"Old Knives"

waynorth said:
You are right of course, Lyle!!:thumbsup:



I'm so embarrassed!:oops:
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I assumed you were asking because of our interest in this discussion, and an affirmation of what we believe. You know much more about old knives than I.

I must take one of the examples I have to the university for confirmation.
 
Yes I was, and I completely mis-thought/typed the word horn for stag!
Thanks for the correction!
 
A question to both my friends Lyle and Charlie.....,

Speaking of pressed Stag or Pressed Horn.
The Pressed Stag - which many people often believe its some Narly Stag Worn down - the Pressed Stag - is this really Stag?

I have looked hard at Pressed Stag examples I cannot see bark or narly popcorn Stag..... so....

Older manufacturers often called Jigged Bone “ Stag Bone”. Is it in this Case as well with the Pressed Stag?
Is it actually Bovine or perhaps second cut or third cut Stag- but Pressed, Pressed Stag to me does not look like it started as beautifully featured Stag before being boiled and pressed.

I cannot recall seeing pressed Horn- perhaps I have in the past and I have mistaken this for pressed Bone!
Does anyone have an example to share?


Charlie...
I made a monumental- well what seemed a mistake - it was more of not thinking when typing - I called Some very nice Stag - Bone- after I was rightly corrected I just could not believe I had called the particular Stag Bone :oops:
 
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Campbellclanman said:
Is it actually Bovine or perhaps second cut or third cut Stag- but Pressed stag to me does not look like it started as beautifully featured Stag before being boiled and pressed.

I cannot recall seeing pressed Horn- perhaps I have in the past and I have mistaken this for pressed Bone!
Does anyone have an example to share?
:oops:
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I wish I could remember where I read that pressed stag is real, but lower quality, stag that's steamed and pressed with some type of mold to give it the appearance of gnarly, barky stag. If I'm wrong, I'll humbly edit this post. :oops:

I have an old Humphrey's Radient that I suspect may be pressed stag:
Humphrey's 1 (1)_001.jpg Humphrey's 2 (1).jpg
 
I think we are all looking for definitive answers. I think featureless stag is sliced, steamed until soft, and put into a press to "impress the stag look" on it.
 
Thank you R8shell- I dont think you are too far off track with this.

I am thinking that as well Charlie-I do remember reading about the German Cutlers and the process of Steaming as R8shell said- but I do remember the Boiling part of it.
Charlie, by sliced are you saying the actual remainder of the Bark is Sliced right off? or sliced thinly enough that a remainder of Bark to add to the pressed effect is left.( Edited to explain the question more... ) so you think that the Colour and some slight texture of a samople of Stag that is not quite good enough to impress by itself- gets to keep whatever texture and Colour it has- THEN Pressed?

Lately I have found myself being more intrigued - more so in fact - in the way I am looking at the workmanship of Bone.
The way Jigging is done, I would LOVE to find a verified Hand Jigged Knife for comparison, there are a few Knives I have here that are early that you would almost call hand jigged- but without comparisons- its a hard call.

I just went through Neil Punchard's Book ( Fantastic Book by the way ) of the Art of the Switchblade- as this features some very early knives, also Mike Robuck's Gun Traders Guide to Collectible Knives ( Another Fantastic book )as Mike has a nice section on Bone in his great book, Pressed Stag is not explored in either- nor is this in Bernard Levine's Edition 4.
 
All nice knives Lyle and great examples of pressed stag :thumbsup: ... but the link above and old documentation defining "pressed stag" is a super search find - as you know all the discussions for a long time now on what is "pressed stag" finally have an answer !! :cool: :thumbsup: ...
 
wlfryjr said:
It's not real stag,but horn in some molded form, as evidenced in the US Treasury decision in the above link.
Here are some more "patent stag" handled knives:
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LongBlade said:
All nice knives Lyle and great examples of pressed stag :thumbsup: ... but the link above and old documentation defining "pressed stag" is a super search find - as you know all the discussions for a long time now on what is "pressed stag" finally have an answer !! :cool: :thumbsup: ...
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What kind of horn is the "patent stag horn" made from? The linked documentation refers to "Deer Horn", which I assume means antler, right? :confused:
 
Thanks Lee, I went through this somewhere on one of the forums a few years ago.

Rachel, I only see the term " appearance of deer horn", unless I missed something. I haven't rehearsed this research I did for a few years now,so I'm refreshing myself. I would assume horn refers to ox or bovine horn unless otherwise noted.I'm not sure that it's not an aggregate of horn (bovine) material with binders?

Stag was the term used in association with antler reference and jigged bone. It would be nice to see a patent application for the process.
 
wlfryjr said:
Thanks Lee, I went through this somewhere on one of the forums a few years ago.

Rachel, I only see the term " appearance of deer horn", unless I missed something. I haven't rehearsed this research I did for a few years now,so I'm refreshing myself. I would assume horn refers to ox or bovine horn unless otherwise noted.I'm not sure that it's not an aggregate of horn (bovine) material with binders?

Stag was the term used in association with antler reference and jigged bone. It would be nice to see a patent application for the process.
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Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't read it as saying "patent stag" isn't made of antler. Maybe there were various different kinds of horn used depending upon availability/cost? A patent application would be nice to see.

sample, marked A: consists of pieces of horn....made to imitate in roughness the natural appearance of deer horn...
...sample marked B: consists of pieces of horn which possess the natural roughness and color of the genuine deer horns...
 
r8shell said:
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't read it as saying "patent stag" isn't made of antler. Maybe there were various different kinds of horn used depending upon availability/cost? A patent application would be nice to see.

sample, marked A: consists of pieces of horn....made to imitate in roughness the natural appearance of deer horn...
...sample marked B: consists of pieces of horn which possess the natural roughness and color of the genuine deer horns...
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I think the examiner of customs is making the distinction with the addition of the adjective deer. At least that's the way I read it. :)
 
wlfryjr said:
Here's some of my other research:

https://books.google.com/books?id=NuY_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA221&dq=Treasury+Decisions+Under+Customs+and+Other+Laws+May+14,1884+synopsis+6352&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjz4vC-g8rKAhWkzoMKHTvHAr4Q6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=Treasury Decisions Under Customs and Other Laws May 14,1884 synopsis 6352&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=sVRCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA437&dq=Treasury+Decisions+Under+Customs+and+Other+Laws+Oct.+27,1884+synopsis+6616&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjU8oSB5IzZAhUlCcAKHXYFBQQQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=Treasury Decisions Under Customs and Other Laws Oct. 27,1884 synopsis 6616&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=THhMAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+penny+magazine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj03vSm6IzZAhVFSsAKHQYjA2QQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=the penny magazine&f=false pg. 161

http://www.oregonknifeclub.org/horn.html
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Thank you for all the research! That oregon knife club article paints a clearer picture in my mind of the horn pressing process. :thumbsup:
 
Thank you Lyle for posting those links.:thumbsup:

The article by Jim Taylor is very interesting.

The Heating of the Horn isn't explained fully- by Steam- by Boiling..?
With the Colouring of Cow or Buffalo Horn - usually the higher percentage of such Horns ( Not Antler ) is very dark- I wonder if the Dark Horn - to be Pressed is bleached in some way to give the Cutler / Horn Processor a start to dye it " back up" to any Colour- or it would then mean that the older interpretation of Horn is Deer Antler? ( Jim Taylors last paragraph is titled Deer Horn ).
Really Interesting Stuff that leaves lots of questions!
 
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