Some of my British clasp knives turned up!

[screened porch]

I'm not even going to tell you where; it's just too ridiculous.

One says ITC 64 on the can-opener. One says 19(6?)3/ sharma on the blade. One says s.k. (s or 5) 77 on the blade and cc73465/000027 on the can-opener. The one with the broken blade doesn't say anything.

I bought them as British military surplus from a catalogue where the guy encloses a note saying "I'm glad you love history as much as I do- every broken blade is a piece of history" .

Unfortunately, these are the ones I set aside as less worth working on (broken blade on one and chipped handles on others). There must be at least two less broken ones around here still somewhere.

 

[Raymond1000]

The good old British Army Clasp Knife. First issued in 1905. The can opener was just in time for iron rations. The marlinspike was used to pry pebbles from horse’s hooves.

AKA the Lewis Clasp Knife. I do wonder who Lewis was.

 

[orca8589]

The marlinspike was used to pry pebbles from horse’s hooves.

I love the Marlin Spike - works for a ton of different little jobs. I'd love to have a TL-29 type Electrician's knife with a small marlin spike on it.

~Chris

 

[Jack Black]

I bought them as British military surplus from a catalogue where the guy encloses a note saying "I'm glad you love history as much as I do- every broken blade is a piece of history" .

Hope you got a good price on them Jer, and that you at least get a couple of good users :thumbup:

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

I agree with Jack. They're good users and fun projects to bring life to again. Have fun!

@ Orca: well damn, that would be something indeed. Classic meets classic.
On the other hand, a SAK-like tool with a main blade, saw, can opener and marlin spike... that would be something I'd jump on immediately.

 

[screened porch]

Jack- It was an excellent price, for lots of 6, I think. I think at least two of them are going to be openable without a screwdriver once I get the fossilized grease out of them.
Raymond- thanks for the details. I hadn't heard "Lewis clasp knife" before, and I always wondered why the army knife had a marlinespike. I have to remind myself how vital horses were to armies as late as WWI.

 

[Jack Black]

I think at least two of them are going to be openable without a screwdriver

:thumbup:

The tin-opener was introduced during the Boer War when tinned rations first started being issued. The marlin spike was used for all sorts of things. The pattern you have was adopted in 1939

 

[Raymond1000]

:thumbup:

The tin-opener was introduced during the Boer War when tinned rations first started being issued. The marlin spike was used for all sorts of things. The pattern you have was adopted in 1939

The term iron ration originated in the American army in 1907. It meant an individual ration, an emergency meal for a soldier far from the chow line. The actual food was a sort of pemmican. A 3 oz. cake of powdered beef and parched wheat. Also included were 3 oz. of chocolate, plus salt and pepper. They called these culinary delights iron rations because each meal was sealed in a tin can. Each ration, including the can, weighed a pound. Iron rations saw the American doughboy through the Great War.

It’s no coincidence that the basic army pocket knife suddenly included a can opener.

 

[Jack Black]

The term iron ration originated in the American army in 1907. It meant an individual ration, an emergency meal for a soldier far from the chow line. The actual food was a sort of pemmican. A 3 oz. cake of powdered beef and parched wheat. Also included were 3 oz. of chocolate, plus salt and pepper. They called these culinary delights iron rations because each meal was sealed in a tin can. Each ration, including the can, weighed a pound. Iron rations saw the American doughboy through the Great War.

It’s no coincidence that the basic army pocket knife suddenly included a can opener.

Very interesting history Raymond. That ration sounds a little like what the British used to call 'bully beef' (corned beef), a long-time British Army ration staple, or maybe I've got that wrong? Must have been a struggle when the first cans started landing and nobody had a can-opener!

 

[Raymond1000]

Very interesting history Raymond. That ration sounds a little like what the British used to call 'bully beef' (corned beef), a long-time British Army ration staple, or maybe I've got that wrong? Must have been a struggle when the first cans started landing and nobody had a can-opener!

Tinned-steel canned food was first sold to the British Army in 1811.

The first can opener was patented in 1855.

Soldiers were expected to open tin cans with their bayonets.

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

Very interesting history Raymond. That ration sounds a little like what the British used to call 'bully beef' (corned beef), a long-time British Army ration staple, or maybe I've got that wrong? Must have been a struggle when the first cans started landing and nobody had a can-opener!

Totally unrelated but: Ah, corned beef. I remember my late aunt and uncle talking about when they first got to know it. During WW2 there were British and Canadian soldiers stationed nearby, and a few of them manned an AA gun in the meadow next to their farmhouse. They used to trade their chocolate for the corned beef of the soldiers, since they had lost all of their meat during German occupation (they weren't allowed to have and/or slaughter lifestock and had to give it all away to the Germans). That's when they first got to know corned beef and it had remained a part in many of their dishes until they passed away. Good memories. I ought to pick up a can of corned beef in the near future :thumbup:

 

[Jack Black]

Tinned-steel canned food was first sold to the British Army in 1811.

The first can opener was patented in 1855.

Soldiers were expected to open tin cans with their bayonets.

Those must have been 44 hard years! But I suspect that after seeing the tin-opner design on the Boer War and WW1 British Army clasp knives, many were tempted to go back to the bayonet, rather than risk losing their fingers!

Totally unrelated but: Ah, corned beef. I remember my late aunt and uncle talking about when they first got to know it. During WW2 there were British and Canadian soldiers stationed nearby, and a few of them manned an AA gun in the meadow next to their farmhouse. They used to trade their chocolate for the corned beef of the soldiers, since they had lost all of their meat during German occupation (they weren't allowed to have and/or slaughter lifestock and had to give it all away to the Germans). That's when they first got to know corned beef and it had remained a part in many of their dishes until they passed away. Good memories. I ought to pick up a can of corned beef in the near future :thumbup:

I haven't had it for years, but I used to love corned beef, either in a hash or, as in the Middle East, fried with onions in olive oil, maybe an egg cracked over the top. It also makes a nice toasted sandwich with cheese. Here's to corned beef! :thumbup:

 

[Raymond1000]

I haven't had it for years, but I used to love corned beef, either in a hash or, as in the Middle East, fried with onions in olive oil, maybe an egg cracked over the top. It also makes a nice toasted sandwich with cheese. Here's to corned beef! :thumbup:

In America Corned beef goes on sale for St. Patrick’s day.

This might seem odd across the puddle. First because St. Patrick’s day wasn’t celebrated in Ireland. Oh, it is a holy day of obligation. Go to church, eat dinner at home, go to bed.

No parades, no leprechauns, no green beer. That grew up among Irish immigrants missing the old sod. Naturally the Irish in America celebrated with a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage.

Trouble is, it was traditional among New York Jews. The Irish fleeing the potato famine wanted an inexpensive replacement for the boiled bacon they could seldom afford back home. So they borrowed from their new neighbors.

There’s nothing wrong with a poached egg on top of corned beef hash. :thumbup:

 

[screened porch]

I didn't realise that iron rations referred to the tin. I think Kephart generalizes it to mean any subsistence fare, including German "dynamite soup" (based on legumes), though that was packed in a paper tube. (I had to check: Camping and Woodcraft, Camping section, p. 157)
Anyway, I'm learning a lot here.

 

[lambertiana]

Totally unrelated but: Ah, corned beef. I remember my late aunt and uncle talking about when they first got to know it. During WW2 there were British and Canadian soldiers stationed nearby, and a few of them manned an AA gun in the meadow next to their farmhouse. They used to trade their chocolate for the corned beef of the soldiers, since they had lost all of their meat during German occupation (they weren't allowed to have and/or slaughter lifestock and had to give it all away to the Germans). That's when they first got to know corned beef and it had remained a part in many of their dishes until they passed away. Good memories. I ought to pick up a can of corned beef in the near future :thumbup:

A similar story for my wife's family. My father-in-law was in the US Army and ended up in the Philippines at the end of WWII, marrying a pinay. The US troops there had corned beef, not spam (he related a story of having nothing but corned beef for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 18 months on New Guinea, and Thanksgiving of 1944 they got the traditional turkey with all the fixins, it was heaven). The US Army introduced corned beef to the Philippines, and it now figures prominently in all filipino households. We have a case of corned beef in our pantry right now.

 

[Alnamvet68]

If you can't put them together with the parts available, perhaps a newer made by Sheffield of England will do....