Old cast-iron pocket knife..

G

gben

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Nov 26, 2014
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I never saw a knife like this before. It seems to be cast iron. Stamp on blade is hard to read, something like Cxxxxx knife company". Any info on it appreciated:

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A close up of the tang stamp would be very helpful! I think you might have a shell knife there, which was a metal frame that had a plastic covering on it that came in a variety of colors and patterns. Colonial and imperial come to mind as makers, but I am sure there were others also.
 
Ernie1980 said:
A close up of the tang stamp would be very helpful! I think you might have a shell knife there, which was a metal frame that had a plastic covering on it that came in a variety of colors and patterns. Colonial and imperial come to mind as makers, but I am sure there were others also.
Click to expand...

Some also had metal covers that were painted or plated.
Some of the old "Boys Knives" had cheap metal covers, but the same blades as the "adult" knives of the same pattern.
 
I think shell was considered because we cannot see the pin in the heel or the center pin for the back spring in the picture. The blade pivot pin is visible, which as far as I know is not common on a shell knife.
I've heard of knives with a cast handle. I don't know who made them or what years they were popular.
Is the handle rusty, or could it be bronze and not cast iron? I have seen weathered bronze that looked about the same color, is why I ask.

EDIT
I must have quoted someone and my comment after didn't stick around.
I don't recall saying the above.
 
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Cast iron knife handles have an interesting history. Aluminium, and other metals, have also been cast for knife handles though.
 
Northfield first made inexpensive cast iron handled jacks under Samuel Mason's patent starting in 1862, according to Levine's guide. They were popular low end knives until the 30's, when the pressed sheet steel shell handled knives replaced them.
 
I renewed the links to the photos of this thread and added a photo of the tang stamp, Thank-you to those who contributed thoughts and information on this knife.
 
Bartleby said:
Northfield first made inexpensive cast iron handled jacks under Samuel Mason's patent starting in 1862, according to Levine's guide. They were popular low end knives until the 30's, when the pressed sheet steel shell handled knives replaced them.
Click to expand...

See the GEC book for more on that :thumbsup:
 
I took the liberty of playing with the tang stamp photo, changing the color/contrast, etc.
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It definitely says Knife Company, but I still can't make out the top line. Might start with a C or possibly a G, and I think I see some A's and T's in there....:confused:

Camillus?
Cattaraugus?
Canton?
 
Thanks for trying. It looks like a maximum of six or seven letters, but of course some of it may be completely missing. I live on the south shore of Lake Erie half way between Cleveland and Buffalo and there has been so many knife manufacturers around here for so many years it could have been any one of dozens I imagine.
 
Top line to me, almost looks like it starts with "CAA" I can't make anything out after that.
 
What do you guys and gals think of "Canton Knife Company" the parent of the "Novelty Cutlery Company" mostly of Celluloid covered knives but branching out to other cover materials.

Anyway, that's what I got from pg. 132 - 139 of LVG4.
 
Modoc ED said:
What do you guys and gals think of "Canton Knife Company" the parent of the "Novelty Cutlery Company" mostly of Celluloid covered knives but branching out to other cover materials.

Anyway, that's what I got from pg. 132 - 139 of LVG4.
Click to expand...
DING DING DING!
I think we have a winner, thats what it looks most like to me once you suggested it.
 
Canton is a possibility, and it is interesting that Samuel Mason started a knife factory in Canton in about 1871 and ran it until 1875, and he held the patent for a pocket knife made of iron, textured on the outside to simulate horn, and with a place to engrave something on the side.The patent describes this knife almost exactly.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US36321
 
I'm leaning toward Canastota Knife Co. If you look at the arched stamp of the name, you can see that the right side is missing (both the name and the word Company are missing letters). Looking at the length of the words, the full name is probably about nine characters long (see how the length of the name, if you could see the entire name through the entire arch to the right side that is obviously missing, compares with the length of the words Knife and Company, they are similar font size so they are easy to compare. Canton is too short to take up that much space on the stamp. The arched name would be symmetrical and extend the same distance on both sides of the word Knife if the entire stamp were visible.
 
lambertiana said:
I'm leaning toward Canastota Knife Co.
Click to expand...

Do you have any examples of Canastota knives to compare this one to? I looked through the entire vintage Canastota catalog which that town's library has available to browse and all of their knives are of much higher quality than this one, and all of the marks on their blades are much different, typical of this page below, so I see no reason to suspect this is a Canastota knife right now:

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