What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

Ulfrinn said:
I was looking into Barlows myself recently. It's an interesting pattern both for its simplicity and history and without reading 1.2 thousand pages of this thread, I've been wondering how they were originally constructed. Examples I seen from the 1700s looked like the were friction folders.
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I've never seen a friction folder Barlow!!!
There is so much good information about Barlows in this thread, it's a worthy read!!
Read all the (earlier) posts by Jack Black, and you will learn something!!
 
Gleened from the webs ...
No one seemed to care much about the Barlow one way or the other before it came to America or the history of it would be clearer and less contentious.
And the John Russell Cutlery Company nailed it all the way back in 1785. Well, John Russell Mfg. Co. which would eventually be renamed to the John Russell Cutlery Company.
The Barlow knife became a classic part of America’s EDC. Maybe helped along later, by Mark Twain.
In fact Russell did it so well, the Barlow became nearly synonymous with "pocket knife".
George Washington's Barlow is on display at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

The familiar "bag shape" Barlow handle seems to have come about in the mid 19th century. Before then, the handles had a "ball butt" sort of shape.
Nail nicks seem to have begun to be put in the blades in the 1790's. Prior to that, the blades were broad, and pinched with your fingers.

Pictures from the webs ...
Typical 18th century Barlows

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So, what are the chances GEC would pull out the stops and produce a jenuwine Barlow like this ??
Bet they couldn't make enough of 'em ... What a wonderful knife THAT would be, eh 😲
 
BrotherJim said:
Gleened from the webs ...
George Washington's Barlow is on display at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.
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SOooo ... off I went lookin' 'round the webs for this George Washington "Barlow"
Alls I found was a picture of a possible Barlow (some English cutlery co) ... pen knife (trimming quill pens etc) and not a Barlow "Barlow"
Only thing left to do is perhaps email the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia for clarification 🤔
 
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waynorth said:
I've never seen a friction folder Barlow!!!
There is so much good information about Barlows in this thread, it's a worthy read!!
Read all the (earlier) posts by Jack Black, and you will learn something!!
Click to expand...
Thanks Charlie, this is certainly the place to learn about Barlow history (along with Knife Magazine). Unfortunately, the internet, being an unfiltered repository of both information and misinformation, contains a lot of rubbish about most subjects, and in terms of Barlow knives, I'd say that 90% of what's written about them online is absolute drivel. It's a shame that people have to bring that drivel here. Anyone can cut and paste nonsense, RESEARCH is something different.

Barlow knives, (as we know the pattern today), did not appear until after the invention of the spring knife, and the earliest examples might only be called Barlow knives, compared to what we know as Barlow knives today, because they are the work of cutlers with that surname (the 'BARLOW' trademark was granted to John Barlow in 1745).

For anyone interested in the history of the pattern, and of the cutlers who produced Barlow knives, you might want to obtain a copy of the July 2018 issue of Knife Magazine, which contains an article by myself and Neal Punchard on the subject (and photos by Charlie Campagna) The research for the piece took a couple of years, and is based on original sources, rather than Google searches. I can only apologise for its brevity in terms of a subject which could very easily fill a book.
 
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Jack Black said:
Thanks Charlie, this is certainly the place to learn about Barlow history (along with Knife Magazine). Unfortunately, the internet, being an unfiltered repository of both information and misinformation, contains a lot of rubbish about most subjects, and in terms of Barlow knives, I'd say that 90% of what's written about them online is absolute drivel. It's a shame that people have to bring that drivel here. Anyone can cut and paste nonsense, RESEARCH is something different.

Barlow knives, (as we know the pattern today), did not appear until after the invention of the spring knife, and the earliest examples might only be called Barlow knives, compared to what we know as Barlow knives today, because they are the work of cutlers with that surname (the 'BARLOW' trademark was granted to John Barlow in 1745).

For anyone interested in the history of the pattern, and of the cutlers who produced Barlow knives, you might want to obtain a copy of the July 2018 issue of Knife Magazine, which contains an article by myself and Neal Punchard on the subject (and photos by Charlie Campagna) The research for the piece took a couple of years, and is based on original sources, rather than Google searches. I can only apologise for its brevity in terms of a subject which could very easily fill a book.
Click to expand...
If anyone can find that July 2018 , it is great, accurate reading!!
Knife Magazine always has back issues for sale!!
You and Neal did a great job, Jack!!
 
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