Li'l help with a Goodman Cut. Co. Please

Lostball

Lostball

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Feb 28, 2015
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IMG_1998.JPG I recently picked this up mainly because I like the Ebony and the shield. And I have a fondness for this pattern. The secondary blade with a long pull I thought was unique as well. The seller was upfront about not having any history on it and I was fine with that at the time and still am but after having the knife in hand and looking it over my curiosity has gotten really peaked. I was hoping that with all the knowledge here that someone would have some information on this little jewel. I have done the google search and have come up empty handed. It has steel liners and bolsters and pins with a nickel silver shield. Both blades still have good action and overall I think it's a nice knife for its age, which I'm guessing is in the neighborhood of 75 years??? I see a lot of Schrade Walden in it with the exception of the placement of the rear pin. But that is an observation coming from a novice at this and I'm giving myself a lot of credit just calling myself a novice. :) And as for the long pull secondary blade I can see why not many come with that after using it. The short radius that occurs with opening the blade easily catches your fingernail inside the pull and becomes uncomfortable when opening the knife. Thanks in advance for any information or history you might be able to provide.
 
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tasty tidbit of info, Supratentorial!
Levine's has nothing, and Goins' implies weakly, 1910-1930 for Goodman.
From the clipping above, it looks like a startup at that time. I wonder when they got off the ground? 1894 to 1910 seems like a long time!!??
 
Charlie,that does seem like a long time before they got operational. But as with a lot of businesses there could be a whole lot more to the story than we know about. Obviously they didn't have a great deal of knives with their name put on them for whatever reason. Sounds like perhaps they had big dreams but little vision. Thank U both for that info. At least we have it dated between 87 and 107 years old. Thank you folks for the compliments on it. Even though the main blade rubs the pile side liner a little and she's a little rough around the edges I am drawn to it. I think she still got a lot of life left in her. Got to do a little more cleaning on her and put an good edge on it and it will be good to go. I'm hoping others will chime in on its history as I would really like to have her story. Thanks again to everyone
 
For that date range, Goins' Encyclopedia used a "g" instead of "circa". Goins' uses a "g" for guesses. It may have been best just to leave the dates blank. Unlike other entries in the book, the guesses are not based on research and facts. Dates preceded by a "g" are only a guess based on comparison of example(s) to other knives of the era. Everyone interested in old knives should have Levine's Guide and Goins' Encyclopedia --they're excellent resources-- but this is one example where both are lacking information on a brand.

The 1894 wanted ad tells us when they were starting up. It also tells us that their knives were made for them, not by them. And it tells us their location. But I don't know how long they were around. Some old library in Rockford, IL might have local business records.
 
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It looks about a 100 to me, maybe even pre WW.1 A very interesting item as there seems to be little surviving information on the company and its exact period of operations. I like the all steel construction and the shield, the long pull on the minor blade is uncommon I think. As you point out, it's not actually very practical on a short blade and can make opening in conjunction with a heavy spring, 'challenging'

Regards, Will
 
I know that we could speculate on a variety of possibilities and we could just " what if " this to death. So I'm trying to put on my best Sherlock Holmes here and take the evidence and facts that we do have and extrapolate from there. The news ad from 1894 and the information from Goin's which is a best guess. The fact that this is the only pocket knife example that this small group has ever seen, for the time being. There is no evidence that they ever produced any of the other items that they were hoping to present to the public as stated in the ad and the observation that Charlie pointed out about the time difference from the ad and the best guess of the companies origin, could it be folks, that the company never got off the ground and that the example that I have was a Prototype presented to them for approval by one of the manufactures? I'm still hoping that over the next little while someone will provide some more information concerning the origins of Goodman and possibly how expanded their operation got. My wife and I have been planning on going out west next year for vacation, I'm wondering if she might like to go to Rockford Illinois instead!!!:)
 
Yeeaaah.......I figured I was wasting my time when I was checking the average temperatures for that area in April or May.....:)
 
Thank you again sir, your search abilities are phenomenal. I wouldn't of even thought of anything like that. Are you getting any kind of impressions on who might have actually made these knives? I mentioned earlier that I thought that my knife had some Schrade Walden characteristics about it. Do you share that or am I way out in left field? Thank you again for all your help!!!!!
 
1894 is older than Schrade Cut Co and much older than Schrade Walden. I don't know the exact age of your knife but it's older than the Schrade Walden era. Maybe older than the Schrade Cut Co era. I do see some Schrade like similarity in the handle but the blades look different to me. waynorth waynorth and @ea42 are experts on Schrade. Keep in mind that a regular jack was one of the most common patterns and everyone was making them.
 
Thank you for your assessment. I guess I just can't get it through my thick head that the knife could be that old but I'm certainly no expert. I've not had the opportunity like yourself and a lot of others here to handle a lot of older knives and the ones that I have have had weak or no action to them and this one has such nice walk and talk on both blades. There is a lot of similarities with that old Ulster knife with the exception of the back pin placement. Actually, I believe it's the only other knife I have seen with a secondary blade with the long pull. Your efforts in this search are greatly appreciated. Once again, thank you so much.
 
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