What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

[Fodderwing]

Here's my 3rd attempt at a barlow. The steel is AEB-L stainless with vintage butterscotch paper micarta handle covers. I hope my creations age as nicely as some of you all's old time beauties.

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Absolutely gorgeous work Jason.

 

[marantz]

This is part 1 of a threefer; Barlow, Jack's Random Tuesday, and Your Oldest Knife.

 

[Fodderwing]

A Boker razor barlow and the left one is marked - WYETH’S / WARRANTED / CUTLERY reverse tang - HB&CO / GERMANY (with tree) (spear blade) same for pen blade

 

[Augie]

A Boker razor barlow and the left one is marked - WYETH’S / WARRANTED / CUTLERY reverse tang - HB&CO / GERMANY (with tree) (spear blade) same for pen bladeView attachment 2010104

That left one is a great find Dwight, I don't know if I've ever seen another with just the tree on the bolster.

 

[Fodderwing]

That left one is a great find Dwight, I don't know if I've ever seen another with just the tree on the bolster.

Thank you John. I always appreciate your input and that's great to hear!

 

[Fodderwing]

BELKNAP / HDWE & MFG. / CO

 

[philllll]

Been a while...

 

[r8shell]

Been a while...

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Philllll!

 

[mrknife]

Been a while...

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legendary!

 

[Augie]

BELKNAP / HDWE & MFG. / CO
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Nice one Dwight, Belknap had knives made by many companies, you don't see those Queen made Bluegrass barlows very often. Couple Bluegrass I have probably Ulster and Camillus.

 

[Fodderwing]

Nice one Dwight, Belknap had knives made by many companies, you don't see those Queen made Bluegrass barlows very often. Couple Bluegrass I have probably Ulster and Camillus.

Thanks again John. I thought it was the first Queen I had seen. Now I know for sure. Beautiful bone on those two flawless examples.

 

[Fodderwing]

Schmidt & Ziegler - Germany

 

[DocJekl]

Have we come to a conclusion about what makes a good Barlow yet?

 

[Will Power]

No, it's very much a WIP, thankfully

 

[DocJekl]

It's sad that I can't bring this Barlow on our 2-week cruise around England, Scotland, and Ireland next year (and Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris). They should have a locker for us to take these things onto shore excursions and then lock them back up when we board the ship, if they're afraid we'll terrorize the crew with our slipjoints.

 

[majorpain1]

 

[Fodderwing]

 

[Old Engineer]

Have we come to a conclusion about what makes a good Barlow yet?

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One to be proud of my friend .

Harry

 

[Fodderwing]

Another ancient with one of Charlie's new ancients. M Furness&Sons, blade stamp is interesting, not sure what to make of it, stamped 1760 or 1780,not quite sure and maybe a pair of fish hooks? Not stamped England so I would assume pre 1890.
Looks pretty good with Charlie's new one.

Amazing MF&S John. And the 1760 blade stamp! What a glorious find and fitting to be with CC's Ancient.
I went ahead and brought Jack's input along in case other's might want to know.

Congratulations Augie The stamp is 1760, which was the original mark of Luke Furnace (the spelling of names changes commonly in England in this period) in 1787. The '1760' mark appears to have been used by his forebears, most recently by the second Matthew Furness, who died in the first decade of the 20th century.

In the late 1880s, Furness Barlows were shipped to the US by Sheffield cutlers B.Worth & Sons. After the introduction of the McKinley tariffs, they looked for other markets.

According to papers in the Hawley Collection (Sheffield Museums) cited by Geoffrey Tweedale:

"All members of the family, father, mother, and children - even at eight years of age - took part in the work. The covering of the scales of these knives were usually made of bone, sawn to size and shape, without any further filing. They were then dyed a very deep purple in a bath made from a decoction of logwood chips. After drying, the scales were pinned to the metal parts."

Your knife could be as old as the mid 1870s Augie

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[Augie]

Amazing MF&S John. And the 1760 blade stamp! What a glorious find and fitting to be with CC's Ancient.
I went ahead and brought Jack's input along in case other's might want to know.

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Thanks Dwight, that MF&S now resides in Charlies barlow collection, it's in good hands.