"Old Knives"

ProbablyAWizard said:
Very nice! I love the dogleg style. I haven't seen many with the makers marks on the show side of the blade before, that and the long pull give a pretty cool look. Does yours have any spring tension to it? Mine is basically a friction folder at this point, and I'm wondering if it ever had any snap and maybe the tang wore down or if the spring was always basically decorative.
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I think more often than not, these really old fruit knives have very little snap... but at least they're snappy looking 😉
 
Augie said:
Every one I've handled has not had much snap, don't know if designed that way or the soft silver wore fast. They are worth collecting just for the pearl work.


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For sure Augie... I was going to say the same thing about if they were even designed to have much snap in the first place. Often times you can see the blade actually resting proud of the knife frame. I think they are amazing not to mention a lot of people risked their health back then dealing with the MOP. Each one I buy I feel like I am paying tribute to those folks and their amazing talent ;)
 
Augie said:
Beaut of a lamb Steve, congratulations!

Couple decent early Camillus jacks, a 3 line with arched pen easy open jack and a nice bare end 4 line jack, this knife with hammered pins and early bone is an example of why I don't believe the tang stamp charts for 4 line knives.


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I did a couple hours of research on these Camillus tang stamps last night... there really is not much to point to for definitive tang stamp styles between 1916 and 1941. It seemed like Camillus pushed the Sword Brand stamp as their main seller to the public in that time frame but for special run (like military knives) I think it was a mix of the 3 line arch stamp, a 3 line (straight) stamp and the 4 line stamp. Not to mention their plain USA stamps and High Carbon Steel along with a couple dozen other off brand ones LoL. Thanks alot Mr Kastor ;)

I think the 4 line stamp can really be anywhere from c1920 to 1946. It's just that the best documentation available for the 4 line stamp is in 1940's catalogs that are attainable and the early Boy Scout knives they started producing that are documented. I did find some Camillus advertisments from the 20's and 30's but they showed Sword Brand stamps 🤷‍♂️ Curious what everyone elses thoughts are...

I do know that Kastor fought automation longer than most manufacturers (along with Dwight Divine), so hammered pins may have stuck around a little longer.
 
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I havent posted in years so figured I would post an updated picture of my collection of Challege Cutlery knives (~1905-1928)

Some of these predate them being in Bridgeport, Conn and are from when they were in Sheffield and actually even earlier crossing them as BJ Eyre in Sheffield before the trademark was sold.

Ive been accumulating them for a number of years with the gems of the collection being the balloon pattern and serpentine ivory ones that are factory-new. Lots of variety in tang stamps, designs, shields, materials. Some razors, an original box, an inkwell scraper/knife, etc.

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veitsi_poika said:
For sure Augie... I was going to say the same thing about if they were even designed to have much snap in the first place. Often times you can see the blade actually resting proud of the knife frame. I think they are amazing not to mention a lot of people risked their health back then dealing with the MOP. Each one I buy I feel like I am paying tribute to those folks and their amazing talent ;)
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I have one that is all silver and it barely has any snap left as well. I was wondering the same, how much tension the silver spring had to begin with. I recently came accross this video, I hope you don't mind me adding it here. The man shows a two layer all silver knife (it seems these are typically American while the MOP ones are typically British, judging by the hallmarks) and both the blade and pick seem to snap shut rather nicely, which surprised me.



I showed mine already, so forgive me for repeating myself. It was listed as being from the 1860s but I wasn't able to verify it. I couldn't identify any of the marks. I've seen the eagle mark on knives from that same period and somewhat earlier as well, but unlike with British hallmarks where you have a date letter, I doubt you can pinpoint an exact year for this one ...
Given the rough period though, this one should be made of coin silver and not proper sterling.

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A lot if not most of the all silver ones seem to have been owned by women. One can tell by the names engraved on them. Does anyone know if the same is true for the mother of pearl ones?
 
wlfryjr said:
I'd say there's a lot of factual reasoning behind Goin's dating of Camillus stamps, but as we know no one is perfect.:)
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When I wrote that post I hadn't even looked at the Goins description LoL Turns out he says 1919 to 1941 for the 4 line Camillus stamp, which is pretty close to what I had figured out. To think Goins did all that without the internet! I would be pretty dumb without Google 😁 Levine's guide says 1902 thru WWII, so I think we're close.
 
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