads. I think it is the most intimidating knife I’ve ever handled, when that tin-opener blade gets closed it’ll be staying closed!



I picked these last two up the other day, bought them mainly for the covers. The tortoishell pen knife is German, made from ‘Warranted’ forged steel. Unfortunately it has at least 5 degrees of side to side play on the larger blade, and I’m not sure I want to risk whacking it with a hammer!





I don’t usually buy fruit knives, but I got a good price on this one. It has so much blade play that the spring isn’t functioning at the moment. Nice bit of MOP though.



 
Those are lean pickings? C'mon over here, I'll treat ya to some American beer and Hanover/Snyders pretzels, and we'll talk about how lean the pickings are after I've taken you to a couple junk shops.

I've been thinking a lot about fixing those old timers you sent, but I haven't gotten off my butt yet. My coworker wants to see me use that bubinga he gave me too. I think the bubinga would look good on that one recurve.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Those are lean pickings? C'mon over here, I'll treat ya to some American beer and Hanover/Snyders pretzels, and we'll talk about how lean the pickings are after I've taken you to a couple junk shops.
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:) :thumbup:

silenthunterstudios said:
I've been thinking a lot about fixing those old timers you sent, but I haven't gotten off my butt yet. My coworker wants to see me use that bubinga he gave me too. I think the bubinga would look good on that one recurve.
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Yeah, that could be a nice knife :thumbup:
 
Jack Black said:
I like this Dawes & Ball pipe tool, it has a good solid feel, with plenty of ‘meat’ to the tools. Maybe it could double up as a smoking Doctor’s knife ;)





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Great pickings, Jack.:thumbup: You're doing better than what the junk and antique markets over here have on any given day!

Great idea for the 'smoking doctors knife'. You could put a nice needle sharp tip on that reamer tool, and lance boils with it.:eek: Just be sure you tell the patients that they get a good dose of rum if they hold real still. :D

Carl.
 
Thanks Carl, that's a month's worth there. Plus another Richards in tartan I sent to PMEW :)

Let me know if you're ever after a pipe knife ;)

Jack
 
You want to swap for that pipe knife? I could use that.

You're making me want to spend some time walking around (and rummaging through) your neck of the woods.
 
Take that to PM, please.
 
Jack, they are lean times mate, I was surprised that there so few knives when I went to England and visited the Antique shops, it just may be because ( as we spoke about ) the England knife laws that have really clamped down on people carrying even Traditional knives-so therefore the market for customer demand goes out the window for sellers?
If this is the case - where have all the knives gone?
 
If that is true Duncan it is a shame.

I always check old hardware and sporting goods stores here. I usually check out the farmersarkets, junk malls and flea mkts. Knife World has a nice article on hunting flea markets this month. If I see old tools I ask about knives, at the stalls. Most guys tell me they left them at home. :(
 
Lean, you say? I think the gods were shining on you today. The pipe knife is wonderful in its substantial-ness. The fruit knife is exquisitely appointed and flying high where the air is rarefied. The Slater Brothers, is a great one for your collection, with its brutish good looks, distinguished with its copper bail.
A fine sojourn indeed!
 
I wish times were as good at my local flea market;) lots of rusted shut and broken blades mostly. I think anything good goes right to the auction sites in these parts:eek:
 
I like that tang that says "Oil the Joints!"

Okay, it didn't have the exclamation point, but it should!!!! Needs to be on the next BF knife. :D
 
Gevonovich said:
Lean, you say? I think the gods were shining on you today. The pipe knife is wonderful in its substantial-ness. The fruit knife is exquisitely appointed and flying high where the air is rarefied. The Slater Brothers, is a great one for your collection, with its brutish good looks, distinguished with its copper bail.
A fine sojourn indeed!
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Thank you sir! :)

kimsalls said:
I second that motion.
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Good idea :thumbup:

Campbellclanman said:
Jack, they are lean times mate, I was surprised that there so few knives when I went to England and visited the Antique shops, it just may be because ( as we spoke about ) the England knife laws that have really clamped down on people carrying even Traditional knives-so therefore the market for customer demand goes out the window for sellers?
If this is the case - where have all the knives gone?
Click to expand...

Yes Duncan, that's all I've accumulated in a month of fairly hard searching, trips to a number of local flea-markets and what they call car-boot sales here, as well as combing the junk and antique shops. I do suspect that we're actually LOSING old knives, that in the past when grandad passed on, his pocketknives would be given to family members, or in cases where there was no family, they'd perhaps wind up in antique shops. Now, knives are more likely to wind up in the 'amnesty' bin at the local police station, or be otherwise destroyed as 'dangerous weapons'. Many market traders and junk shops no longer want to cary them, and I think that the only reason I've done well in my local market on occassions, is that I know a couple of the traders and they look out for old slipjoints as they know I'll buy them.
 
That's a pretty nice haul jack. Thanks for showing them. I like the swirly blue Richards camp knife. Good quality knives are getting hard to find here. The last few antique fairs I went to had plenty of little mop fruit knives but that's about it. Although, I was quite lucky in Ampthill yesterday. I'll post that in a new thread. Happy hunting.
 
In my part of the world the pickings are lean but the prices are morbidly obese.
 
smiling-knife said:
That's a pretty nice haul jack. Thanks for showing them. I like the swirly blue Richards camp knife. Good quality knives are getting hard to find here. The last few antique fairs I went to had plenty of little mop fruit knives but that's about it. Although, I was quite lucky in Ampthill yesterday. I'll post that in a new thread. Happy hunting.
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Thanks S-K. Yeah, it's in good shape that one. Often, the silver MOP fruit knives are all I see too, they seem to sell as antiques rather than knives. I'll look forward to seeing the thread on your finds :)

WA Martin said:
Any ideas on what the covers on the three-blade Richards Scout knife are?
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They're just like Imperials Wade. I'm not sure what that pattern was called, fairly common on different Richards knives.
 
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