What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

Eric, thanks again for sharing those beauties with us and your knowledge!! I really like the second pic with the old builidngs

Ken, Your professional observations can only improve any already exquisite beauty. Great pics by the way.

Charlie, A few imperfections and asymmetry in the bone lends itself to more character and individuality, in my opinion. It all depends on my state I guess, perfection is compelling but not representative of reality.
 
Gevonovich said:
Eric, thanks again for sharing those beauties with us and your knowledge!! I really like the second pic with the old builidngs

Ken, Your professional observations can only improve any already exquisite beauty. Great pics by the way.

Charlie, A few imperfections and asymmetry in the bone lends itself to more character and individuality, in my opinion. It all depends on my state I guess, perfection is compelling but not representative of reality.
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Ponder long enough, and someone will come along and say what one was trying to find words for. The above works for me. :)

(Thanks, Ken-- I appreciate your eye, photography, and expertise brought to bear on this particular knife.)

I do like the variegation found in natural materials, "character marks," etc., and am tolerant of flaws. However, to my eyes there's a difference between a piece that appears to have flaws, and one that appears to have been damaged, and I don't prefer the latter out-of-the-gate. The third knife down in Charlie's scan tips more towards "looks damaged" to me.

That said, at three knives for $2.00 (or whatever the going rate was), I'd be happy to "put up with" any of Charlie's examples above. No, really. ;)

~ P.
 
My objection to those Case handles (possibly made by Camillus!), is the "scratch" line in some of them. I wonder what that was!?
My Fave is the light Tan with the central hollow, second knife down. It is a Case Tested, and predates the others by a fair number of years, most likely. Might be Utica made!
$2.00 for three?? :D
 
waynorth said:
$2.00 for three?? :D
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Sure, and thanks for the offer! Do I get to choose all three, or do we take turns? ;)

Oh, and the smooth red bone is nice, but doesn't grab me for this pattern the way the ambers and browns do. (I'm still looking at Ken's pictures-- wow.)

Add some of that old-school jigging to the red, as seen in your little #25, and we'd have an entirely different conversation on our hands.
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~ P.
 
waynorth said:
My objection to those Case handles (possibly made by Camillus!), is the "scratch" line in some of them. I wonder what that was!?
My Fave is the light Tan with the central hollow, second knife down. It is a Case Tested, and predates the others by a fair number of years, most likely. Might be Utica made!
$2.00 for three?? :D
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Charlie, correct me if Im wrong, but it seems that a lot of the old Barlows that I see have some sort of imperfection in the covers, like the hollow you mention or an edge that looks like was never there etc. Is that just a characteristic of new Barlows of the time?
 
Dave, a lot of imperfections were slight, but some of these appear presented for their drama.
I do think the "flaws" are more acceptable to this creative bunch that hangs around here, than to non-knife people. However, since the great majority of old Barlows have unflawed handles, after ca. 1900, I suspect they may have sold at a discount. Unsubstantiated opinion on my part!!:D
 
waynorth said:
Dave, a lot of imperfections were slight, but some of these appear presented for their drama.
I do think the "flaws" are more acceptable to this creative bunch that hangs around here, than to non-knife people. However, since the great majority of old Barlows have unflawed handles, after ca. 1900, I suspect they may have sold at a discount. Unsubstantiated opinion on my part!!:D
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Thanks for the clarification Charlie! Thats good to know. I actually like the beat up look of some of the old Barlows
 
waynorth said:
...a barlow was supposed to be a simple, budget knife...
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I find that interesting. I can see where "simple, budget knife" applies to the sodbuster with its inexpensive covers and lack of bolsters, but there isn't anything about the barlow's design that screams inexpensive to me. The bolster uses more steel than most, and to top it off it is usually stamped. These little touches add to the cost of construction. About the only thing the barlow lacks is a shield.

What am I missing here?

- Christian
 
kamagong said:
I find that interesting. I can see where "simple, budget knife" applies to the sodbuster with its inexpensive covers and lack of bolsters, but there isn't anything about the barlow's design that screams inexpensive to me. The bolster uses more steel than most, and to top it off it is usually stamped. These little touches add to the cost of construction. About the only thing the barlow lacks is a shield.

What am I missing here?

- Christian
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Don't know how accurate this is, but I just used Google fu, the site this quote is taken from is a site that does not appear to be a paying dealer of Bladeforums, so I did not post the link. Barlow history is what I have looked for on occassion, wink wink nudge nudge.
The barlow knife was designed to be tough, and to be affordable. To keep the price low, the blade was high carbon steel, and the handle was bone, and not much time was spent in polishing it. To make it tough, the bolster was big and thick. The original barlows had only one blade. Now they have two, and more care is taken in finishing and polishing them.
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Do any of you sometimes glance through pictures, either distractedly or simply without enough time to really look, only to have them haunt you later? That just happened to me, again.

I just searched through a number of threads to find the following post again, mistakenly thinking I'd first seen it here.

Well, now it will be. ;)

paulhilborn said:
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Paul
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I wanted to see the bone covers again. Such beautiful coloration throughout.... (Thanks for such great pictures, Paul.)

~ P.
 
kamagong said:
I find that interesting. I can see where "simple, budget knife" applies to the sodbuster with its inexpensive covers and lack of bolsters, but there isn't anything about the barlow's design that screams inexpensive to me. The bolster uses more steel than most, and to top it off it is usually stamped. These little touches add to the cost of construction. About the only thing the barlow lacks is a shield.

What am I missing here?

- Christian
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Christian, the older (early to mid 1900's and sooner) barlows were made with far fewer finishing steps than a standard pocket knife;

The covers (cheap cowbone, and likely the leftovers from what didn't make the grade for jigging, hence the imperfections, which I REALLY like by the way :D ) were sawn and sanded flat to thickness and that was it, no finish after installation save for the hafting of the backs and fronts. They didn't even do much finishing where the cover meets the bolster, usually it was quite proud and square. This was an added benefit of those long bolsters as they made it possible to feather the bolster pin without touching the covers.

Inside of the springs wasn't polished whatsoever (except where the blade contacts it), if you look at the springs on those old barlows you'll usually see the rough scale that's left after heat treat. Same for blade tangs, left as is after shaping and smoothing. this is why you usually have the square tangs (half stops). A square tang is far easier to finish than a round tang because it requires no polishing to ensure smooth action, it's generally just the two corners that contact the spring. This includes the front tang, or inside round section that leads up to the kick. Take note of the old catalogs and they usually refer to this finish as "black".

I'll try to get a few photos up tomorrow to illustrate these characteristics

Eric
 
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Sarah, it's a bit uncanny and or scary how many of us think here. I had posted this Schrade Barlow days ago in the "What traditional are you carrying today" thread and just thought today I should bring it over here:)

Thanks for your kind compliments, I'm really enjoying this knife. I know that Barlows fall in the "Work, Utility" category so a few rough spots in the f&f are expected or accepted. I think this one was fortunate when it came to it's production day because the fit and finish is really really good:thumbup:

Thanks,

Paul
 
Paul,

That bone is really neat. From the color and texture, it took a couple looks to realize it wasn't wood.
 
Thanks for importing that one, Sarah, and for taking such great pics, Paul!
That knife is a work of art! Schrade did a good job on that Heritage series in general. I'm sure I've seen other patterns with nicely dyed bone like that.
 
waynorth said:
Thanks for importing that one, Sarah, and for taking such great pics, Paul!
That knife is a work of art! Schrade did a good job on that Heritage series in general. I'm sure I've seen other patterns with nicely dyed bone like that.
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That knife is so nice that I had to go back and look at it again. ;)
-Bruce
 
I agree with everyone, Paul...your Barlow is a fine example, just a great looking knife, as Charlie says, the Everlasting series ( well all that I have seen ) are great knives-they really are.

edit:, my apologies as I posted too soon..

Eric, thank you for educating us folk here, its fantastic reading what you have to share.
 
Thanks for the explanation Eric. Looking forward to the pics.

- Christian
 
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