Southington Cutlery Company "1867-1905" and Gardner Cutlery "1876"

[Primble]

I was going through my pictures and realized that I left this one out:

 

[Augie]

Rob, bringing this wonderful thread back up as I found a beautiful Southington at a flea market this weekend, a large 4" Southington Cut Co bare head stag jack. The main blade is a nice spear, reasonably full,stained black with use.
The pen has been broken off and reshaped, still usable if you could get it open, I had to use pliers, pull is a 10, the main is a pinchable firm 6, no play with solid half stops, bear trap snaps.
What really makes it interesting besides the stag which I don't think is all that common on early American knives is the tang stamps, the main blade has the straight line Southington stamp, I could not get the secondary blade open while looking at the knife so you can imagine my surprise when I finally got it open to see the Southington curved tang stamp. Don't think that blade has been opened in decades as that stamp looks like new.
Appears to be a very well made knife.

 

[waynorth]

This wonderfully crafted thread has been sleeping for a while. Time to wake it up!! (I'd love to wake up the "crafter" also!! Primble where are you??)

This big pruner just came in the mail. Sharpened carefully to keep the "beak" and still very snappy like most good pruners, it is a great knife. The handles are nicely figured Cocobola or Rosewood, and the Rattails are well carved!
A tribute to a great old Connecticut company!

 

[glennbad]

That sure is a beauty! The quality of the wood of that age is hard to match these days.

 

[waynorth]

Thanks, Glenn! Glad you like it!

 

[Ernie1980]

What a read, thanks for sharing!! Charlie- I love that old pruner

 

[waynorth]

Thanks Ernie!! It is great looking - one of the nicest ones I have . . .

 

[supratentorial]

Nice find, Charlie!

 

[quaboag]

So much cutlery history in this thread....and in my nearby area!
If only there was much of any manufacturing left in the Connecticut river valley. Sadly those days have been gone for a few or several decades now. Not even sure AG Russell is operating in Southbridge anymore. They were probably the last holdouts of Massachusetts cutlery companies.

 

[wlfryjr]

Is that a big one Charlie? This cut looks like 4 3/4" .I think this is the same cut Jake has.I may have gotten this from the good Jake. My description on the download says 1890 and is ebony I think,hard to read.

 

[waynorth]

It's the big one, Lyle and Jake, but not ebony. Cocobola for sure!

 

[Wurrwulf]

I'm so glad that this thread was revived! What an amazing read, and I don't know if there are any finer bolster stamps than the Southington and Gardner. Thank you, Primble!

My favorite thing about old Barlows are the gorgeous, intricate, and unique bolster stamps. There seems to be a vast wealth of different stamps, and it is almost daily that I see one that I've never seen before! I'm glad that folks like Charlie and Mike are keeping that tradition alive with the TCs and NFs.

 

[moonman]

Nice knives!

 

[galvanic1882]

I love this thread some really old knives posted. Here is a Gardner that I just got that looks good with the box I had. Love the bolsters on it!!

 

[chuko]

Mike that Gardner is a nice old one, those bolsters and caps are unusual, certainly something I never seen. Thanks for posting.

Charles

 

[David Schott]

Resurrecting this as i have a pic of all my Southingtons here:

 

[Fodderwing]

Incredible knives. What an amazing thread. I am so grateful for folks that pass this history on to the rest of us.

 

[bill2000]

How cool is this logo?

 

[Augie]

The unfinished Gardner with a finished one Charlie so generously gifted to me at the Rendezvous, If these old knives could only talk.