Metal Detecting Find: ID Please

Culprit99

Culprit99

BCCI for Life
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Can anyone give me a manufacturer and ballpark time frame, please? I found it while metal detecting my wife’s family’s Civil War-era farmhouse. I’m guessing it’s from my father-in-law and his brothers growing up. Maybe their dad.

One thing is for sure - with two broken blades, someone got their money’s worth out of it.

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I also can't add anything beyond "jack knife". Looks like jigged bone handles. I don't know enough about manufacturing methods to come up with anything else.
 
Culprit99 said:
Thank you. I didn't know if maybe the shield pointed towards a specific company or not.
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Unfortunately, no, the bowtie shield was/is pretty commonly used (edit: If Charlie [Waynorth] thinks it looks distinctive, maybe it is, he knows a lot more than me about old pocket knives). I can't find a good image showing the various styles right now, but there are a wide variety of shield types that various manufacturers use.

The best way to find manufacturers/dates is usually on tang stamps on the blades, but yours are too corroded for that.
 
No expertise on my part, here. I'll offer that disclaimer straight off.

But the one thing I'm noticing is the apparently rusted bolsters & caps on the handle, which might hint at a pretty old knife. That might point to iron bolsters on this knife, whereas most knives over the last many decades would've more likely been nickel silver bolsters (which wouldn't 'rust' like iron). Some recent-day mfrs. like GEC have used iron bolsters as sort of a niche specialty, as a tribute to older traditional knife manufacturing traits.

Also looks like the handle covers have shrunken away from the bolsters, leaving noticeable gaps. I'm not used to seeing bone covers shrink like that. Others that might shrink might be something like wood, stag, maybe horn, or some type of older synthetic material (plastic, rubber, celluoid, etc.).

All the above being said (or more accurately, speculated), that's a pretty cool find, any way you look at it. :thumbsup:
 
The shield looks more pointed than rounded off could just be wear and tear though.

Trying to think who did more of a pointed end shield than round.
 
No help here, but that is dang cool, thanks for sharing. I'm interested in knowing what it is.
 
waynorth said:
Your relic is compared to an OVB (Our Very Best by Hibbard, Spencer and Bartlett) here!! Aside from no lower bolster, and maybe different blades, they have resemblance!!
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Cool - thank you. There are definite similarities.
 
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Culprit99 said:
Cool. I use Renaissance Wax for some wood-turning finishes and a few other similar things, but I haven't seen this product yet. I'm a big fan of Evap-o-rust. It works by the chelation chemical process - I wonder if this is similar. I'll look it up, thank you.
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It's good stuff :) Their De-Corrodor seems much less common. I have some, but it's pricey, so I've kind of being saving it for that special find :) The British Museum use it though :thumbsup:
 
Its interesting ...the burial conditions that the knife must have undergone. Its pretty well decomposed beyond repair....maybe 100 years....I was listening to a podcast about Otzi the iceman...5000 years and well preserved...down to his last meal....and an unfinished bow he was making...Keep Digging.
 
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