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

waynorth said:
Duncan, that curved "cover" you refer to is a hoof pick. You use it to clear a stone, or whatever a horse might pick up, causing it to be uncomfortable and limp.
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There is a very common feature of these knives though that is apparently not well understood (at least I've never seen a good explanation) -- notice the "scoop" under the hinge end of the hoof pick - it goes all the way across the knife thru all the liners and the scales. You'll see this on many of these knives from many makers. I've even seen people claim that it was for cracking nuts (ridiculous). I've wondered if it was for holding leather leads while working on/with them while repairing tack.

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zerogee said:
There is a very common feature of these knives though that is apparently not well understood (at least I've never seen a good explanation) -- notice the "scoop" under the hinge end of the hoof pick - it goes all the way across the knife thru all the liners and the scales. You'll see this on many of these knives from many makers. I've even seen people claim that it was for cracking nuts (ridiculous). I've wondered if it was for holding leather leads while working on/with them while repairing tack.
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Dwight, the feature you mention was indeed intended to be used as a nut cracker, a little hard to believe I know, but I have seen it described as such in a factory pattern book.

Mick
 
Here's a C1900s sportsman's marked EYE (logo) WITNESS, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND measures only 3 1/2" closed.

I'm showing this knife as I can quote the makers hand written notes for this particular pattern (the knife shown is slightly later made having jigged bone scales, a shackle and is without the bar shield, or the filed bolsters).

Pat no 1701 3 1/2" Stag Sports, nutcrack, 2 bl pen and spear point polished, sloped kicks, iron lined, half filed bolsters hollow at shoulders, sq end solid, clean spring inside, corkscrew and punch at back. Lg sq shield. Glazed tangs and bld backs

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Thanks for looking ..Mick
 
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Mick,

Those are beautiful knives!

Here is an unusual old English Whittler. It was made by or for Broch & Koch, not much is know about this company. Circa 1870-1890, it has horn handles with an unusual heart shaped shield. It measures in at a petite 3" long, brass liners and nickle silver trim.

This is the first old Whittler I have had with a folding button hook, note the very fine nail pull on the rounded edge of this blade.

Dimitri

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Hi Mick,

You can't beat having the original cutler's pattern book for settling any arguments!.Yes, a somewhat later knife, but DEFINITELY a "nutcrack" knife.

I also note that the old Sheffielder's called this pattern a "Sports" or "Sportsman." Here in the U.S. I've heard all manner of names for this pattern, e.g. Horseman's Knife: Carriage Knife and even the ludicrous, Farriers Knife, which is, in fact, a fixed blade!

I believe that there is some importance to the old Sheffield terms. Sadly however, once these terms become "standardised" in the collector's mindset, the correct terms go out of the window! Like you, I'm a traditionalist. Long live the SPORTSMAN'S KNIFE!!

Jim Taylor.
 
What happens when you actually try to *use* it as a nutcracker? I can't see it working on anything much more difficult than a peanut shell - not without damage to the knife anyway. And why would they add such a silly function to a sportsman's/horseman's knife? Look at all the trouble it is to make that scoop across all the liners and scales.

True, they did make knives with absolutely stupid numbers of blades and impractical gadgets -- but those were just examples of cutlers showing off, and bait for rich customers who also wanted to show off. They were never intended to be practical.

But two and three thick sportsman's knives were intended to be practical toolkits. The corkscrew is about the only non-task-related tool - but it's traditional on these patterns, and after all, it's not a tool that you can easily use something else for (and the wine was often more important than the sport anyway). But nutcracker? Any rock would make a far better nutcracker than that makeshift design -- and the English countryside has never been short of rocks. I still think that it's a feature that was added long before for some obscure reason which was soon forgotten, and the feature was kept just because they'd always made them this way. If it really was always intended to be a nutcracker, I guess I can forgive them for adding one truly unnecessary, impractical feature.
 
I've actually cracked filberts and hazelnuts with one of those - worked a treat!
Might strain to do commercial walnuts though!?
The small black walnuts my father had at his place would have been easy!
 
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I suspect the name 'Sportsman' had a lot to do with the English concept of man-about-town type. He might loaf about in well-heeled clubs, go off for a days shooting on some estate or take a pic-nic in some pleasant spot. On the latter exercise what better way of showing off to the ladies or other men than by playing the practical card? He can open the wine,slice some tit bits or even crack a nice Brazil if needed.
 
willgoy said:
I suspect the name 'Sportsman' had a lot to do with the English concept of man-about-town type. He might loaf about in well-heeled clubs, go off for a days shooting on some estate or take a pic-nic in some pleasant spot. On the latter exercise what better way of showing off to the ladies or other men than by playing the practical card? He can open the wine,slice some tit bits or even crack a nice Brazil if needed.
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Brazils are tough nuts to crack!!
 
waynorth said:
I've actually cracked filberts and hazelnuts with one of those - worked a treat!
Might strain to do commercial walnuts though!?
The small black walnuts my father had at his place would have been easy!
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Charlie, filberts and hazelnuts I could see -- but I think we must have a very different definition of what a "black walnut" is. We had a couple of huge black walnut trees in our front yard when I was a kid in Arkansas - produced plenty of black walnuts, which have a thick outer meaty husk that has to be removed first (not by hand though - it would stain your skin very dark brown and/or purple for a long time). We normally got these off by scattering them in the gravel driveway and simply leaving them for a while - the outer husk would come off after two or three weeks of being run over and over and subjected to the weather. The inner nut portion was about an inch or so in diameter and hard as all get out -- being run over on a gravel driveway a number of times didn't bother them at all. Nothing short of a large rock and a hammer was practical for breaking these things open if you wanted more than one or two -- the meat was worth the effort though.

This is the black walnut I'm familiar with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_nigra
 
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Dimitri, thanks for adding your sweet little Broch & Koch penknife to this thread, love that heart shaped shield, could it be German made ?...

Thanks for the comments Dwight, it does seem a little "over the top" making a complex sportsman's knife and adding a feature for cracking nuts, I'll try and find a few and experiment, I'll add the results to this thread.

Charlie, I think hazelnuts would be the prime nut to crack, my Granddad says he and others used to gather huge quantities every autumn.

willgoy said:
I suspect the name 'Sportsman' had a lot to do with the English concept of man-about-town type. He might loaf about in well-heeled clubs, go off for a days shooting on some estate or take a pic-nic in some pleasant spot. On the latter exercise what better way of showing off to the ladies or other men than by playing the practical card? He can open the wine,slice some tit bits or even crack a nice Brazil if needed.
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:rolleyes:, ahh ...those were the days.

Here's another...perhaps for Sundays ??

Marked J BROAD, SHEFFIELD, WARRANTED C1870-80s, 3 3/4", this fine sportsman's has wonderful thick pearl scales, fileworked stone hook , the backsprings are fileworked on the underside.

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Thanks for looking...Mick
 
Zerogee,

Plainly, you have made your mind up about the nutcracker. I doubt that I could change it, some folks are like that. However, I recall that when I lived in England (Sheffield,) I read about the nutcracker one day in the Sheffield Star. (daily newspaper)

It was reported that the Victorian coachmen used this implement whilst driving their coaches along. They would gather Walnuts, Hazel Nuts (filberts) and Almonds from the overhanging trees as they drove along and found the cracker to be of immediate use.

Regrettably, I can't prove any of this. I assure you though, I'm NOT making it up. That tool IS a nutcracker and has always been known as such in Sheffield.

Jim Taylor.
 
I have heard from a very knowledgeable collector,as well,that it is a nutcracker .
Mitch & all,what a magnificent thread :thumbup:

PS I think Charlie is on to something.The nuts were probably thinner shelled
-Vince
 
sebago said:
It was reported that the Victorian coachmen used this implement whilst driving their coaches along. They would gather Walnuts, Hazel Nuts (filberts) and Almonds from the overhanging trees as they drove along and found the cracker to be of immediate use.

Regrettably, I can't prove any of this. I assure you though, I'm NOT making it up. That tool IS a nutcracker and has always been known as such in Sheffield.

Jim Taylor.
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Jim, perhaps I just have a very different view of what it takes to be a practical nutcracker for roaming about -- I grew up in the hills of Arkansas with black walnuts and hickory nuts and pecans -- only *some* of the pecans would you have any chance cracking with a sportsman's knife (pecans in the wild aren't "paper shells"). Thin/weak shelled nuts like hazel nuts, almonds, and English walnuts we got at the store, not roaming the countryside, so I don't think of them in terms of "sportsmen" or fat of the land -- those I might believe, though I still think it would be hard on the knife (and for the most common sizes of sportsman's knives you'd be limited to quite small nuts -- observe how small the scoop and the usable opening of the hoof pick would be even for the 3 3/4" sportsman's knives in this thread). It must be admitted, having the feature doesn't harm the functionality of the rest of the tools or the knife in general - just makes it more of a pain to build.
 
zerogee said:
Jim, perhaps I just have a very different view of what it takes to be a practical nutcracker for roaming about -- I grew up in the hills of Arkansas with black walnuts and hickory nuts and pecans -- only *some* of the pecans would you have any chance cracking with a sportsman's knife (pecans in the wild aren't "paper shells"). Thin/weak shelled nuts like hazel nuts, almonds, and English walnuts we got at the store, not roaming the countryside, so I don't think of them in terms of "sportsmen" or fat of the land -- those I might believe, though I still think it would be hard on the knife (and for the most common sizes of sportsman's knives you'd be limited to quite small nuts -- observe how small the scoop and the usable opening of the hoof pick would be even for the 3 3/4" sportsman's knives in this thread). It must be admitted, having the feature doesn't harm the functionality of the rest of the tools or the knife in general - just makes it more of a pain to build.
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Dwight, you make some good observations, sportsman's knives measuring less than 4" were regarded as "boys knives", Sheffielders used to call them "Lilliputs". I suppose the inbuilt nut cracking feature was a popular selling point on larger knives, sold well, so knives of all sizes were made that way ?.

Mick
 
Dwight, I merely wished to refute your comment: "RIDICULOUS," regarding the use of the nutcracker on many Sheffield sportsman knives. Perhaps now that we settled the matter, we can get back to the splendid knives that Mick has adorned this thread with?

Jim Taylor.
 
Mick

The middle liner of those sportsman knives protrudes above the bolsters. Did that serve a purpose?
 
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