Old Colonial Barlow Advertising knife.

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OHALLUM

OHALLUM

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I have an old Colonial Barlow advertising knife that a good friend from my Church gave me about a year ago. I knew that it was an advertising knife, but could never make out what it was advertising in the low light in my house. The advertising is faded and worn away enough to tell something was there, but hard to read. I thanked her for it and added it to my collection. I cleaned it up as there was some rust and pitting on the blades. It cleaned up nice and I sharpened it up where it would shave hair and push cut newsprint. Nice little knife, and I was proud to have it, since I had had a barlow when I was a kid. Fast forward to today: I was at my workbench sharpening some knives and checking on my collection to see if any needed any cleaning and oiling. I have a large 4 tube florescent light fixture right above my Paper Wheel set up. I got to looking at the barlow, and could see some light wording on the scales. Got out the old magnifying glass and looked closely at the scales. To my surprise (I do live in Georgia by the way :D) I could make out the wording on the scales. They read.....

LOYAL ORDER OF KKK and on the other side is a figure of a man in his pointy hat sheet outfit :eek: I brought it up and showed the wife, and she said "you need to get that thing out of this house!" Of course I am not going to, but I was really shocked about the whole thing. I bet I am the only one on my block with such a knife. I am enclosing a picture of it although you can't see the wording in the picture. The side showing in the picture is of the figure in the hat

DSC00202.jpg

Blessings,

Omar
 
I must be blind - cannot see a thing except a cream colored synthetic handle (guess that is why it was an "invisible empire"). OH
 
If you look real careful, you can make out the pointed hood between the middle pin and the lower pin next to the bolster. It doesn't show up much on the bad picture.

Blessings,

Omar
 
I think things like this are quite intriguing, we all know that groups like this exist - on both sides of the racial beliefs, but when its on a knife-I think it makes the knife a whole lot more interesting - there are of course the replica big Bowies that had quite a number of famous or infamous etchings, I do remember the big Bowies had a KKK model.
That's a very tidy, and nice Barlow-its a keeper for sure!
 
I'm not able to see it from the photo. Perhaps a different angle? Different lighting? Interesting specimen, never heard of that on a knife scale...
 
I might keep it, but wouldn't carry it. Bad juju!

Years ago (in the 90's) at a gun show, I saw a knife for sale with a tribute to the kkk on it. I asked how old it was, assuming it was something historical. The seller told me it was brand new. It was by a well known knife company that I don't want to besmirch by naming. I boycotted them for years, until with the aid of this newfangled thing called the internet I could do some research. Found out it was an aftermarket job. They had a very strongly worded statement on their site about it.
 
r8shell said:
I might keep it, but wouldn't carry it. Bad juju!
Click to expand...

r8shell, I have had this knife for over a year and have shown it to numerous people, and only last night realized what was on it. You have to be looking for it to see it as it has no coloring on the letters or the figure, and it has worn down quite a bit. I was just looking at it closely under a good light and happened to make out the KKK on it, so I started looking with a magnifying glass, and saw the rest of the letters. I don't carry it, and never have, but only because it was an old Barlow and I wanted to keep it in its cleaned up shape as a collection piece only.

My EDC is my #6 Opinel, and it will probably remain that as it just fits my EDC requirements. I certainly don't need any bad juju, whatever that is. I have a hard enough time just making it from day to day in this old worn out body of mine without adding anything to it! :(

Blessings,

Omar
 
I have a few Colonial Barlows and Electricians knives that have adverts on them but I don't have one like that.
 
Ladies and Gents, It's time to let this one drift down into the archives.
 
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