What knife would have my great-great-grandfather carried?

[Brian.Evans]

The babies (Peanut and Caleb) stayed with my parents last weekend. When I went to pick them up, my dad handed me a packet from my grandma (his mom). I've been interested in genealogy and family history as long as I can remember, and I'm lucky to have a grandma that loves it too. She's done a lot of the leg work for me already. I've traced my family name back to 1824 when my ancestor came over from Wales. I've traced one particular line back to the American Revolution (not my family name though, so no son of the revolution here. ). But, I digress.

In the packet were several pictures of my little ones with my grandparents, playing with kittens, basically all the adorable, heart warming stuff you could handle. However, there were also several sheets of typed print that were titled Ronald's Family Medical History and Louise's Family Medical History. Apparently, one of my cousin's children was very allergic to milk and his wife remarked to my grandma that she wished she knew more of our family medical history, so that she could better figure out the allergy.

However, they were more than just a family medical history; they were a collection of anecdotes, stories, and revelations with my ancestors as the main players. I always knew my grandfathers mother died when he was young and he had to drop out of high school to help on the farm, but I never knew she was 33, my wife's age, and she died from a pulmonary embolism after radiation treatment for cancer only hours before she was to go home. I didn't know my grandpa was only 13 when it happened. I didn't know my grandma had a baby brother that died in 1921 at 19 months old because of "summer complaint", something that would never happen today. He lived for two weeks on boiled rice water. Sobering to say the least. Maybe the phrase "good old days" has one too many words in it.........

To the point......my great great grandfather packed up his wife and children and their husbands and moved to the Oklahoma Territory to homestead, living in a tent that first winter until a proper house could be built. My question is this: What knife would have the men been carrying then? They were farmers, and I don't know if they were poor, dirt poor, or flat broke. I've looked through the old catalogs in the stickies. I'd just like to hear your ruminations on the subject. I'll try to post scans later, as I think some of the stuff would interest some of you all.

 

[glennbad]

Interesting reflections, and nice family history there.

IMO, people of those days lived a very generic lifestyle. Nothing flashy, everything with a purpose. I would envision a fixed blade knife being used for many chores, but nothing fancy, probably similar to an old hickory type knife. Folders might be a simple one-blade jack of some type.

Our ancestors would probably roll their eyes at some of us, with the gluttony of knives we have to choose from, and our dependency on technology and others to live our daily lives. I would say they'd be happy with the advances in our medicine, though. Lot's of people dying back then for very "normal" ailments.

 

[kamagong]

Great-great-grandfather? Born 125 years ago, give or take a few? Probably a single bladed jackknife of some sort. Think barlow, or something with more typical bolsters.

- Christian

 

[jc57]

I'm guessing a wood-handled fixed blade knife of some kind in a belt sheath. Folding knives are a compromise for convenience of carry. If someone was out working the land, especially a homesteader, he'd want a sturdy tool suited for the job. They probably would have had several knives for different purposes, and your great-great-grandmother would be a frequent user of them too. Their meat market consisted of live pigs, cows, and chickens. Lots of work to be done there for food preparation. Probably supplemented with some game from hunting, maybe fish if there were streams or lakes nearby.

They would have had knives (scythes, hawkbills, pruners) for harvesting crops and vegetables, knives or other bladed objects for carving, shaping, and planing wood.

I would think before they set off into the wilderness that they'd have a pretty decent set of tools for the tasks that lay ahead of them. It wasn't the stone age. There was plenty of good quality cutlery available to them.

Here's a similar thread from a while back: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1028715-Pocket-knife-of-the-1800-s-west

 

[Faiaoga]

That is about the time when my ancestors came as immigrants from Norway, so I am guessing they would have brought Nordic (Scandinavian) knives with them. Helle, Brusletto and other sheath knives sold today would be similar. Once settled in as farmers in Wisconsin, though, they seem to have adopted American patterns. My own father had a leather-handled hunting knife (4 or 5 inch blade) that had my grandfather's initials carved in the sheath. I don't remember what brand - Case, Western or similar. Unfortunately, my father lost it at the beach one time. Our family heirloom knife is now a Nordic sheath knife my father purchased in Norway. He gave it to me almost 40 years ago, and someday I will pass it on to my own son.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

Slipjoints are romanticized notions among us. I would go with a fixed blade made on the farm. The book Knife In Homespun America shares many different fixed blades that were forged by the local blacksmith or in the farms own shop for farmers and ranchers.

 

[festerfromnzed]

I would say a knife like this .. FES

 

[meako]

Don't forget you have 8 GGgrandfathers to choose from-one at least must have used a knife.
One of mine I'm told was a coffin maker in Nottingham.
Roughly speaking mine would have been born around 1850.

 

[aarya]

They would probably have carried some form of relatively inexpensive Norwegian fixed-blade "tollekniv", locally sourced, as they were as far as i've found, relatively poor farmers in the rural Norwegian countryside.

 

[The Mastiff]

My grandfather ( mothers side) was a siclian immigrant and was the usual story, his father signed up as a cook on a ship making the trip back and forth enough times to save up enough to bring his family over. He was very, very broke and the family worked , children included. This would have been around 1905 by now. The kids all learned english, and to read but not at school. They worked. My grandfather was an adult and married by the time of the depression.

He was always frugal. A common way amongst depression survivors and immigrants.

He had good, not fancy tools. Very well cared for ( I still have and use them. ) Knives were very inexpensive and I get the impression he didn't put thought, or much money in them. A yellow plastic two bladed jack knife was the only period I received of his. I later inherited his son's, my uncle's things including more tools, an old "long Tom" single barrell 12 ga, straight razor, watches etc.

The Ideal was the only user knife there. He had gold watches, diamond rings ( didn't go to me) , and fairly good estate numbers from where the Federal Government condemned the 100 something acres, barn, farm etc. for the now Cuyahoga national valley park or whatever it's now called, paid him "fair market value" so I know he had decent money when he passed. He just never saw the need for anything more than that old Ideal Jack knife. It would be the equivalent of having nothing but one rough rider , though sharp and well cared for.

I compare that to the tools. The best he could get.

He was very practical in everything he did. Nothing flashy, but reliable, good quality.

Priorities I suppose. I had a more expensive ( though broken) knife I had found and was using by 10 working around the farm. I suppose his yellow Ideal cut as well as my Camillus though, and that's all he cared about.

 

[Arathol]

Heres one that my great grandfather carried, a Clauberg marked hawkbill imported from Germany. He was a farmer/blacksmith/farrier here in CT





This Ulster was carried by my grandfather who worked in a print shop.

 

[coffeecup]

From the literature (contemporary newspapers, diaries, etc), except in areas with active hostilities, farmers carrying a fixed blade knife for EDC seems to have been unusual in the OK/KS/NE/SD/ND belt. Most accounts that mention knives being carried discuss folding knives of one sort or another.

Roughly post-1900/1910ish, there are increasing mentions of using the punch on a knife to repair harness etc. Prior to that, mention of punches seems more unusual; instead the mention might be of using a knife for the same purposes. By 1920, harness jacks seem almost common (but that may be because many of the old folks I interviewed as a kid were around then--I could ask more-specific questions and get more details).

Most of the knives with a history of having been carried by pre-1900 homesteaders in that geographic area tend to be Barlows, or jacks like the Ulster shown by Arathol, Probably half seem to have originally had 2 blades, though the pen is often broken. The most common cover materials seem to be sawn bone on the Barlows, and wood (probably rosewood or ebony, but on most knives it is hard to tell now) on everything else.