"Old Knives"

I just finished cleaning up my dad's old Boy Scout knife, circa mid 1950s. It was made by Western and you can still make out the official BSA "Be Prepared" insignia. He gave it to me at Thanksgiving, because he knows I like knives. No sheath, he said it had dry rotted years ago. Overall the knife wasn't in bad shape considering the age. I cleaned up the handle with saddle soap and 400 grit sandpaper then finished it off with some mink oil. I cleaned up the guard and pommel with some nevr-dull. The blade took a razor sharp edge, I really love sharpening old knives, that old steel is hard to beat. 20221127_185048.jpg
 
As I was coming home from eating breakfast this morning, I had already crossed the railroad tracks and was 2 blocks from home. Out of the blue, I thought that maybe I had time to run by the Rags to Riches Antique store. I had not been there in a long while and I thought I might find something nice for my son and his wife for Christmas. They get a lot of estate items there, some priced reasonable and some priced high. I stayed there for about 45 minutes, failing to find anything that I might buy as a gift. As I was headed for the door, I walked by a glass display case and noticed this set of Russell knives, all inside a little leather box and high on a shelf. I had failed to bring my close up glasses, just my driving glasses, and could make out the stampings good enough to tell they had some pedigree to them. The whole straight line set is stamped J. Russell & Co., Green River Works, Goins Encyclopedia dates them from 1886-1941. It is a rare find to uncover knives like this in my local area. I came home with The whole set, which includes two more of the natural bone or Ivory handled knives. I need to decide how I want to clean them. Won't be much, maybe just briar wax the wood handles and use some fine steel wool. 😊

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Primble said:
As I was coming home from eating breakfast this morning, I had already crossed the railroad tracks and was 2 blocks from home. Out of the blue, I thought that maybe I had time to run by the Rags to Riches Antique store. I had not been there in a long while and I thought I might find something nice for my son and his wife for Christmas. They get a lot of estate items there, some priced reasonable and some priced high. I stayed there for about 45 minutes, failing to find anything that I might buy as a gift. As I was headed for the door, I walked by a glass display case and noticed this set of Russell knives, all inside a little leather box and high on a shelf. I had failed to bring my close up glasses, just my driving glasses, and could make out the stampings good enough to tell they had some pedigree to them. The whole straight line set is stamped J. Russell & Co., Green River Works, Goins Encyclopedia dates them from 1886-1941. It is a rare find to uncover knives like this in my local area. I came home with The whole set, which includes two more of the natural bone or Ivory handled knives. I need to decide how I want to clean them. Won't be much, maybe just briar wax the wood handles and use some fine steel wool. 😊

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Those are some great finds. I’d say your eyes are just fine… intuition helps too.
SteveC said:
Camillus #17 & #72


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If I had to choose one it would be a hard choice… both excellent knives.
 
Nice finds all, Rob love the Russells.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Added an unusual early 4 line Camillus Scout, looks to have had little use and is unmolested, pretty hard to find on a pre WW2 knife. Has a nice slim blade profile compared to most Scouts, still has Sword Brand etch. Bottle opener has a long line pull instead of a nail nick, punch is fairly long, very pointy and sharp, closest I've found to a GEC punch on a vintage knife.
I searched multiple Scout knife threads and was only able to find one other example of this knife, I'm thinking 1920's, 1930's or so.


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This one has me a little puzzled. A very early Case Bros Little Valley NY 3 3/8" jack knife. Bone is close to the winterbottom bone that was used at the time but with finer jigging, the shield was used by Case Bros at the time. Blades are close to full with great snap and no play,
The tang stamps are what has me wondering, Case Bros used a lot of different tang stamps in the short time they were in business but I can find no examples of a straight Case Bros with a curved Little Valley, most were curved Case Bros with straight Little Valley. Their knives were mainly contract knives when they were first starting up, I wonder if this might be one of those knives.
I don't think it's a fake, it had the appropriate amount of rust, corrosion and dirt in the blade wells. Hard to find any detailed information on early Case knives, any help is appreciated.IMG_0184.jpegIMG_0186.jpegIMG_0192.jpegIMG_0201.jpegIMG_0202.jpegIMG_0204.jpegIMG_0191.jpegIMG_0189.jpeg
 
Augie said:
I'll answer my own question, It has been confirmed as a legit very early Case Bros knife, the tang stamp appears in Gerald Witchers book.
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Lol .................. I didn't have any doubts ! 🤣 Primitive long pull 2 !
I don't have any early Case Brothers. Nice find ! :thumbsup: 😊
 
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