What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

[burnside]

You know, it may be time to do something out of the box so to speak. I think a hybrid Barlow would be really cool. Wharncliffe/Spear, two full sized blades. That would find its way into my pocket for sure!

I would love to see this happen. Sign me up!

 

[akadave2]

My clip and pen Charlow in antique yellow bone has started its journey to the Oklahoma Hills as of this morning.

There's a better than fair chance it may go on some moonlit walks with me, following the music of the Bluetick hounds this fall and winter.

By the time the Dog woods bloom in spring it will have whittle a few walking sticks and undressed a few old ridgerunner coons.

Im sure you might listen to a little Jerry Clower along the way?

 

[bonky]

Im sure you might listen to a little Jerry Clower along the way?

" ....God said it was okay, the first time he saw that dog, he thought it was a lion too!"



Jerry Clower? Who is that guy, and why in the world would I want a Helicopter Lure?

 

[MerryMadMonk]

My Charlow mod

I was going for the tanto look, but one of my Labs bumped my elbow and the Dremel went off course... it was pretty bad. So I had to come up with something else. After studying on it some, I thought it would be pretty cool to have a screwdriver tip, some wicked serrations on the spine and a caplifter. I reckon I need to sand off the etch because it's not really a sheepsfoot anymore. This probably belongs in Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment, but I wanted to share with my fellow Charlow enthusiasts.






















I kid, I kid

 

[gunstockjack]

ROFL! Too funny Al!

 

[SHEBOP]

You had me for a minute!!!

 

[roninelh]

I'm super late to this party, but I just got my first Charlow, and I love it! I'm a fan of the 15 frame and the barlow bolsters just make it extra special. :thumbup:

I'm kind of a northfield guy, but I have fallen head over heels for this poor little tidioute that could. Fantastic job Charlie!

 

[bonky]

I'm kind of a northfield guy, but I have fallen head over heels for this poor little tidioute that could. Fantastic job Charlie!

Don't let the tang stamp fool you, the long-pull and swedge are ALL Northfield

Gotta agree with you, Charlie knows his knives!

 

[burnside]

That a great looking Charlow, Eric. Nice Score!

Al, your photochop is killing me LOL!

 

[Campbellclanman]

I just got out of bed-had a look in here and I was taken in nicely until I wiped my tired eyes Al! Lol very good /you had me there.
I am loving the responses to these neat knives. It feels great to carrying with me- the spear point yesterday was photographed in a small English Forest in Billinge near an old light Tower.
It's a little camera that I bought for the trip so I can't load any photos until I get home

 

[Jack Black]

I kid, I kid

Very bad!

It's a little camera that I bought for the trip so I can't load any photos until I get home

Hope you're not too jet-lagged Duncan

 

[Coonskinner]

I was raised coon hunting and did it for a long time before I ever heard ofJerry Clower.

 

[paulhilborn]

My Charlow mod

I kid, I kid

Now that's funny---little scary to think of but still funny

Paul

 

[zippofan]

Thanks, and: Too funny!

But no, as seen in more detail earlier in this thread (here), I didn't leave my knives. Ahem. I had my beloved Antique Amber in a designated pocket in my hiking pants (a slim horizontal zippered space seemed tailor-made). And, somewhere in this blue blur...

... my Strix is affixed in its sheath at the waist of my pack.

I was also fairly pleased to come up with this bit o' kit for the other knives and accessories I didn't carry in my pocket(s) while away, but had along for morale:

Yes, a predominance of barlows. :thumbup:

~ P.

Now that's what I call traveling with style! Reminds me of the discussions on our watch forum about how many watches one should take on vacation, how to carry them etc.

Belated congratulations to you and your family Sarah. Thank you for sharing the pictures of your son's wedding, may they have a long and happy life together :thumbup:

August is always insanely busy here, even more so after taking my older son to college for the first time yesterday. It seems like only yesterday we were changing diapers and up all night with a colicky baby, now he's living in downtown Pittsburgh

Obligatory Barlow content, a Case Select snakewood that's going in my pocket today:

Still need to take a pic of my blackwood sheepfoot Charlow

Cheers,
Griff

 

[jon_slider]

Congratulations! If you know of another one of those available, please send me private mail.

How Traditional is a Wharncliffe blade and has it ever been used on a Traditional Barlow?
My current opinion:
The Wharncliffe blade was born in Sheffield in 1830, but it was not used in a Barlow frame until very recently.

A Wharncliffe style blade appears in the GEC WLST around 2009,

I don't know if there are earlier appearances of the Wharncliffe style blade on other Barlows. And Im not sure a purist would agree that a GEC 25 frame qualifies as a traditional Barlow. Please share if you know of any other Barlows with Wharncliffe blades.

imho, the Wharncliffe is an evolutionary progression of the Mariners knife, also known as a Sheepfoot blade, whose blunt end was refined to have less of a nose bump, in the Lambsfoot blade. The Wharncliffe is a yet sharper nosed progression. All three, the Sheepfoot, the Lambfoot, and the Wharncliffe, have the same straight cutting edge, with no belly.

There is some belief that the Saxon blades called Scramasax, were precursors of the Sheepfoot, Lambsfoot, and Wharncliffe. The reason is that some Scramasax, had blades that were clipped with a flat on the front third of the spine. This to me evokes the clip point blade, moreso than the Wharncliffe, but people with more cutlery experience than mine, suggest otherwise. Their view is that the Wharncliffe is part of a blade shape that is known to exist as far back as the 8th century in England and Europe.

below are some links, notes and pictures on which I based my above summary
Feel free to opine, posit, theorize and enlighten us with further insights to support the notion that a Wharncliffe blade is traditional on a Barlow. Not just an old blade type, but that it was paired with a Barlow frame, prior to GECs WLST.

I also credit PaulHilborn for starting this heretical obsession with non traditional bladed Charlows

====
notes and quotes below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax
Broken-back style seax.
These seaxes have a sharp angled transition between the back section of the blade and the point, the latter generally forming 1/3 to 3/5 of the blade length. These seaxes exist both in long seax variety (edge and back parallel) and in smaller blades of various lengths (blade expanding first, then narrowing towards the tip after the kink). They occurred mostly in the UK and Ireland, with some examples in Germany around 8th-11th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax_of_Beagnoth
The Seax of Beagnoth (also known as the Thames scramasax) is a 9th-century Anglo-Saxon seax (single-edged knife)

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http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/639207/tp/2/
The Wharncliffe is a very interesting development in knives.

The name does , in fact , come from the Earl or Lord Wharncliffe. He was a Patron of the Sheffield Cutlery Firm of Joseph Rogers & Sons. Lord Wharncliffe wanted an all around knife that would be good for all the general tasks he needed, this did not include skinning or hunting chores. more like clipping Quills, carving or scraping wood. More of a 19th century EDC. The first Wharncliffe named knives were made by Joseph Rogers in 1830.

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the Wharncliffe blade design goes back at least as far as the Scramasax
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That blade design go real far back in history.

I saw one that Bill Adams had that was found at a dig that Carbon dated to around 600 A.D.

In more recent times that was a knife commonly made by blacksmiths in Virginia ( Late 1700's-Early 1800's) that was refered to as a Plantation Knife. It was unmistakenly what we would now call a Wharncliffe. Ihe blades were from 3 to 5 inches long. The handle was set on the top spine ( like a Chef's Knife) and it was used for slitting Leather and making harnesses. I was commonly carried as a belt knife by plantation workers --Both White and Black.
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A blade that was also unmistakably the same shape was recovered from a Pawnee Indian Dig in Kansas. The Archeoligists said that it was actually french and had a very thin Blade.

So--the Blade shape obviously pre-dates the name Wharncliffe for a number of Centuries.

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The Term Wharncliffe is from the Early 1800s--it was named for a wealthy patron of the Sheffield Firm of Joseph Rogers and Son. Lord Wharncliffe had the Knife designed for him

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The Sheepfoot is thought to be the Safest on board Ships because if the Ship Yaws unexpectidly--You have less of a chance of stabbing yourself.

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in closing, here is a Barlow that I think meets the criteria for traditional:

Note it has bone handle scales, and traditional blade configurations and patterns for a Barlow. Im not sure that a Walnut handle scale is traditional on a Barlow , but I digress..

 

[Jack Black]

Interesting post John. I think it's actually the EARL of Wharnecliffe (currently an American gentleman ). I don't believe for a minute that he invented the blade shape, probably Joseph Rodgers just flattering the man (my grandad was a patron of Joseph Rodgers - at least he bought their knives, never had one named after him! )

As for them being traditional on a Barlow, if they were, Charlie would have made one!

In terms of the various comments that appear about these patterns on the internet, since many (including at least one Sheffield cutlers) seem unable to distinguish between them, some ought to be taken with a pinch of salt

 

[larson1122]

Another pic of my Walnut Sheepfoot:

 

[SHEBOP]

Good Stuff and Great Pictures!!!

 

[jon_slider]

As for them being traditional on a Barlow, if they were, Charlie would have made one!

Maybe he just has not gotten around to it yet? And it would take some evidence of the existence of a SharpFoot blade in a hysterical Barlow, to sway his conviction. Which was the purpose of my post.

After all, Barlie has yet to release a jigged bone Barlow yet either. And I take it you concede that Walnut is not a traditional Barlow handle, yes? In fact, I have not seen any Oak handled Barlows lately either.. Not sure wood is traditional for a Barlow at all..

I hope someone will post photos to disabuse us of my ignorance. I continue to relish the thought of my Barlie sourced lumber scaled Charlows.

And in keeping with my tradition of a picture in every post, a couple of Traditional Bovine Barlows (not an Ovine in sight):

 

[pistonsandgears]

Thought i'd get a group shot of the Barlow family with the new addition blackwood Sheepfoot.

The figuring on the blackwood on this particular knife is very interesting, hard to capture in a picture, the way it looks changes depending on how the light hits it.