"Old Knives"

It's bout high time I contributed something to this Wonderful thread! :D
I been a Schatt junkie for many years now, so that is what I'm gonna talk about! :p
I will start with the "users" I have picked up thru the years and get to the more pristine examples I have recently acquired later.

Here is a little history of the S&M label for those who wish to read it, from David A. Krauss, Ph.D. His book, American Pocketknives: The History of Schatt & Morgan and Queen Cutlery. was published in 2005.

"Knives have been made at the factory of Queen Cutlery Company of Titusville Pennsylvania for over 100 years. It is arguably the oldest and last American Cutlery that truly continues to produce knives in the same way as they were produced there when the factory opened in 1902; traditional bench-made American cutlery. This is remarkable in this day and age. The factory’s first tenant was the Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Company: Queen Cutlery Company displaced Schatt & Morgan there in 1933. Queen City Cutlery Company first began to produce knives in 1918 around the end of the First World War, incorporated in 1922, and shortened their name to “Queen Cutlery Company” in January of 1946. Queen is now the last American cutlery factory that truly makes knives “the old fashioned way.”

Founded by five supervisors who had been fired from the Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Company which had been founded in 1897 in Gowanda , New York when the company purchased the Platts’ factory there, the company moved to Titusville in 1902, bringing men and materials with them to the new factory location. The two companies were in competition in Titusville for about eleven years until Queen City Cutlery was able to purchase Schatt & Morgan. The story of Queen City Cutlery is so woven from the threads of Schatt & Morgan Cutlery that one needs to know a little of that history also.

John W. Schatt and Charles B. Morgan established the Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Company in 1895. Initially founded as the “New York Cutlery Company” (not to be confused with the well known New York Knife Company) the pair opened an office in New York City sometime in 1896. Some time in 1896 or early in 1897 they moved to Schatt’s hometown of Gowanda New York , and in July of 1897 they purchased the Platts’ cutlery plant there. (The Platts family then moved to Eldred Pennsylvania and on to various associations with the extended Case family.) The company was housed in Gowanda from 1897 until 1902 at which time they moved to the Titusville , Pennsylvania factory where they incorporated. Schatt & Morgan went bankrupt in the late 1920’s, and was sold to Queen City Cutlery in August of 1933 at a sheriff’s auction. The five supervisors who had been fired from Schatt & Morgan back in 1922 were able to return to the place where they had started. At that time C.B Morgan, former president of Schatt & Morgan ended up working for the very men he had previously dismissed. Since Queen Cutlery Company resides in that same Titusville factory to this day, so the story of Queen Cutlery Company really began with its predecessor, Schatt & Morgan.

By 1903 Schatt & Morgan was manufacturing 40,000 dozen knives per year in Titusville and had twelve salesmen on the road with sales all around the country per newspaper reports of the day. Several building expansions were undertaken to keep up with production, beginning as early as 1907. In less than five years the company had doubled the size of their facility to keep up with an ever-increasing demand for their cutlery. The First World War altered the growth of Schatt & Morgan, due to the rationing of materials needed for the war effort, but primarily due to the short supply of skilled workers. The great influenza epidemic of 1918 also took its toll in Titusville and elsewhere. The company was further crippled by the 1922 firing of five of their most skilled workers, all supervising department heads. These were the men who in that same year would incorporate their own business: Queen City Cutlery Company. These department heads apparently had been making skeleton knives (knives without handle scales) on the sly since around 1918 and then wholesaling them out on their own. They were discovered in 1922 and promptly let go. The Schatt & Morgan work force subsequently dropped about thirty percent, or from about ninety to sixty workers that year, probably as a result of firing those supervisors.

Those men, incorporated as Queen City Cutlery, moved about a mile away and began manufacturing cutlery themselves. Ironically, as noted above, on August 21, 1933 Queen was able to purchase the business and all its contents at a sheriff’s auction."

This little "coke bottle" is 3" closed. Has a spear main with a tapered french pull, crisp half stops and a tipped pen secondary.:(
Gowanda stamp, pinned bar shield and the bone is still in good shape! :D
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Dave
 
This MOP beauty also sports a Gowanda, N.Y. stamp. :thumbsup:
Is 3" closed, Wharncliffe main and pen secondary. Still have great snap and only a couple very small chips in the pearl. I will add another pic to this post to show the swedge that runs the full length of the pen blade.
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Dave
 
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This grizzled old workhorse is one of my very favorites!!:)
The stories I wish he could tell........
3 3/4" closed, crisp half stops, "gator" snap! Cut swedges on both blades, french pull on both clip and spey with the spey having pulls on both sides of the blade! :cool: Gowanda, NY stamp.
I believe either Ebony or Blackwood covers, pinned shield, brass liners
I just LOVE this old knife!!! ;)
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Dave
 
Thank You Michael, Paul and Jamie!
Another Wharncliffe bladed pen knife, this one a shadow pattern with excellent bone! :D
3 1/8" closed, the secondary pen has very little snap so I was able to open both blades for the pic. :( The shield seems odd to me, like it has moved but the whole shield is embedded into the bone. Gowanda NY stamp
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Dave
 
Another well used old Schatt... 3 blade Whittler pattern, not a true split spring as it has a tapered brass middle liner. 3 1/4" closed, New York stamp, Spear main with cut swedge and french pull, cam tang, not sure what the secondaries were anymore but I assume a pen and coping blades with drawn swedges and half stops. Still great pick bone and snap!! :D pinned shield
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Dave
 
Another 2 blade Congress pattern, also a New York stamp but with a curved X between the S&M as apposed to the sharp angles of the other Congress I posted, don't know if this designates on older stamp or not? o_O 3 3/4" closed, cam tang on the main and half stop on the pen. Nail nicks both blades, I think originally the main was a Sheepsfoot but not certain. Single spring with "pocket worn" jigged bone still in good shape! :thumbsup: Rat tail bolsters!! Once again no snap on the secondary so I could open both blades for pic!:(
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Dave
 
This is the last of my "old users" ( I know some of you are thinkin...bout time!) :D and the most abused old girl I have.
2 7/8" closed, Gowanda stamp, 2 blade shadow penknife. I think I found this on the auction site :rolleyes: and so of course someone "Harshly cleaned" it! :( Like with sandpaper!!! :mad::mad:
Bone on the pile is broke right in half at the spring pivot pin.....but Hey it's still an old Schatt!! :D
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Dave
 
Mike, Rob, Lee & Gev with their beautiful MOP folders has inspired me to post a photo of some of my favorite MOP examples. From left to right: Dartt & Co. Warranted, Robeson, Richards & Conover & J Russell GRW.View attachment 788588 View attachment 788587 View attachment 788581 View attachment 788580 View attachment 788579

Dripping with class

Some folks have super fancy Colts ~ pearl grips, gold plating, engraving, etc that they call their “BBQ guns”. One of your beauties would make a perfect accessory.

~Jeff
 
It's bout high time I contributed something to this Wonderful thread! :D
I been a Schatt junkie for many years now, so that is what I'm gonna talk about! :p
I will start with the "users" I have picked up thru the years and get to the more pristine examples I have recently acquired later.

Here is a little history of the S&M label for those who wish to read it, from David A. Krauss, Ph.D. His book, American Pocketknives: The History of Schatt & Morgan and Queen Cutlery. was published in 2005.

"Knives have been made at the factory of Queen Cutlery Company of Titusville Pennsylvania for over 100 years. It is arguably the oldest and last American Cutlery that truly continues to produce knives in the same way as they were produced there when the factory opened in 1902; traditional bench-made American cutlery. This is remarkable in this day and age. The factory’s first tenant was the Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Company: Queen Cutlery Company displaced Schatt & Morgan there in 1933. Queen City Cutlery Company first began to produce knives in 1918 around the end of the First World War, incorporated in 1922, and shortened their name to “Queen Cutlery Company” in January of 1946. Queen is now the last American cutlery factory that truly makes knives “the old fashioned way.”

Founded by five supervisors who had been fired from the Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Company which had been founded in 1897 in Gowanda , New York when the company purchased the Platts’ factory there, the company moved to Titusville in 1902, bringing men and materials with them to the new factory location. The two companies were in competition in Titusville for about eleven years until Queen City Cutlery was able to purchase Schatt & Morgan. The story of Queen City Cutlery is so woven from the threads of Schatt & Morgan Cutlery that one needs to know a little of that history also.

John W. Schatt and Charles B. Morgan established the Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Company in 1895. Initially founded as the “New York Cutlery Company” (not to be confused with the well known New York Knife Company) the pair opened an office in New York City sometime in 1896. Some time in 1896 or early in 1897 they moved to Schatt’s hometown of Gowanda New York , and in July of 1897 they purchased the Platts’ cutlery plant there. (The Platts family then moved to Eldred Pennsylvania and on to various associations with the extended Case family.) The company was housed in Gowanda from 1897 until 1902 at which time they moved to the Titusville , Pennsylvania factory where they incorporated. Schatt & Morgan went bankrupt in the late 1920’s, and was sold to Queen City Cutlery in August of 1933 at a sheriff’s auction. The five supervisors who had been fired from Schatt & Morgan back in 1922 were able to return to the place where they had started. At that time C.B Morgan, former president of Schatt & Morgan ended up working for the very men he had previously dismissed. Since Queen Cutlery Company resides in that same Titusville factory to this day, so the story of Queen Cutlery Company really began with its predecessor, Schatt & Morgan.

By 1903 Schatt & Morgan was manufacturing 40,000 dozen knives per year in Titusville and had twelve salesmen on the road with sales all around the country per newspaper reports of the day. Several building expansions were undertaken to keep up with production, beginning as early as 1907. In less than five years the company had doubled the size of their facility to keep up with an ever-increasing demand for their cutlery. The First World War altered the growth of Schatt & Morgan, due to the rationing of materials needed for the war effort, but primarily due to the short supply of skilled workers. The great influenza epidemic of 1918 also took its toll in Titusville and elsewhere. The company was further crippled by the 1922 firing of five of their most skilled workers, all supervising department heads. These were the men who in that same year would incorporate their own business: Queen City Cutlery Company. These department heads apparently had been making skeleton knives (knives without handle scales) on the sly since around 1918 and then wholesaling them out on their own. They were discovered in 1922 and promptly let go. The Schatt & Morgan work force subsequently dropped about thirty percent, or from about ninety to sixty workers that year, probably as a result of firing those supervisors.

Those men, incorporated as Queen City Cutlery, moved about a mile away and began manufacturing cutlery themselves. Ironically, as noted above, on August 21, 1933 Queen was able to purchase the business and all its contents at a sheriff’s auction."

This little "coke bottle" is 3" closed. Has a spear main with a tapered french pull, crisp half stops and a tipped pen secondary.:(
Gowanda stamp, pinned bar shield and the bone is still in good shape! :D
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Dave

Great history and awesome S&M knives Dave in your posts :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ... just a super showing of different S&M patterns!!
 
This history lesson is thoroughly enjoyable, Dave! Both the knives and the beautiful trade beads, some of which are even older than the knives!
That Congress's blade stamp with the curved "X" must be rare, rare, rare!!
 
Thank You Charlie, LongBlade, Mike, Hamsco and Smiling Knife! :D To have the original sheath with that "mariners knife" is Very rare indeed!! :thumbsup::cool:
I will do some more research on the "curved" X tang stamp but I know all the beads shown are WAY older than the knives, by at least 100 years!! :cool:

Dave
 
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