Waterville Mfg. quill knife

J

jayharley

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Oct 6, 2000
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I just purchased a nice old vintage, one blade quill knife, manufactured by Waterville Mfg. Co. in Waterbury, Conn. 1847-1865. It has scales that are either bone or "ivory". Can someone please let me know any characteristics of both scale materials that would allow me to make a more intelligent material identification?

The knife is really in good condition, considering its age. A couple tiny cracks in the scales, by the pins, but nothing major. Normally I do not buy any vintage folders with any scale flaws, but this one is really in nice condition.
 
In my experience, white bone has a stright "grain", while ivory has more of a "swirly" texture to the grain, also ivory may be more fellowish than white bone, but that's harder to tell.
 
By the way, did you go to the last Marlboro knife show? I had a pretty good time. Found a very nice Keen Kutter folder with full blades and nice cellluloid scales.
 
The easiest way to tell bone from ivory is to look closely at the end of the scales;assuming that most quill knives have a "candle"end with no bolster.A bone scale(under magnification)will look like it has a bunch of tiny holes or pores(they're for blood to flow through if I remember correctly).Ivory will not have this,but if you still have your loupe out,look closely at the scales and if they are ivory,it will look like,"layers"almost like a wood grain or a fingerprint.
I have a small Waterville Cutlery knife that has nickel silver scales with the company name in raised letters on it and is about 1 1/2" long closed.
 
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