What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

Back in the day, they din' have no caps to lift! They had them silly porcelain stopper thingies with the wire tie. :eek: You kinda just flipped it open with your hands, but caps as we know them didn't come into use until later.

There were quite a few jack knives made in the forties and fifties with blade/cap lifter but no barlows. Mostly they were cheap dime store models. Hmmm. :confused:
 
gunstockjack said:
Back in the day, they din' have no caps to lift! They had them silly porcelain stopper thingies with the wire tie. :eek: You kinda just flipped it open with your hands, but caps as we know them didn't come into use until later.

There were quite a few jack knives made in the forties and fifties with blade/cap lifter but no barlows. Mostly they were cheap dime store models. Hmmm. :confused:
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Might as well get to work on that Beerlow label Barry! (Maybe if he sees the label - he might think about giving us one.);):)

Most of the old bottles in my house have cork stoppers and a few have glass stoppers - so again no need for openers.
 
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My Beerlow is one of my most prized knives. I would sure like to have another in third cut stag though!!:D

 
Beerlow love

5ccc1d63-7619-4b56-920e-c9cdec3228eb_zps646f7f68.jpg~original
 
Did someone say BEER?!!?! Unfortunately it's 10AM here and I'm at work, so a stock pic will have to do for now :)

 
If we are not careful - they might have to change the title of this thread to "What Makes a Good, Traditional Beerlow?" :D

Waynorth is probably already shaking his head at us beggars! These might be his emotions: :eek::foot::foot::barf::barf::o:(:grumpy::yawn:

:D:D:D:D

Pretty good inspiration there doc!
 
Really nice knife and picture Neal - your Four Roses drink was distilled and aged in my neighboring county. :thumbup::p
 
When did these "Beerlow's" come about? Did my wallet miss a chance to empty itself?

Edit - I see Yatsunil's post now. Cheers!
 
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I reckon a lot of those old cutlers would have been happy to to make up Barlows with everything right down to a pocket-clip, had they been available back then. BUT THEY DIDN'T.

I love the Radio Jack pattern, and there are some great examples of it. If there isn't one already, it'd be great to see a thread devoted to them in all their glory, and it would in my opinion, be a much better place to show this great custom work than in a thread that is supposed to be about TRADITIONAL Barlows, which attractive as they are, I don't think these are :thumbup:

If Charlie is shaking his head, he's not alone ;)

Jack
 
Agree to disagree :)

It seems to me that Charlie is more concerned about whether or not something that isn't strictly traditional would sell well, not necessarily the fact that it isn't strictly traditional. As he's said before, it's tough for him to go out on a limb with something new when he has to finance the whole run. Here is his comment in response to someone asking about a wharncliffe secondary in place of the usual pen:

waynorth said:
Hey Dan. I have thought of that configuration, ala the Bladeforums Barlow of the similar configuration.
It usually comes to this:
It's not strictly a traditional pattern, and I can't afford to go that far out on a limb.
I am thinking of doing another Spear Barlow, with enough differences to distinguish it from the Early (PPP) ones from a year ago. To do a Wharncliffe version, I would have to know I could sell 50 of them. I'm just a blue-collar guy sticking his neck out farther than he should!! Just ask my wife!!
So you can see it is a dangerous path - for many reasons!
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It's not like a cap lifter is some new-fangled modern feature that you only find on "tactical" knives.

I think everyone can see there is a definite demand for one now, though. Charlie has already demonstrated his willingness to use the caplifter on his Diamond Radio knife, which sold like wildfire. I don't think a beerlow is too much of a stretch of the imagination. ;)
 
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