"Old Knives"

Campbellclanman said:
Love that Northfield Augie ( if I can say that as if the other Knives were kinda ordinary :rolleyes: ).
Nice Haul - That bone is gorgeous on that Whittler.
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Thank you Duncan, those Northfield's are hard to find, I got a feeling most are buried deep in collections.

New York Knife Co did have some very nice bone, they did not appear to have a great variety of jigging patterns but what they did they did very well.
 
Another rare one, Levering A1 Knife Co, New York, 3 1/2" Washington Jack, not much information on Levering, thought to be 1890 to 1930, they were a distributer. After comparing to other knives in my collection I think it might be made by Challenge. Charlie do you have a Challenge Washington Jack you could compare it too?


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Augie, In my opinion your are bang in the money with your suspicions with that being a Challenge made knife, I have a Washington Challenge Jack just like your gorgeous example there my friend, I will post the photo as soon as I can - Our good friend Charlie will no doubt will one and I can’t wait to see what he has in this line :eek::)

You have had some very nice ones turn up lately - well done :):)
 
Found it Augie!
I must update my photo's, this is quite an old Photo and does not do this Knife any Justice whatsoever!
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Campbellclanman said:
Found it Augie!
I must update my photo's, this is quite an old Photo and does not do this Knife any Justice whatsoever!
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Thanks Duncan, they sure look similar but it looks like the Levering has an extra groove in the bolster. Someone on another forum thought they were made by NYK Co, wonder if Charlie has a NYK.
 
Augie I do see that! I didn't even look at my photograph properly - simply saw it was the Challenge and posted it!
Good point- NYK Co? yet the similarities are all there aren't they- I will look forward to see more input- man that's a nice Knife you have there my friend!
I fear your retirement, this means more time on the computer for Augie and lees knives for us lol :D
 
Campbellclanman said:
Augie I do see that! I didn't even look at my photograph properly - simply saw it was the Challenge and posted it!
Good point- NYK Co? yet the similarities are all there aren't they- I will look forward to see more input- man that's a nice Knife you have there my friend!
I fear your retirement, this means more time on the computer for Augie and lees knives for us lol :D
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Two edged sword buddy, also means less money for me to buy nice vintage knives.:)
 
Been entertaining this quick solution on the challenge made Washington jacks, great pictures of great knives as well
 
Any Robert Klaas experts here?
I recently took a gamble on this gnarly old Rob. Klaas barlow because I love old bone handled barlows and this was available at a good price.

However, I'm a bit stumped when trying to find info on this model as A: there are no Kissing Cranes or cranes at all on this knife, the tang stamp on both blades is simply ROB. KLAAS above GERMANY and B: I can't even turn up a post or picture anywhere online of a Klaas barlow that looks anything like this.

My first assumption would be that this knife is maybe pre-Kissing Cranes trademark but I really doubt that is the case since that would date this thing to pre-1890 if my Klaas history is correct. Seems unlikely. I also question if it would say Germany at all if it was that old. My second assumption was maybe this was an old blade swap but BOTH blades are stamped the same and the pivot pin looks completely un-tampered-with to me.

I've attached several photos to get a better idea and so you can see the tang stamp. It definitely feels old to me given the build, the patina, and the wear... the sawcut bone covers are glassy smooth with only a faint hint of the original sawcut texture.

The blades certainly saw some love and appreciation in their day but they're still usable and this old thing still has very confident walk and talk once I cleaned all the rust and pocket gunk out of it and oiled it up.

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Robert Klaas was founded in Germany in 1834. The knife looks original from your pictures. From 1896 to ca. 1940 a Max Klaas (brother?) was an importer in NY. The Klass name was still used at least into the late 1990s.
Your knife looks early, before "country of origin" was required.
 
waynorth said:
Robert Klaas was founded in Germany in 1834. The knife looks original from your pictures. From 1896 to ca. 1940 a Max Klaas (brother?) was an importer in NY. The Klass name was still used at least into the late 1990s.
Your knife looks early, before "country of origin" was required.
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Thanks for the info Waynorth! It definitely feels early to me but I'm certainly no expert.
 
Been a while since I posted an old beauty so I figured I better post a good one... :D I reached out to a fellow porch sitter a while back and mentioned to him that if he ever felt like letting this one go that I would be ready and willing. Good things come to those who wait ;) Thank you fellow porch friend :)

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