What is the Definition of Ettrick??

Fodderwing Fodderwing Thank you Dwight:thumbsup: A fine elegant Ebony example you have there too, I might have to try a Rosewood one, be sublime with a small Rat-Tail:cool:

The Ablett comes with excellently matched Stag, very thick and on a long slim curved frame, this is what you want.
 
Ah, the wonderful Ettrick!! Thanks for injecting some life into the thread, Will.:thumbsup:
I have a Custom rattailed Ettrick for your viewing pleasure. It is somewhat heftier than most, and nicely made!
With it is an Ablett combo, with both Ettrick and Peach Pruner blades!! Ready for anything on the homestead!!:)
Ablett and Raptis 1.jpg
 
Those are beauties waynorth waynorth and would be most useful - very purposeful blades with good and pretty handles. BUT - if I may be sacrilegious - I would have to buff the blade - just too too much sloganeering for my tastes. :rolleyes: Sorry to offend.

Ray
 
Ray you wouldn’t buff the “Sloganeering “ out on these - the Etching is extremely Deep! You would have to grind off half of the thickness of the blades.
On older Knives I think that the very deep etching actually adds to the knife / era - the whole parcel- sets the knife in its period I think.
 
Campbellclanman said:
Ray you wouldn’t buff the “Sloganeering “ out on these - the Etching is extremely Deep! You would have to grind off half of the thickness of the blades.
On older Knives I think that the very deep etching actually adds to the knife / era - the whole parcel- sets the knife in its period I think.
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Like Lockwoods knives, the advertised product was found in both Australia (top) and South Africa (bottom). Obviously a promo to get their dip sold.
Robert Young & Co Ltd, sheep dip and disinfectant manufacturers 1911-78 ???

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F162885
Yep that was the one.
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1959_Chemical_Manufacturers_Directory:_Trade_Names
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Robert_Young_and_Co

Youngs_Sheep_Dip-14378-4015.jpg


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Fodderwing said:
Beautiful knives Will. The Trevor Ablett is really something special. I love the graceful lines of this pattern coupled with the elegant eclectic blade.View attachment 1068086
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Lovely knife and photo, Dwight.

I took mine out to the garden this morning:

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herder said:
Beautiful new old stock knives, and the original box, what could be better??? Maybe only that fine Joseph Rodgers model from Campbellclanman. :)
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Yes, definitely Herder, my friend.

Perhaps also the superb set of Lloyd Ettricks, Charlie waynorth waynorth had made?
 
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Dating Sylvester St. Lockwood's is easier as they were part of the Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers that collapse mid 1920's and the trademarks followed Elliott to the Sylvester Works of Thomas Ellin in 1926. Formed as a private company in 1927 Joseph Elliott & Sons (Sheffield ) Ltd. acquired many trademarks including Lockwoods. Source: Tweedale's Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers 1740-2010 pp154-156.
 
Fodderwing said:
Thanks Chin. Garden yes... that one belongs in the Garden of Eden... :)
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waynorth said:
Very pleasing knife, Chin! Please show and tell a little more!!!
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Thanks very much, lads.

This is my one and only Ettrick, Charlie, an A. Wright and Sons example, which I picked up in Sheffield a couple of years ago.

When I look at purchasing stag covered knives, I’m one of those left-handed folk who tries to find those examples which feature a more interesting pile side, than mark side - and this one certainly fit the bill.

I was set on being able to try a few of the classic Sheffield working knife patterns, and when I saw this Ettrick in the Famous Sheffield Shop, I instantly snatched it up and didn’t relinquish my hold on it, until the lady at the counter had to ring up my selections!

The mark side is a bit more pedestrian:

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The type of stag was not specified, but I believe it is Red Stag.

Red Stags have some of the most spectacularly shaped antlers out of any deer species, IMHO, along with the beautiful, lyre shaped Chital deer antlers, and the palmated Fallow deer, and the spectacular Wapiti - a NZ hybrid of the Elk and Red deer.

Unfortunately, none of these antlers have the solidity and density of Sambar antlers, or the related Rusa deer.

You can see here the porous, central ‘pithy’ core, comes very close to the surface.

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Lifting up full sets of antlers of the different deer species, and comparing their relative heft and weight, is an instructive experience.

Nonetheless, my intention was to find an Ettrick to be able to test and use, and this knife has served
that purpose well.

I haven’t used it for long stretches of time, admittedly, but I do bring it out from time to time, simply because it’s such an unusual, cool looking pattern.

A technique to increase the intensity of flavour of chilli pepper plants is to constantly clip off a few leaves, whenever you examine a plant. This simulates the browsing of herbivores on the plant, and induces them to produce more capsaicin to repel the browsing animal.

The Ettrick did well at that task, this morning.

I remember at my first full time job in the warehouse of a large English paperback book publishing house in my late teens, watching the old timers at lunchtime and ‘smoko’ breaks. Some of them would have slipjoint knives, which they would use to peel and take slices from a piece of fruit, with the knife held in a paring grip, with the edge facing them, and the piece of fruit would be manipulated into the blade, with their off-hand. They would lift the slice to their mouths still sitting on the knife blade, and slide it off, with their mouth facing the spine of the blade.

I wasn’t observant or interested enough at the time to take further notice of what the common knives were, but I do recall that some of them were straight edged blades.

This is the way I like to use the Ettrick. The curve of the handle almost seems to mandate that loose reverse grip on the handle, with the blade edge facing you.

waynorth said:
John Lloyd's fine work!!
View attachment 1068419 View attachment 1068421 View attachment 1068422
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Ah, so beautiful Charlie, I could stare at those Lloyds all day. They’re wonderful knives. I’m guessing you probably would have specified carbon steel blades, Charlie - are they 52100 steel?:thumbsup::cool:

I read quite a bit of the work of the poet and writer, James Hogg - known as The Ettrick Shepherd - a while ago, hoping to find a reference to the use of these knives, and although Hogg wrote some very fine accounts of harvest time in the Ettrick Valley, I think @Jack Black and @Bartleby were right, earlier in this thread, when they said that knife use was such an ordinary task in those days as to escape detailed description.
 
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