What did I buy? I*XL knife

Franciscomv · May 16, 2026

I went to a local knife show today, I wasn't planning on buying anything but I ended up grabbing a NIB Swissbuck SAK and this little thing. It was sold by a chap who collects English knives.

I know very little about Sheffield slipjoints, so I thought I'd post some photos here and benefit from your collective knowledge.

It's in pretty good nick, I haven't cleaned or sharpened it yet.

Bigfattyt · May 16, 2026

Nice! Doesn't seem to need any cleaning!

oldmanwilly · May 17, 2026

Wow, you found a beauty in FANTASTIC condition! I don’t have much info for you, just a pinch of advice: don't leave it on the floor of a sheep barn for 40 years or it will look like this:

Keep it oiled well and use it in good health!

Franciscomv · May 17, 2026

Bigfattyt said:
Nice! Doesn't seem to need any cleaning!

It had a couple of tiny surface rust spots on the pile side and quite a lot of gunk on the inside.

The blades got shaving sharp quite easily. Walk and talk is pretty nice, too. It doesn't seem to have been used much, the only sign of wear is the handle finish coming off (I don't know what they used to paint it).

waynorth · May 17, 2026

Franciscomv said:
It had a couple of tiny surface rust spots on the pile side and quite a lot of gunk on the inside.

The blades got shaving sharp quite easily. Walk and talk is pretty nice, too. It doesn't seem to have been used much, the only sign of wear is the handle finish coming off (I don't know what they used to paint it).

I'd wipe it with a slightly oily rag, oil the joints, and keep it as-is!! Perfect collector patina and condition!!!

dsutton24 · May 17, 2026

A heck of a nice knife is what you bought. It's a good find.

Wostenholm was founded in the 1700s, and is probably the most notable of the Sheffield cutlers. They exported massive numbers of knives to the US in the 1800s and 1900s. The Wostenholf name still exists, I think they're part of the Rodgers group now.

Here's a short history of Wostenholm that isn't AI infested if you're interested:

George Wostenholm - Sheffield Collectable Knives

Arguably Sheffield’s finest cutler, forever associated with the I*XL Bowies of the Great American Knife era. Wostenholm’s Early History In the mid-1700’s, there was reputedly a cutler by the name of George Wolstenholme (b 1717) working in the village of Stannington, near Sheffield (the supposed...

sheffieldcollectableknives.com

Modoc ED · May 17, 2026

Maybe Jack

Jack Black will chime in on this.

Franciscomv · May 17, 2026

waynorth said:
I'd wipe it with a slightly oily rag, oil the joints, and keep it as-is!! Perfect collector patina and condition!!!

That's pretty much all it needed, although there was a lot of black residue inside. I think it's from whatever coated the handle, since there are no liners between the handle slabs and the blades/springs. I also touched up the edges and threw it in my pocket.

I honestly find the textured metal handle horrid to look at, but it feels nice and it's growing on me.

dsutton24 said:
A heck of a nice knife is what you bought. It's a good find.

Wostenholm was founded in the 1700s, and is probably the most notable of the Sheffield cutlers. They exported massive numbers of knives to the US in the 1800s and 1900s. The Wostenholf name still exists, I think they're part of the Rodgers group now.

Here's a short history of Wostenholm that isn't AI infested if you're interested:

George Wostenholm - Sheffield Collectable Knives

Arguably Sheffield’s finest cutler, forever associated with the I*XL Bowies of the Great American Knife era. Wostenholm’s Early History In the mid-1700’s, there was reputedly a cutler by the name of George Wolstenholme (b 1717) working in the village of Stannington, near Sheffield (the supposed...

sheffieldcollectableknives.com

Cheers for that! I'm not much of a collector, and European slipjoints are not well represented in my library, I need to invest in some books. I was told to get "The heritage of English knives" by Hayden.

dsutton24 · May 17, 2026

Franciscomv said:
That's pretty much all it needed, although there was a lot of black residue inside. I think it's from whatever coated the handle, since there are no liners between the handle slabs and the blades/springs. I also touched up the edges and threw it in my pocket.

I honestly find the textured metal handle horrid to look at, but it feels nice and it's growing on me.

Cheers for that! I'm not much of a collector, and European slipjoints are not well represented in my library, I need to invest in some books. I was told to get "The heritage of English knives" by Hayden.

I don't know the Hayden book. If you have some time to kill on a rainy afternoon there's a wonderful thread here with tons of pictures of Sheffield manufacturing plants and tooling:

Thread 'Sheffield's Old Factories & Workshops (Pics Resurrected)'

Sep 6, 2022

I posted this thread some years ago. Like many of the old threads here, it has effectively been destroyed, the text mangled, the photos obliterated*. I thought I'd re-post the photos, I hope they're of interest. If you have an old Sheffield knife, you may come across the place where it was made (please do your own research). Since I took these photos, many of the old factories have, sadly, been lost to the bulldozer

* - As of 7-10-22, some of the images appear to be back in the original thread.

For what it's worth, here's the original introduction:

During my own...