"Made in Sheffield" 1830-1930, A golden age ?

ed_is_dead ed_is_dead Once again you've found some choice items and we all benefit :thumbsup: The Slater presents like a high quality example from new, Ivory being the luxury material even then, its overall condition looks remarkably good and it's in the era too (judging by pattern type, materials and finish) The Harrison does look like an Ettrick to my eye and the pattern certainly can perform many tasks. The etch 'The Docker' is indeed interesting but I suspect it's a piece of whimsy or conceit, the kind of naming you might see on a knife advert or perhaps as some kind of give away knife sent to farmers as a reward or inducement- getting a handy and attractive pocket-knife. The etch also adds to the aesthetics of the knife.

Tail docking on farms is done mainly on Sheep and sometimes Pigs, tail docking of Dogs was once widespread but I think it is now out of favour if not illegal? Thing is you could dock lambs' tails with a pocket-knife but it's not going to be feasible with more than a couple of individuals and most flocks have been large, a small pocket-knife would rapidly become befouled with blood, gore wool and faeces -want to clean that out of the pivot & then carry it about in your pocket ?? Tail docking has been done for a very long time with shear or secateur like tools, often heated up- sometimes an axe :eek: fast and efficient. 'The Docker' would be an excellent Pruner for taking cuttings and dead heading of plants was sometimes referred to as 'docking' too. All in all an excellent item for the collection and decent quality too.
 
Kwackster, your pocket Rodgers bowie pics live in my phone in a file titled BOTB (best of the best). I have spent time taking it all in.
It's an immediately very tactile looking piece. At a guess would you say Victorian? I know very little about bowies.

Campbellclanman, your Rogers Docker is sweet and in great condition. The blade stamping is done very well also which makes it all the more attractive. Do you pocket/use it?

Rockman, the Slater has become a great pal. It's an eminently day to day usable pattern. The saw has come in very handy also. Thanks to Jack's dating of it I do use it with care as its so old, I'd hate to be the one eegit who breaks it after 150 odd yrs of enduring.

Will, I get great satisfaction from seeing others finds and showing the ones I chance across here. As I've often waffled on before they're touchstones of times and people past, some of them drip in history and the use previous custodians gave them.
As to all things sheep related my know edge has increased 33% since the revelation of docking has been explained me. A city born boy such matters were unknown to me.
Previously all I knew was "great with mint sauce" and they were the source of Clarice's childhood trauma :).
In use my Etterick Docker is a fabulous user. Previously I discounted the pattern as an overabundance of handle and undersupply of edge. How wrong I was.
 
Here's one worthy of inclusion I feel.
I finished some very needed remedial work on it a couple nights ago and despite it's large size, it's light and quick in use and gloriously sharp with such a thin grind. Very toothy steel I might add, which I like.

Just over five inch closed and nine and a quarter open.




For those interested in such matters relating to knife repair...
When i got it the locking tab had long since sheared off. The business end left of the pin hole was absent.
I fixed it after removing the broken pivot as below and remaking the part from new in carbon steel. It took four attempts to arrive at the correct angle of the leading edge of the locking tab and relief on the other side so that when the tab was pressed it released yet locked up solid when open.
It was a very satisfying moment when I peened it all shut and it worked like new.



I also scavenged some stag from a donor for a piece which broken away a long time ago.





It worked out well in the end.

I decided not to be sneaky and patina/age the piece I made to match as I usually do as I suppose I feature in the knifes history now so why not let it be known.




Apologies for the overly detailed post regarding it's fixing but I enjoy working on old beasts like this.
 
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Albert Oates

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Baxter

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??? Sheffield

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Taylor

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ed_is_dead said:
Kwackster, your pocket Rodgers bowie pics live in my phone in a file titled BOTB (best of the best). I have spent time taking it all in.
It's an immediately very tactile looking piece. At a guess would you say Victorian? I know very little about bowies.
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At this point in time i'm not sure if this smaller Bowie is Victorian era or a bit later.
I've seen larger versions of this model being marked on the ricasso with a V, a crown, and an R to designate them as Victorian while this knife doesn't have those markings.
But then again it also has a much smaller ricasso, so maybe there just wasn't room for it.
 
kwackster said:
At this point in time i'm not sure if this smaller Bowie is Victorian era or a bit later.
I've seen larger versions of this model being marked on the ricasso with a V, a crown, and an R to designate them as Victorian while this knife doesn't have those markings.
But then again it also has a much smaller ricasso, so maybe there just wasn't room for it.
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It certainly looks old enough to be Victorian and every time I look at I'm impressed by the crisp and balanced looking form.
Perhaps the more educated can make a call date wise based on stylistic or manufacturing methods but as I'm learning that can be fraught with complications as there were at times a revivalist trend to recreate older looks or patterns.
As to the lack of a definitive dating mark even when they are there it can be deceiving. I have a G crown R stamped Rodgers (which I would have reckoned was George IV due to my observations above) but initial findings are coming back as George V a whole hundred years later! Mr Levine is looking I to it.
Either way it's a beautiful knife of great age as is yours and I know we enjoy our stewardship of them irrespective.
Have you more examples for the thread? I especially like seeing your shear steel pieces.
 
ed_is_dead said:
Here's one worthy of inclusion I feel.
I finished some very needed remedial work on it a couple nights ago and despite it's large size, it's light and quick in use and gloriously sharp with such a thin grind. Very toothy steel I might add, which I like.

Just over five inch closed and nine and a quarter open.




For those interested in such matters relating to knife repair...
When i got it the locking tab had long since sheared off. The business end left of the pin hole was absent.
I fixed it after removing the broken pivot as below and remaking the part from new in carbon steel. It took four attempts to arrive at the correct angle of the leading edge of the locking tab and relief on the other side so that when the tab was pressed it released yet locked up solid when open.
It was a very satisfying moment when I peened it all shut and it worked like new.



I also scavenged some stag from a donor for a piece which broken away a long time ago.





It worked out well in the end.

I decided not to be sneaky and patina/age the piece I made to match as I usually do as I suppose I feature in the knifes history now so why not let it be known.




Apologies for the overly detailed post regarding it's fixing but I enjoy working on old beasts like this.
Click to expand...


Very impressed with your repair work. I bet there was a certain "pucker factor" while working on this, yes?
 
ed_is_dead said:
Hey Steve, lovely array of Lambs feet:) The Oates is my pick if the bunch but that bolster work on the much used and no doubt loved TEW is so nice.
Also I'd be remiss if I didn't hollar Locks Up!
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Thanks Ed ! and Locks Up !

Campbellclanman said:
Awesome showing Steve, That Oats as ed_is_dead ed_is_dead said is gorgeous, That Baxter has Bone to die for and I love that stovepipe kick on the White Bone Lambsfoot! Love it!
That TEW is a lovely Old Beauty no matter the wear- it still looks great!
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Thanks mate !

Jack Black said:
Stunning Sheffield Lamb line-up Steve :cool: :thumbsup:
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Cheers Jack !
 
ed_is_dead said:
Here's one worthy of inclusion I feel.
I finished some very needed remedial work on it a couple nights ago and despite it's large size, it's light and quick in use and gloriously sharp with such a thin grind. Very toothy steel I might add, which I like.

Just over five inch closed and nine and a quarter open.




For those interested in such matters relating to knife repair...
When i got it the locking tab had long since sheared off. The business end left of the pin hole was absent.
I fixed it after removing the broken pivot as below and remaking the part from new in carbon steel. It took four attempts to arrive at the correct angle of the leading edge of the locking tab and relief on the other side so that when the tab was pressed it released yet locked up solid when open.
It was a very satisfying moment when I peened it all shut and it worked like new.



I also scavenged some stag from a donor for a piece which broken away a long time ago.





It worked out well in the end.

I decided not to be sneaky and patina/age the piece I made to match as I usually do as I suppose I feature in the knifes history now so why not let it be known.




Apologies for the overly detailed post regarding it's fixing but I enjoy working on old beasts like this.
Click to expand...


Great job Ed !
 
glennbad said:
Very impressed with your repair work. I bet there was a certain "pucker factor" while working on this, yes?
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Pucker factor was high! It's quite likely this maker had limited output of this style, he died young and was only in business a short time.

Hammering a Stanley blade down the side of the lock tab was tentatively done:)
BTW I consider your statment high praise, you sir are a magician. I'd make tea in your shop just to look and learn.
SteveC said:
Thanks Ed ! and Locks Up !



Thanks mate !




Cheers Jack !
Click to expand...
In another hundred years our great grandkids will be calling them antiques;)
SteveC said:
Great job Ed !
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Cheers Steve!
 
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Trubetzkoy said:
Figured I'd bump up this thread with some fixed blades, in different flavors (all earlier than 1937, as far as I'm aware):

rubFtEP.jpg

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Fabulous Rodgers, Wolstenholme and Deakin Bros Trubetzkoy! All in such fantastic unused condition too. Tempting to edge, at least for me:)
The Wolstenholme is my favourite as is an immediately identifiable form I'm most familiar with. My knowledge of fixed blades and bowies is meagre, can you tell us what you know about them?
The stamping on the Rodgers is intriguing, the style would have lead me to believe George V but again I'm not informed. This is relevant to me as I'm facing the same question re a piece I have.
 
Yes, they're very nice items indeed and varied :cool: GR could refer to Geo.VI as well 1937-52 so that would be outside the frame, however, I have a suspicion that the cutlers to HM stopped with Geo.V 1910-36. Just a suspicion mind but given the debacle over the abdication of Edward VIII, then the looming war, it's possible.
 
ed_is_dead said:
Fabulous Rodgers, Wolstenholme and Deakin Bros Trubetzkoy! All in such fantastic unused condition too. Tempting to edge, at least for me:)The Wolstenholme is my favourite as is an immediately identifiable form I'm most familiar with. My knowledge of fixed blades and bowies is meagre, can you tell us what you know about them? The stamping on the Rodgers is intriguing, the style would have lead me to believe George V but again I'm not informed. This is relevant to me as I'm facing the same question re a piece I have.
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Glad you liked the pic! I'd actually say all three knives were fairly well used by their original owners, as they all have sharpening marks and other signs of wear.

Since you asked, here's a bit more information about each knife, ordered by estimated date of manufacture:

1. The Wostenholm is most likely from the second half of the 19th century, as it's stamped Washington Works, in reference to their second factory, opened in 1848. Still, the sheath, which I didn't show in my post, but which is made of leather-wrapped cardboard with nickel silver fittings (of which only the original throat survived), suggests that it's a relatively early example. Perhaps 1860-1870 o so. This is consistent with the lack of the word England or Engl., which, under the assumption that the knife was exported to the US back in the day, indicates that it's a pre-1890 knife (since as of that date imports had to be marked with the country of origin). More pics, as well as some interesting background on the sheath (for which I created a new chape), have been posted here and here.

2. The Deakin was actually not made by Deakin Bros., but by Deakin, Ecroyd & Co. (1868-1874). Though some might refer to it as a bowie, the blade was most likely made for South America, where that shape was commonplace (in what are usually referred to as gaucho knives), and where Deakin et al. are known to have exported cutlery. However, this particular example seems to have never left the UK until I bought it. More pics have been posted here and here, and you can read more about the company here.

3. Finally, the Rodgers is indeed from George V's period, at least as far as I know, since, as Will Power Will Power suggested, Rodgers's royal appointment wasn't renewed by George VI, and the celluloid handle indicates that the knife couldn't have been made during George IV's reign (unless it had been a leftover blade from back in the day that wasn't handled and sold until George V's period). As for the type of knife, based on its length (8"), I'd personally call it a slicing knife, or even a brisket knife, though I don't know what these were advertised as back in the day. As a curious side note, such knives, especially when made by Rodgers, are commonly reground and turned into small gaucho knives (referred to as verijeros) in South America, even today. The bad part is that this practice (which I don't find objectionable per se) is not always disclosed by knifemakers and sellers, so some people buy these knives thinking they're getting an original Rodgers gaucho knife.

Cheers!

Edit: Made some corrections concerning the Deakin knife.
 
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T Trubetzkoy Many thanks for the background and extra links, very useful and objective. The Cell handle is key but I think we can be very sure it's not Geo.IV. He gave out Royal Warrants- great source of freebies for that parasite royal family...and knife makers were included but I think stamping Royal Warrants on blades/tangs certainly was a later thing.
 
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