Taylor's Eyewitness

smiling-knife

smiling-knife

Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
2,697
I was very fortunate to spot this little hunting knife in a cluttered cabinet in an antiques and collectables shop. The blade is 5 inches long and it is just over 9 inches long altogether. The Taylor's Eyewitness name and trade mark were owned by Needham, Veall and Tyzack; the likely maker of this knife. The blade appears hand-forged as the tang is shorter and thicker at the guard end and taller and thinner at the butt end so not stamped out of a metal sheet. I'm thinking it was made circa 1880s or earlier. If you have any other Eyewitness knives, please fee free to add them. Thanks for looking.

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Everything about that knife is awesome, S-K!!! Fantastic find! Love the Stamp on the blade
 
Great find S-K. I have a whole load of contemperary pics of the Eye Witness factory I must post. Duncan and myself had a good wander round the outside the other week.

Here's a pic of a Taylor's Sheepsfoot I bought a few months back. Unfortunately, some heel had taken a grinder to it.



This WW2 pattern British Army clasp knife was a present from ScruffUK.

 
smiling-knife said:
Nice stag on your sheepsfoot Jack. Thanks for showing it.
Click to expand...

Thanks S-K, it's a big knife, and I really like it, but even though it's sharp now, the previous owner really messed it up, and to correct it I'd have to lose a heck of a lot of steel.
 
Hi Jack. Yes, a shame but I think best to leave it as is.

I think this large jack knife is a contemporary of the hunting knife.

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I have only a couple of new ones, but I like them a lot. I see probably more carving sets than anything else from Sheffield around here.
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Yes, VERY beautiful. Look at that quality stag, offset by having the small (Rat-Tail??) bolster. These must be more than scarce.

Regards, Will
 
Some lovely TEW knives shown so far..

Here are a couple of whittlers, the stag example measures about 4" the other about 3 1/2". I'm guessing both were made C1900-1910. The pearl 'Wharncliffe Knife' looks and feels very high quality.

The display case dates from the 1930s at a guess ?

TEW were one of the larger cutlery makers, their 1898 pattern book shows quite a range of pen and pocket knives..listing about 3000 patterns !






 
Hope no-one minds me reviving this thread!
I am new here, I am from England and have been collecting pocket knives for only a few months.

Here are my two recent finds, and I thought the first one was damaged somehow, as the blade is angled backwards. After finding another, albeit with bone instead of horn scales, I realised they must be made like this. They both have the "(eye) witness, Sheffield England" stamp at the base of the blade, the one on the right (horn scales) has "Mastabar-Hull" engraved on one side of the blade, and "COMET" on the other side. Research shows this company to be manufacturers of mining equipment, and Comet a brand name for their mine belts.
They measure 9cm. closed each blade is 6.5cm, and measure 15.5 cm. open.
They both seem to be quite old, and possibly turn of the century.
If anyone knows when they were made and what they were used for, I would be grateful to find out!

Cheers, Bob.





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Mike Berkovitch & MTURBO,
thanks for the comments and welcome!
I have a few more oldies, and will post soon.

Bob.
 
Welcome to Traditionals Bob, two interesting finds there :thumbup: I've just been sharpening a TEW :thumbup:

 
Sweet knife, JB.
I bet you find plenty in your neck of the woods, I'm in Derbyshire, so we're neighbours!

I think the "Mastabar" knife I posted could be a pruning knife.
The blade is heavily worn, and when closed there is a 10 mil gap so it probably had a "hook" tipped blade.
Both knives lock open with a snap, so I don't think the reason for the blade angle is wear and tear though.
 
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