Need info on Imperial river side find

craytab

craytab

Joined
Jan 26, 2012
Messages
29,050
Hi All,
I'm far from a traditional collector (I do have a few that I love and cherish) so forgive me if any terminology doesn't make sense.

My old man came for a rare cross country visit a couple weeks ago. I took him to a park dedicated to one of the old canal locks near our city. While we were there he found a rusted up pocket knife. I said I would take a look and see if I could get it open. After sitting in mineral oil for over a week I came back to it today. Took a bit of work but the darn thing opened up. Here are some pics:

Still a bit rusty
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Cleaned up nicely
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From a bit of research I figure it is a Jackmaster barlow from the 1956-1988 era. I'd like to know a bit more information about it if you all have any. I believe the lorox and lannate on the bolsters are a dupont thing but I am not sure. It would be great if anyone knew more about when these words on the bosters were made as it could help narrow down the date of manufacture.

I thought about posting this in the ID forum but figured I might get more action here. Mods, if you feel this should be moved please do so.

Anyway, this was a cool find with the old man. I figured it would be a cheap import completely rusted up and not worth my effort. I was very happy to find a USA Imperial once it opened. Once I sharpen it up I'll through it into the EDC rotation. It was also neat to read up on the history of Imperial. I hope you all can help give me a bit more info.
 
Looks like a company knife. Lorox is a herbicide and Lannate an insecticide, from Dupont. Nice restoration on the knife, looks like a good user and a fun memento.
 
Yup my money’s on it being a advertising Barlow Probably 60s or 70s Definitely a neat find. Perhaps an incentive to get more traditionals?;)
 
black mamba said:
Looks like a company knife. Lorox is a herbicide and Lannate an insecticide, from Dupont. Nice restoration on the knife, looks like a good user and a fun memento.
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Thanks!

WinchesteRalox said:
Yup my money’s on it being a advertising Barlow Probably 60s or 70s Definitely a neat find. Perhaps an incentive to get more traditionals?;)
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It would be really cool to narrow down a date range like that. And as for getting more traditionals, that is a rabbit hole my wallet does not need. :eek:

I have to stay strong every time a see a trad with micarta:cool:
 
Ive seen these sabre ground knives with the old hickory style finish before, this is an Imperial Hammer brand and not a jack master. Its basically a Barlow, but technically doesn't say Barlow on it so some would argue that it's not one otherwise

Here's a jackmaster Barlow.
 
craytab said:
Thanks!


It would be really cool to narrow down a date range like that. And as for getting more traditionals, that is a rabbit hole my wallet does not need. :eek:

I have to stay strong every time a see a trad with micarta:cool:
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If you're interested in traditionals, I have but two words for you: Rough Rider.

Great knives, high quality, sharp out of the box ... They even have a lifetime guarantee.

The best part? An average price of well under $15 or so.
This, of course means you can try out a LOT of patterns, without bankrupting the bank.
(For what it's worth, I think Rough Rider makes more patterns than anyone else does.)

Check out the 'ROUGH RIDER AND RELATED SLIPJOINTS' thread. Lots of good info in there. It's well worth reading the nearly 200 pages. :)

I have to warning you though.
Rough Rider's can be a wee tiny itty-bitty bit addictive.
 
black mamba said:
Looks like a company knife. Lorox is a herbicide and Lannate an insecticide, from Dupont. Nice restoration on the knife, looks like a good user and a fun memento.
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Very likely a promo piece given away by a chemical distributor. The sales reps used to give knives like these away when making sales calls until at least the early 80's. I remember them from my grounds keeping days, the boss used to give them out, generally Colonials. I think that Imperial stopped doing the special order bolsters a few years before production was moved to Ireland. It is likely that the knives were stamped with the name of the particular chemicals for the first few years of the chemical's production, to introduce the brand, so if you can figure out when the chemicals were introduced the knife was likely made about the same time period.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Ive seen these sabre ground knives with the old hickory style finish before, this is an Imperial Hammer brand and not a jack master. Its basically a Barlow, but technically doesn't say Barlow on it so some would argue that it's not one otherwise

Here's a jackmaster Barlow.
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I'm not exactly sure what you are referring to but mine is not a hammer brand and nor is anything you have pictured; my knife and the one you are showing have the same imperial stamp. It doesn't say barlow because a company has put an ad there.
 
craytab said:
I'm not exactly sure what you are referring to but mine is not a hammer brand and nor is anything you have pictured; my knife and the one you are showing have the same imperial stamp. It doesn't say barlow because a company has put an ad there.
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Your knife is an imperial Barlow of course, and it is of the hammer brand line. They may not have stamped them hammer brand but they did list them as such in catalogs.

I know your knife is a barlow and why it doesn't say Barlow on it, what I was saying was just an FYI that there are people who believe a knife has to say barlow on it to be one.

You said you believed your knife was a jackmaster Barlow, so I included a picture of my knife which is a jackmaster.


Sorry for the confusion, maybe I should have been a bit more clear.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Your knife is an imperial Barlow of course, and it is of the hammer brand line. They may not have stamped them hammer brand but they did list them as such in catalogs.

I know your knife is a barlow and why it doesn't say Barlow on it, what I was saying was just an FYI that there are people who believe a knife has to say barlow on it to be one.

You said you believed your knife was a jackmaster Barlow, so I included a picture of my knife which is a jackmaster.
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Well, to be technical, my knife does not have the hammer brand stamp so I do not believe it to be part of that era of imperial knives. I'd be interested if you have information contrary to that; it could certainly help me to better place the time period which this knife was made. I'm not looking for guesses from you. Factual information only please.
 
craytab said:
Well, to be technical, my knife does not have the hammer brand stamp so I do not believe it to be part of that era of imperial knives. I'd be interested if you have information contrary to that; it could certainly help me to better place the time period which this knife was made. I'm not looking for guesses from you. Factual information only please.
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Did you look at those catalog pages posted ?
You can see the folders which are listed and advertised as hammer brand knives appear to use the standard IMPERIAL stamp.

Earlier on there was a hammer brand stamp used on ordinary knives.
 
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A knife does not have to say "Barlow" on it in order to be a Barlow. I don't think I have ever seen anyone make that assertion. Some of the most popular GEC knives on the market are TC Barlows, they don't typically say Barlow on the knife.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Did you look at those catalog pages posted ?
You can see the folders which are listed and advertised as hammer brand knives use the standard IMPERIAL stamp.

Earlier on there was a hammer brand stamp used on ordinary knives.
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I'm trying to figure out when this was made. It does not have the hammer brand stamp. That denotes a specific time period. Call it whatever you want. I'm interested in the markings on the knife. Do you have information on those?
 
Pàdruig said:
A knife does not have to say "Barlow" on it in order to be a Barlow. I don't think I have ever seen anyone make that assertion. Some of the most popular GEC knives on the market are TC Barlows, they don't typically say Barlow on the knife.
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That is my understanding as well.
 
I think in this case the "Hammer Brand" may refer more to the purposely rough forged look of the blades, rather than the Hammer Brand name itself. I think it's fair to put it in that 73-79 range, I am not really seeing that line-up any earlier than that, but do see it listed in the 1979 offerings.
 
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craytab said:
I'm trying to figure out when this was made. It does not have the hammer brand stamp. That denotes a specific time period. Call it whatever you want. I'm interested in the markings on the knife. Do you have information on those?
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It's always very hard to narrow down when an Imperial knife was made when It's got the '56-'88 tang stamp .
This doesn't have the exact stamp shown in those catalog pages of the hammer brand line whicg I'm positive it is.
What I know about imperial knives is that you might see a stamp on the secondary blade earlier on in a knife but not later down the line. I also know they would continue to advertise and sell their knives as something even though they no longer stamped them as such.
I think this knife was made later than those pictured based on the lack of extra stamping.

I googled lorox and lannate and only found catalog pages ( for sale ) going up to 1984, but I'll bet the stuff was around longer than that.
If not that would fit with this knife being later than those catalogs.

You're not looking for guesses, but if you were I'd say late 70's or potentially early 80's but I've only seen the 70's catalog pictures of them.
 
glennbad said:
I think in this case the "Hammer Brand" may refer more to the purposely rough forged look of the blades, rather than the Hammer Brand name itself. I think it's fair to put it in that 73-79 range, I am not really seeing that line-up any earlier than that, but do see it listed in the 1979 offerings.
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I think that time period makes sense. Couple that with what B Bartleby said, lannate was a pesticide made in 1966 which dupont created a brand name for as lannate. Not sure of the history there exactly but they clearly put the name on a knife. I'd love to know more about how that came to being. Might just email them about it.
 
Hickory n steel said:
It's always very hard to narrow down when an Imperial knife was made when It's got the '56-'88 tang stamp .
This doesn't have the exact stamp shown in those catalog pages of the hammer brand line whicg I'm positive it is.
What I know about imperial knives is that you might see a stamp on the secondary blade earlier on in a knife but not later down the line. I also know they would continue to advertise and sell their knives as something even though they no longer stamped them as such.
I think this knife was made later than those pictured based on the lack of extra stamping.

I googled lorox and lannate and only found catalog pages ( for sale ) going up to 1984, but I'll bet the stuff was around longer than that.
If not that would fit with this knife being later than those catalogs.

You're not looking for guesses, but if you were I'd say late 70's or potentially early 80's but I've only seen the 70's catalog pictures of them.
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Links? I'd really like to see those catalog pages of lorox and lannate ads.
 
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