Origin of "Eureka" Jack

Halfneck

Halfneck

Joined
Jun 30, 2005
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So I have always wondered about the origin of the "Eureka" part of this style of jack knife came about. Was it made in Eureka, Oregon? Did some cutler hold up his new style of jack knife and say "Eureka, Ive done it!"?

I turn to those here with more knowledge than me for the answers.
 
Why don't you PM Galvanic1882 and ask him to respond in the thread. IIRC it was his SFO which resurrected the pattern.
 
Just read through all 19 pages. Enjoyable, but no mention on how the name "Eureka" came out.
 
Possibly a pattern introduced or commonly made by Eureka Cutlery Co. (c.1911-1915), Nicholson, PA. It was set up by Charles Platts. Reopened in 1917 as Lackawanna. It stayed in business until 1930. Or not.
 
Innovation drives many successful businesses and is the fuel that starts other new businesses. I think that may have something to do with the story, but I can't really say anything other than it is visually unique and interesting pattern that fits the hand better than expected and does its job well. I'm not sure that the world actually needed this "new" pattern when it came out, but I'm glad it did. It seemed to be obscure in recent times until GEC has produced the pattern again.

Some folks have brought up fixed blade knives and Queen has some nice ones as well as GEC. I'm not up to date with CSC as of this post, but generally speaking, I would be rather comfortable if a fixed blade was chosen as our forum knife.

Ed J
 
1930 EC Simmons Catalog pic
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EC Simmons 1917 Catalog pics
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Jon - Those are dogleg jacks.

The earliest catalog pictures of Eureka jacks that I have are these pages from my 1899 HSB catalog (a few of a number in that catalog). My 1884 HSB catalog does not have any.


 
Darn, was hoping the explanation by Codger_64 would tie it all up. Now lambertiana throws out that 1899 catalog picture lol.
 
Quite possibly the pattern itself goes even further back. Is there one shown in the relic photos of the Arabia cargo? Collectors like to come up with cutesy name for their pets. Most makers used frame pattern numbers, at least until the thirties or so. Find the first mention of the "pet" name "eureka" used for the pattern by collectors. Maybe collectors got their names from merchant advertising.
 
I always thought it was named that because of the shape of the handle, where the "elbow" part of the dogleg pokes out a bit, looks like the California coastline, right about where Eureka, California is located.
 
I will offer this. As jc57 notes, Eureka, CA is the largest westernmost city in the contiguous US and is closely associated with the California Gold Rush of 49er fame. That is 1849.

Apart from any geographic or literal verbal sense (eureka is greek for I have found it), I think the name is simply evocative of an era in US history (the gold rush) that involved hardy men that would have perhaps carried a knife like that.

Archimedes is famed for having exclaimed eureka upon discovery of his principle and the gold miners or panners supposedly exclaimed the same thing upon discovery of nuggets in their pans.
 
Interessting thread about an interessting pattern.

Please excuse my igonarance, but when I read the old catalogue there is most every knife listed with "crocus polished" - this is a term I have never heard before. What does that mean?

Thanks in advance!
 
I'm pretty sure, back in the day , the Eureka was considered the "Cadillac" of jack knives. Now you know,most the stuff I know , I've learned here ,so I say 'pretty sure" , cause I think I've read that here,somewhere. I am ,however forgetting some of it . I love the style of the knife .
 
Humppa said:
Interessting thread about an interessting pattern.

Please excuse my igonarance, but when I read the old catalogue there is most every knife listed with "crocus polished" - this is a term I have never heard before. What does that mean?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

There are a couple of threads on crocus polish, but I will give you the short answer. Crocus is the name of an abrasive that is iron oxide. It doesn't seem to currently indicate a grit (which may be irrelevant because it is so soft compared to most abrasives), as 3M sells crocus paper/cloth of varying grits.

Regardless, the consensus seems to be that crocus polished as used relative to knives referred to an iron oxide polish used in Sheffield on walrus hide wheels to produce a mirror finish. Sometimes you see crocus polished mark side, which gave a mirror finish for display, the pile side evidently being a satin or coarser finish. In the pre-stainless days, finish rapidly became irrelevant, of course.

I have some Norton "Crocus Cloth" that came from my grandfather's hardware store and is probably of prewar vintage. It has no indication of grit, but on the cloth itself, it is probably something like 200 or 400 grit. It occurs to me though, that used on a wheel or belt arrangement, the crocus would break down pretty easily and maybe automatically perform a "grit progression." That is, it starts at 200 or 400 and gets finer and finer as polishing progresses, producing a mirror finish without having to move from belt to belt or wheel to wheel.
 
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