Sailors knife.

J

jackknife

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
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I have not seen one of these in a coons age. I know Camillus made one that looked traditional, but their're gone now.

Is there any company left that make a old fashioned sailors knife like my grandad had, complete with stag scales?
 
You know... I haven't seen one of these in ages.
I think the last one I saw was by Buck back awhile... with the marlin spike.
The scales definitely weren't stag.

Huh.... you know this would be a great pattern to revive.
I'm surprised no one has done so.

The closest knife now is probably by Myerchin.
They aren't strictly traditional but don't come off as purely tactical. (IMHO)
http://www.myerchin.com/riggingfolders2.html
 
There's this, but I honestly don't know what I think of it... Though it's certainly not "traditional". I wonder what it'd look like with some stag handles? :)

-- Sam
 
I have a couple Okapi's from Ragweedforge. At 6 bucks each these Sailor knives are a bargan! I use mine quite often for everyday chores. They lack Mall Ninja appeal though...hehe
 
West Marine still have the Camillus on their website, both the jigged Delrin "US Navy" version and the smooth version. I don't know for how much longer.

http://www.westmarine.com/ and search for "knife".

Here is a similar knife I bought used a few years ago

Rigger1.jpg


This is (probably) Canadian military surplus. All carbon steel with cheap plastic scales. Huge numbers were made by many different manufacturers for British and Commonwealth forces. These show up for sale fairly regularly.

When discussing these, by the way, it's marlinespike, not marlin spike. If you doubt it, check post #12 here

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=461216

or face the wrath of Bernard! :D
 
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

"Marline spike, Marling spike (Naut.), an iron tool
tapering to a point, used to separate the strands of a
rope in splicing and in marling. It has an eye in the
thick end to which a lanyard is attached. See Fid.
[Written also marlin spike]"
 
I have an old British military marlinspike, I think its a Spencer. The oil that was all over it filled a small medicine cup by the time I was done scraping it off of there.

I owned the green scale Camillus marlinspikes, and the Buck marlinspike. I should have never ever gotten rid of the Buck model. The Camillus model I found at a gun show with the traditional jigged scales was junk as far as I am concerned.

Man, I miss that Buck!
 
Interesting. Thanks for the reference. I didn't know the "marlin" spelling went back so far. Brion Toss, http://www.briontoss.com./, in his excellent book The Rigger's Apprentice insists that it should be "marlingspike". I've never seen that usage outside a dictionary, but Toss is another of those guys too knowledgeable to argue with.

Anyway, I think this particular horse expired some time ago. "Marlin spike" is the most common form I see these days. Pedantry is hard and unrewarding.

iSaur
 
Hi everyone. Forgive the repetition as I have posted this before. I hope that maybe someone has some information on this one. It has stag scales and is simply marked Hunter Sheffield. On the reverse side of the blade it has the broad arrow I mark. I believe indicates it was government issue for use in India likely during Victorian times but could be early 1900s. I can not seem to find anything definitive on the maker or time period. Any information would be greatly appreciated. It is just over 5 inches long and very heavy. Not a pocket edc. If only this one could talk. I bought it from a fellow collector in Texas, who bought it from a guy in Alaska. Now back home from its trip around the world. Obviously,saw considerable use. I wonder what kind of scrapes this one has survived over the 100 odd years.

Hun-3.jpg

Hun-4.jpg


iSaur. Your's is an e.g., of a traditional sheffiled made c WWII Army pattern. It may be relatively inexpensive but they have incredible springs and the
handle is made of a virtually indestructable material called Bexoid which is perhaps why there are so many still around. The gov't issued version for Canadian forces had the broad arrow encircled by a C. I don't have one but I am sure someone does. This is an e.g. of an WWII British forces GI knife.

Knives007.jpg

Knives008.jpg
 
smiling-knife said:
Hi everyone. Forgive the repetition as I have posted this before. I hope that maybe someone has some information on this one. It has stag scales and is simply marked Hunter Sheffield. On the reverse side of the blade it has the broad arrow I mark. I believe indicates it was government issue for use in India likely during Victorian times but could be early 1900s. I can not seem to find anything definitive on the maker or time period. Any information would be greatly appreciated. It is just over 5 inches long and very heavy. Not a pocket edc. If only this one could talk. I bought it from a fellow collector in Texas, who bought it from a guy in Alaska. Now back home from its trip around the world. Obviously,saw considerable use. I wonder what kind of scrapes this one has survived over the 100 odd years.

Hun-3.jpg

Hun-4.jpg
Click to expand...

That looks like one of those knives I'd just love to hear talk!

It's traveled under sail I'll bet.
 
I have one I picked up a few years back. An I*XL Sheffield England model. Not sure of its age but the back springs on this monster are real nail breakers.

STR
 
Thats an odd one. It has both stainless and inox which also means stainless so it is doubly stainless. INOX appears on Spanish, German, French, Japanese etc knives. IXL was the traditional mark of Wostenholm. I believe there was a time (1980s) when Parker made I*XL knives in Japan but it does say Sheffield England. So I am confused.
 
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