sleeveboards and lobsters?

B

Bob W

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Dec 31, 2000
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When is a sleeveboard pocketknife a lobster, or vice versa? Or are they exclusively different, each with unique categorical features?

Putting a 'new' knife in the catalog and don't know what to call it...
 
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Bernard Levine probably has a better answer, but I consider a Sleeveboard to be tapered to one end (like an old ironing board) and a Lobster to have four blades (one to each corner).

I'd sure like to see what you're working on.
 
Sleeveboards take their name from the small ironing boards used to iron the sleeves of shirts, they can be jack knives or pen knives. Lobsters have blades coming out of both sides of the knife, with a central spring or springs (in the case of more modern lobsters), and can have as little as two blades. There are a number of different classic lobster designs, including the sleeveboard lobster.
 
How about a couple of hastily-taken snapshots... on the floor... with the wrong lens and no lighting. Still better than my drawing skills. :o

DSC_5096_zpslkvxwtho.jpg


DSC_5098_zpstqjrdloo.jpg
 
Bob W said:
How about a couple of hastily-taken snapshots... on the floor... with the wrong lens and no lighting. Still better than my drawing skills. :o

DSC_5096_zpslkvxwtho.jpg


DSC_5098_zpstqjrdloo.jpg
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Sorry for the time delay due to the time difference. I had suggested a sketch as I thought we were talking about a knife being made for some reason. That's a Sleeveboard Lobster, and a nice one from the look of it :thumbup:
 
Jack Black said:
Sorry for the time delay due to the time difference. I had suggested a sketch as I thought we were talking about a knife being made for some reason. That's a Sleeveboard Lobster, and a nice one from the look of it :thumbup:
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Are we sure it's a sleeveboard? It looks equal-ended from here, but perhaps that's just the camera angle.

Nice, regardless. :)

~ P.
 
pertinux said:
Are we sure it's a sleeveboard? It looks equal-ended from here, but perhaps that's just the camera angle.

Nice, regardless. :)
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You're right P, the camera angle isn't the best. It looks like it tapers to me, but maybe that is an illusion/my eyesight. Bob, can you confirm whether or not the knife frame tapers (ie narrows towards the blade end), or take a photo from directly above please?
 
I would've thought it tapers, it has only a single pin at one end and double on the other.

This Old Rem tapers :D But discretely..;)

IMG_3091.jpg
 
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It does taper, making it a sleaveboard.

So it's the extra blade/tool on the bottom that makes it a lobster?

The maker is Bruckmann, btw. And the incredible m.o.p. is deserving of a real photo some day.
 
Bob W said:
It does taper, making it a sleaveboard.

So it's the extra blade/tool on the bottom that makes it a lobster?

The maker is Bruckmann, btw. And the incredible m.o.p. is deserving of a real photo some day.
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SLEEVEBOARD :thumbup:

It's the fact the blades are on a central spring/springs, and the fact that it is of a small size, which makes it a lobster :thumbup:
 
Bob W said:
It does taper, making it a sleaveboard.
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The taper along the sides needs to be straight to make it a sleeveboard, according to Waynorth's pattern guide. The knife above looks to have somewhat rounded sides, which might indicate it is not a sleeveboard. Hard to tell from the pics. Cattaraugus, Case, and GEC call their pattern a sleeveboard, not sleaveboard. :)

Regardless, it is a fine looking piece Bob ! :thumbup::D

Schrade Sleeveboard:
2h5l8hy.jpg
 
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Jack Black said:
Sleeveboards take their name from the small ironing boards used to iron the sleeves of shirts, they can be jack knives or pen knives. Lobsters have blades coming out of both sides of the knife, with a central spring or springs (in the case of more modern lobsters), and can have as little as two blades. There are a number of different classic lobster designs, including the sleeveboard lobster.
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So this Vic Classic SD by that definition would be a modern lobster?

 
btmccutcheon said:
So this Vic Classic SD by that definition would be a modern lobster?

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It would indeed, but a Coachman's Knife, for example, even though it uses a similar mechanism, would not :thumbup:
 
One of the finest Sheffield cutlers of the early 19th century was James Crawshaw. Crawshaw was Master Cutler in 1828, and according to Sir Richard Philips, at this time, Crawshaw, or more correctly the men who worked for him, made the best pocket knives in Sheffield, and he was ablto command high prices for them. Crawshaw was credited with numerous innovations and improvements, including the Lobster design.

To this gentleman the trade is indebted for what is called the lobster knife, consisting of a spring, which instead of forming the back, as in the old method, is placed along the middle of the handle, and between the scales or sides of the knife, so that it works on each side, and hence admits of blades at each end, and even of any number of them. The mode of slitting the spring gave rise to many bladed knives in all their varieties.
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Crawshaw did not take out a patent on the Lobster design, and it was widely used in Sheffield, and later elsewhere.

To quote Bernard Levine:

Traditional lobsters use Crawshaw's fragile single slit spring, but modern machine-made versions use a pair of more durable simple springs tabbed together back to back. Because its spring or springs are in the middle, a lobster pen knife always has its pivot pins set off to the sides of the long axis of the knife - hence the resemblance to the waving claws of a lobster.

Lobster pen knives are flat and lightly built...
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