Vintage Wostenholm IXL Bowie headed my way. (UPDATE, RECEIVED)...

PocketKnifeJimmy

PocketKnifeJimmy

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Aug 4, 2013
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So, I ordered a vintage Wostenholm IXL Bowie that I hope to be receiving by this coming weekend. I really couldn't find out much about it online before I placed the order for it.
I'm hoping that it's what I believe it to be, which is to say, a 1960's to 1970's period Commemorative IXL Bowie made by Wostenholm before the company went defunct. If my hunch is correct, this bowie is one of a thousand that were planned to be made, but that may not have reached that goal before Wostenholm went out of business.
My purchase of this knife was made without having all the information about it that I would have liked to have had on hand, with me simply going with my gut feeling that it's what I think it is.

I felt it was one of those "if you snooze, you lose" situations/opportunities, so I decided to go with that gut feeling. In other words, I kind'a rolled the dice on this one.

The shield on the stag handle seems to read 457 over 1000, (457th out of 1000).
The markings on the blade seem to be correct for the knife I am hoping for it to be.

Even if it does turn out to be the model that I'm thinking it is, it's still obviously not an antique Bowie.
But, what it would be, is a true vintage specimen from the famous company's last days before it went belly up.
I guess I will simply have to impatiently wait until I receive this incoming knife to see what I've actually purchased.
I think the whole Forrest Gump thing comes into play here, with me going to receive a box of chocolates, and you never know what'cha gonna get! 😆
The problem with that is, this box of chocolates was far from being cheap! 😱

Here are some photos of it from the website I purchased it from...









I'm cautiously optimistic and excited about what I'll be receiving with this knife order.
It's a model that I'd seen online in the past, and I've always thought to myself how awesome it would be to have a specimen of it added into my collection 🤞🤞
 
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afishhunter said:
I hope it vastly exceeds your highest expectations. :)

Question: When was a box of chocolates cheap?
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lol... Well, the price of an average box of chocolates is MUCH less than what I paid for this incoming uncertainty 😆
Thanks for the positive wishes! 👍😊👍

I will add, it was those slabs of stag, and that shield, that sealed the deal for me 🤓

As for it being what I hope it is, it would be the following... A Wostenholm product made during the 1960's when Wostenholm was still it's own owned identity, or... Maybe it was made during the 1970's after Wostenholm was purchased by the Joseph Rodgers firm, or... Was it even made during the time that Imperial/Schrade owned Wostenholm?
A lot happened during Wostenholm' last years of existence, (until they finally went bankrupt under Imperial/Schrade' ownership).
I really don't know if I'll ever be able to determine which slot in that history the knife falls into.
Since it seems that Wostenholm technically went bankrupt during the 1980's under the Imperial/Schrade ownership, any use of the Wostenholm name after that point was using a purchased or licensed name of a defunct firm.
My Egginton made Wostenholm IXL Bowie knife is an example of that. It obviously is legit in that it's brand name is actually fully owned by Egginton, but... it is not an actual original Wostenholm company product.
That said, I really do like my Egginton version, and they are still hand made in Sheffield England 👍

Egginton's Sheffield Collectable Knives Company 'Wostenholm IXL Home of the Brave' Bowie Knife...
 
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I wound up receiving the knife today and I am very pleased with it.

My purchase of it was solely based on the pics that were being shown of it online, (the same pics I posted of it in my starting post above). Although those pics were okay, it made it a wee bit difficult for me to gauge exactly what I'd be receiving in the mail. Well, what I received was even better than I had hoped it would be, it definitely surpassed my expectations 👍😊👍

I was surprised to find it still had an original clear plastic sticker that reads 'Made in England' affixed to the tang. The seller's pictures showed it in his auction photos, but I had not realized it was an actual sticker. I usually remove such things that may be found on any new knife I purchase, but I surely wasn't expecting to find one on a knife that likely has many decades of age under it's belt. So, since it had already endured this long on the knife, I decided to just leave it be, (and so there it still remains).






While it's not an antique Wostenholm IXL Bowie from the famous 1800's era, I'm more than okay with it being a vintage commemorative Bowie, especially since it indeed seems to be well enough made 😊
 
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Ernie1980 said:
I am glad you got what you were expecting/hoping to receive! We have all rolled the dice before, and it is nice when it works in our favor:)
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Thank you, Sir!

And yes, I totally agree that we have all likely rolled the dice on our purchases at one time or another. And, that scoring, rather than getting burned, is definitely the better feeling 👍😊👍




Although my specimen is in minty condition, (likely previously owned by someone who also collected knives and took care of them), it unfortunately did not come with the presentation case or any paperwork that they seemed to have originally come with. That left me to finding matches to it online by only using the knife's visual characteristics. The two closest matches that I found on various online sites, differed in one major way... One variant had gold gilded etchings on their blade, while the other did not have that gold applied to them.
My limited findings seem to point to various versions made during the 1960's into 1971, (the year that Joseph Rodgers purchased the Wostenholm firm).
My gold gilded blade version may be one of the ones made by the Wostenholm company during that period, or... maybe not. I believe if one is made after 1971, it's actually not made by Wostenholm, even by Joseph Rogers that purchased the company. Instead, if it's made after 1971, it's possibly one that was made by other folks in the Sheffield area, like Fred James (which likely used some Wostenholm components, like the company's stampings and their blade etching plates). Fred James used to work for Wostenholm prior to Joseph Rogers buying the firm. Once he was out of Wostenholm, he proceeded to make Wostenholm IXL reproductions that spread around into the knife enthusiast community. Although his knives are "repros", they now too are somewhat sought after by collectors for their own worthy qualities, and for their own spot in Wostenholm's IXL Bowie history.
It's a known fact that some Wostenholm style Bowie knives were indeed copied without authorization, and not just after the Joseph Rodgers buy out of the firm, but also in past times, like during the 1800's when the brand was just about King in the United States for it's Bowie knives popularity. Fakes were a real thing to contend with.
I guess it all just makes for some interesting history.

The following screenshots are of a knife that seems to be an exact match to my own specimen. Even it's serial number is very close, it being 440/1000, and mine being 457/1000.
It was sold almost eleven years ago, (in October of 2010), having been auctioned off from a knife collector's estate.



I, of course, had to look up the name of the person that the Estate had belonged to. Well, I found the following...

"Bernard Braverman, an antique-arms expert who ran the weapons retailer Braverman Arms Co."

I'm thinking if such a knife was worthy of having been kept within Mr. Braverman's personal collection, than such a knife specimen is certainly worthy of being kept within my own meager collection 😊
So, whether it's a Wostenholm IXL, or a well made copy/repro, it gets it's spot in my collection 👍

My next mission with this knife will be in how I choose to display it, (which I find to be one of the most fun aspects of my collecting hobby).

If anyone stumbling upon this thread has any such large Wostenholm IXL Bowie knives from that company's last decades of existence, or any of the Bowie knives reintroduced by the Egginton Group after they acquired the defunct company's brand, please add some pics and information here about them in this thread. I would love to see and learn more about them!
I find the learning part is yet another fun part of my collecting hobby 👍😊👍
 
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