Old Vs New

Shing

Shing

Joined
Feb 2, 2003
Messages
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I went to a meet of the ECCUM in Sheffield England yesterday, there was a dealer who had a lot of Sheffield made knives mostly modern ones that I didn't like much but he also had half a dozen knives made by William Rogers, a mid market manufacturer and not as good qaulity as Joseph Rodgers or George Wostenholm. These were old new stock made 50 years ago and still in the original packing. They were slim unequal jacks with horn scales and no bolsters. The blades are hand forged carbon steel and the knife is completely hand made with the most basic tools.

Both blades has crisp walk and talk and a smooth action. There are some rub marks on the blades, both are crocus polished. The cost is £22.50 or about $40. compared to thee Case and Boker knives I bought a few years ago, there is no comparison. The fit and finish is much better and the blades have distal tapers with thin edges. They show a level of skill seldon found in any modern knife.
 
Color me jealous :D.
(I agree, even the work of Sheffield makers during the last century is mindblowing then when you consider the tools they used...).
 
Whereas I have absolutely no doubt that the Sheffield knives by the likes of Rodgers and Wostenholm were absolutely superb from the 1950s backwards, I really have to (reluctantly) admit that the same can't be said for their current production.

I have bought some over the last year, and well.... erm... they honestly just don't stand up to quality of finish of, say, a Queen or Schatt & Morgan knife. Its a great pity.

Cheers
Rod
 
What I want to know is how much those knives cost in their day in comparision to the amount of money people had. Did people just expect to pay more for tools back then so makers could spend more time getting it right?
My grandfathers pocket knife is far better then the ones I've seen from today, but for a similar knife today it would cost £200 ($370). Are we comparing like for like?
 
To compare prices to prevailing wages, I have some Maher & Grosh ads from the 1880s and 1890s. They list typical wood-handled two-blade jacks from $0.50 to $1.00, with fancier models going higher in price. When you consider that typical wages then for general labor were about $1/day, think about how much a typical laborer will make today (e.g., construction, mining, ranching, etc). Would you spend a day's pay for a simple pocketknife? They did. And often, too. I heard that Remington did a study in the 20s or 30s that showed that the average half-life of a pocketknife was 2 years. So the average Joe would probably buy a knife every 3-4 years.

I have a couple of the old Maher & Grosh knives, they were well made. I collect antique slipjoints, and there are a number of brands from the pre-WWII era that were very high quality.
 
so with that in mind we'd have to compare something from the likes of Stan in which case they are good. Only trouble is Stan is in his 80's and has a four year waiting list.
I can't afford that anyway, it's a real shame it isn't more common for people to make then like that though
 
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