"Old Knives"

Awesome harness jack waynorth. Have you any information or hypotheses regarding the maker of that knife?
 
s-k, it was made by the same company that made a W.D.Herbert HJ. The fellow that owns it wouldn't sell it, but allowed me to scan it. Some W.D. Herberts are marked "Germany" but these are not. A friend in Oregon told me there were some U.S. made ones, and he has a couple (not HJs). Goins and LG4 are strangely silent on this tang stamping. Now you know what I know!
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This past Thursday evening, Tony and I went to the Western Indiana Knife Collectors Club meeting in Greencastle, Indiana...had a great time...copius amounts of CE'n and CF'n was had by all. Tony picked up this 3 1/16" Empire serpentine jack. Notice how the ebony handles on this little knife round over perfectly to the edge of the liners(custom slip joint knifemakers take note :) ). Also, checkout the nice cut swedge on the inside of the pen blade to facilitate access to the long pull of the master blade.

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Decent Empires are rare. It's an old company, that was actually quite large. Made a lot of contract knives.
That's a nice one, and indeed a lesson for custom makers who want to make make truly traditional style knives!
 
The rear handle has "peachseed" jigging, done by a machine invented by George Schrade. The front appears hand jigged and probably older. Could be a factory repair?? It is a nice, and interesting knife, knowtracks.
 
This thread has me dismantling parts of a display, just to show off old knives. Why, I ask myself??:confused:
I hope this knife explains it a little. I love this knife.
It shows what Empire Knife Co. was all about, which is fine, superior knives.
A simple jack, wood handles you say?? Hah! Take a close look; first, it has the arguably older tang stamp featuring W.Winsted, on the pen blade, so possibly an earlier transition knife. Then the handles are a yummy chocolaty brown color, and the grain feature matches some ebony knives I have. I thought it was cocobola, but I'm pretty sure now it's a version of ebony I have seen before.
Then you see nicely styled blades, wonderfully swedged, rat-tail bolsters, and you hear and feel thunderous snap!!
Top it off with a nice shield, and timely patina, and it doesn't get much better in the world of collecting old knives!! I'll grant you Stag is hard to beat, but this one has a more subtle beauty.
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Very nice everyone. Thanks for showing those fine old examples.

In keeping with the jack knife theme... this one is quite old. It is almost 5 inches long. Taylor's Eyewitness knives were made by James Veal which then became Needham, Veall and Tyzack at the end of the 19th century. It also has the flush-end construction as shown earlier in the thread.

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Keep posting everyone! This is wonderful to get to see these treasures! Thanks for sharing them! Great knives & great photos!
 
Stunning old knives, s-k and Kerry! Real old, that's what I like!!
 
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