Osborn's Rustless?

B

boy&hisdogs

Joined
Dec 9, 2015
Messages
392
One of my favorite things about buying old user knives on Ebay is when they throw in a couple junkers with the one knife you actually want, just to clean out their bulk-bought inventory. Well, one man's junk is another's novelty. :D

I was buying one of my many USA Old Timers and this little guy and another broken knife were included in the auction. I've spent some time on google on a few occasions in the past year or so that I've had it and turned up absolutely nothing.

It has (had) two opposing blades on a single spring, and just has these liners, no covers or bolsters. The broken blade has the exact same tang stamp as the good one. "Rustless" on one side, and "stainless steel" on the other.

Does anyone know what this is? Who made it, when, where, etc? A nice anecdote never hurt either. ;)

EnUo9Vz.jpg
 
Yep, it'll have to wait until tomorrow now, late here, but will try to provide some answers then :thumbsup:

Just posting this for now ;)

 
Last edited:
waynorth said:
Chin up old Buddy!! I hope everything is OK??
Click to expand...

Thanks Charlie :) Just a long day. Unfortunately I spent half the night thinking about Osborn Steel! :D I'll try and get something written up this afternoon, after I finish work. Sorry for the delay :thumbsup:
 
First of all, what you have there is a Sheffield-made Oval Penknife with advertising for Sheffield steel-maker and engineering firm Samuel Osborn & Co. Knives like this were given away by representatives of the firm. It would originally have had two blades of course. While Osborn’s would have been capable of making penknives, it was almost certainly manufactured for them by one of the many Sheffield cutlery companies specializing in penknives of this type. Like many advertising knives, the name of the actual manufacturer does not appear on the tang-stamp.

Im1867WD-Osborn.jpg


Samuel Osborn was born at Banner Cross, Sheffield (just up the road from where I grew up) in 1826, but while his father was a cutler, it was in the steel industry which Samuel made his name. You can read more about his life, and about the company he established, here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Osborn_&_Company and https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Samuel_Osborn_and_Co

By the time Harry Brearley invented stainless steel in 1913, Samuel Osborn & Co were already well-established. Brearley had worked for one of the company’s competitors, Thomas Firth & Sons, and after Firth’s had finally woken up to the usefulness of his invention, Brearley, being aware of the particular importance of correctly heat-treating the new steel, recommended that it should only be sold in the form of heat-treated cutlery blanks. This would also have allowed Firth’s to retain control of the steel of course. With typical arrogance, Firth’s ignored the advice. Harry Brearley’s accounts of this period make for fascinating, if somewhat exasperating reading. Firth’s were also negligent in terms of establishing patents for the new steel.

Eventually, despite a reluctance to adopt it, stainless steel was celebrated, made by a number of Sheffield steel-makers, and used by a large number of tool and engineering firms, as well as cutlers. While ‘Firth’s Stainless’ or ‘Firth-Brearley Stainless’ is seen on many early stainless blades, we also see ‘No-Rus’, ‘Non-Stain’, ‘Non-Rustable’, ‘Everbright’, ‘Dura-Lustra’, ‘Rodgers Stainless’, ‘Rusnorstain’, and many more, including Samuel Osborne’s ‘Evershyne’.

Returning to your knife, I have a reasonable-sized collection of similar knives (not all advertising knives and not all stainless), including an advertising penknife for Samuel Osborn. The form is different, and it bears the trade name of Osborn’s stainless steel. Like many advertising knives, including your own, it does not carry the name of a manufacturer on the tang. Comparing it to other knives in my collection, I think that it may have been manufactured by Joseph Rodgers.

Osborn Evershyne Penknife.JPG

I have a ring-opening penknife, which appears to have identical scales to your Osborn knife, but unfortunately, the tangs also do not give a manufacturer. I’ll keep looking through my collection to see if I can find anything else, but need to get on with some work now unfortunately.

Ring-Opener.JPG

Please excuse me for not including more photos from my collection, and for the extremely poor quality of these, but the light has just blown in my kitchen! o_O
 
Jack Black said:
First of all, what you have there is a Sheffield-made Oval Penknife with advertising for Sheffield steel-maker and engineering firm Samuel Osborn & Co. Knives like this were given away by representatives of the firm. It would originally have had two blades of course. While Osborn’s would have been capable of making penknives, it was almost certainly manufactured for them by one of the many Sheffield cutlery companies specializing in penknives of this type. Like many advertising knives, the name of the actual manufacturer does not appear on the tang-stamp.

Im1867WD-Osborn.jpg


Samuel Osborn was born at Banner Cross, Sheffield (just up the road from where I grew up) in 1826, but while his father was a cutler, it was in the steel industry which Samuel made his name. You can read more about his life, and about the company he established, here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Osborn_&_Company and https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Samuel_Osborn_and_Co

By the time Harry Brearley invented stainless steel in 1913, Samuel Osborn & Co were already well-established. Brearley had worked for one of the company’s competitors, Thomas Firth & Sons, and after Firth’s had finally woken up to the usefulness of his invention, Brearley, being aware of the particular importance of correctly heat-treating the new steel, recommended that it should only be sold in the form of heat-treated cutlery blanks. This would also have allowed Firth’s to retain control of the steel of course. With typical arrogance, Firth’s ignored the advice. Harry Brearley’s accounts of this period make for fascinating, if somewhat exasperating reading. Firth’s were also negligent in terms of establishing patents for the new steel.

Eventually, despite a reluctance to adopt it, stainless steel was celebrated, made by a number of Sheffield steel-makers, and used by a large number of tool and engineering firms, as well as cutlers. While ‘Firth’s Stainless’ or ‘Firth-Brearley Stainless’ is seen on many early stainless blades, we also see ‘No-Rus’, ‘Non-Stain’, ‘Non-Rustable’, ‘Everbright’, ‘Dura-Lustra’, ‘Rodgers Stainless’, ‘Rusnorstain’, and many more, including Samuel Osborne’s ‘Evershyne’.

Returning to your knife, I have a reasonable-sized collection of similar knives (not all advertising knives and not all stainless), including an advertising penknife for Samuel Osborn. The form is different, and it bears the trade name of Osborn’s stainless steel. Like many advertising knives, including your own, it does not carry the name of a manufacturer on the tang. Comparing it to other knives in my collection, I think that it may have been manufactured by Joseph Rodgers.

View attachment 793568

I have a ring-opening penknife, which appears to have identical scales to your Osborn knife, but unfortunately, the tangs also do not give a manufacturer. I’ll keep looking through my collection to see if I can find anything else, but need to get on with some work now unfortunately.

View attachment 793569

Please excuse me for not including more photos from my collection, and for the extremely poor quality of these, but the light has just blown in my kitchen! o_O
Click to expand...


Very interesting info Jack I enjoy advertising knives because of the history of the companies behind them. I guess if you are a collector of traditional knives particularly old knives you have to be a bit of a history buff.
 
r redden said:
Very interesting info Jack I enjoy advertising knives because of the history of the companies behind them. I guess if you are a collector of traditional knives particularly old knives you have to be a bit of a history buff.
Click to expand...

Thanks Randy, me too :) The advertising can also sometimes assist in dating the knives themselves :thumbsup:
 
Jack Black said:
First of all, what you have there is a Sheffield-made Oval Penknife with advertising for Sheffield steel-maker and engineering firm Samuel Osborn & Co. Knives like this were given away by representatives of the firm. It would originally have had two blades of course. While Osborn’s would have been capable of making penknives, it was almost certainly manufactured for them by one of the many Sheffield cutlery companies specializing in penknives of this type. Like many advertising knives, the name of the actual manufacturer does not appear on the tang-stamp.

Im1867WD-Osborn.jpg


Samuel Osborn was born at Banner Cross, Sheffield (just up the road from where I grew up) in 1826, but while his father was a cutler, it was in the steel industry which Samuel made his name. You can read more about his life, and about the company he established, here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Osborn_&_Company and https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Samuel_Osborn_and_Co

By the time Harry Brearley invented stainless steel in 1913, Samuel Osborn & Co were already well-established. Brearley had worked for one of the company’s competitors, Thomas Firth & Sons, and after Firth’s had finally woken up to the usefulness of his invention, Brearley, being aware of the particular importance of correctly heat-treating the new steel, recommended that it should only be sold in the form of heat-treated cutlery blanks. This would also have allowed Firth’s to retain control of the steel of course. With typical arrogance, Firth’s ignored the advice. Harry Brearley’s accounts of this period make for fascinating, if somewhat exasperating reading. Firth’s were also negligent in terms of establishing patents for the new steel.

Eventually, despite a reluctance to adopt it, stainless steel was celebrated, made by a number of Sheffield steel-makers, and used by a large number of tool and engineering firms, as well as cutlers. While ‘Firth’s Stainless’ or ‘Firth-Brearley Stainless’ is seen on many early stainless blades, we also see ‘No-Rus’, ‘Non-Stain’, ‘Non-Rustable’, ‘Everbright’, ‘Dura-Lustra’, ‘Rodgers Stainless’, ‘Rusnorstain’, and many more, including Samuel Osborne’s ‘Evershyne’.

Returning to your knife, I have a reasonable-sized collection of similar knives (not all advertising knives and not all stainless), including an advertising penknife for Samuel Osborn. The form is different, and it bears the trade name of Osborn’s stainless steel. Like many advertising knives, including your own, it does not carry the name of a manufacturer on the tang. Comparing it to other knives in my collection, I think that it may have been manufactured by Joseph Rodgers.

View attachment 793568

I have a ring-opening penknife, which appears to have identical scales to your Osborn knife, but unfortunately, the tangs also do not give a manufacturer. I’ll keep looking through my collection to see if I can find anything else, but need to get on with some work now unfortunately.

View attachment 793569

Please excuse me for not including more photos from my collection, and for the extremely poor quality of these, but the light has just blown in my kitchen! o_O
Click to expand...

Wow! Thank you! :eek:

I wish I could "like" this post more than once! It's a shame that these makers didn't put their own name on the knife somewhere. These kinds of knives are so thin and light for the same-ish blades as regular traditionals, I can definately see a market for such things.

But you couldn't goggle a name and have it sent to your house back then. I imagine knife shopping usually involved telling the clerk what you need it for or what features you like and he would make a recommendation. Or maybe you browsed a catalouge, and you would either come across it or you wouldnt't. Some brand recognition still wouldn't have hurt though!

I wish they knew that in the next century there would be the internet, and people like us with nothing better to do than buy dozens of knives and obsessivey research their history on said internet. :confused:
 
boy&hisdogs said:
Wow! Thank you! :eek:

I wish I could "like" this post more than once! It's a shame that these makers didn't put their own name on the knife somewhere. These kinds of knives are so thin and light for the same-ish blades as regular traditionals, I can definately see a market for such things.

But you couldn't goggle a name and have it sent to your house back then. I imagine knife shopping usually involved telling the clerk what you need it for or what features you like and he would make a recommendation. Or maybe you browsed a catalouge, and you would either come across it or you wouldnt't. Some brand recognition still wouldn't have hurt though!

I wish they knew that in the next century there would be the internet, and people like us with nothing better to do than buy dozens of knives and obsessivey research their history on said internet. :confused:
Click to expand...


Thanks! :D :thumbsup: Advertising knives sometimes have a maker's name, particularly in the case of a prestigious manufacturer such as Joseph Rodgers, but I think the position of Osborn's would have been 'Why pay for an advertising knife, and then advertise another Sheffield manufacturer?' ;) I've just been sorting mine out, and it's surprising how many of these knives you can fit in a cigar box! :D :thumbsup:
 
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