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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?
- Thread starter waynorth
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Absolutely sweet Barlows, Lloyd!A little dessert infused with cinnamon, honey, caramel and brown sugar after your main course of delicious Lick Creek Barlow? That's what these saw cut bone and smooth bone handle cover colors on these vintage Barlows remind me of.
Lloyd
Maybe it's not a healthy diet, but if I had the option, I'd skip the main course and go straight to the delectable dessert! 
That's an impressive bunch of nice old Barlows, dboy! :thumbup::thumbup: If you get a chance, I could sure learn something from you identifying who made each of those. (Pretty sure I see 2 Rough Riders at bottom of right column, but other than that, I wouldn't bet on the make of any of the others.
Here is all I got I planted one of my RR several years ago on a trip.
)You've got the genuine goods there, Tsar! :thumbup:As a form of protest against the ridicu-dumb manner in which GEC and certain dealers have gone about issuing the #14 Barlows (see W&C for my true feelings about this), I feel the need to spam this thread with a few examples showing that you don't need fanatical cultism over manufacturers to enjoy a Barlow.
Anyone who wants me to go into more depth over this Charlie Foxtrot can feel free to send me an email through the site.
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Some of the bone Barlows from my recent Grand Barlow Tour of the Far East:
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I only own 3 Barlows, but one of them is a Belknap Blue Grass (also a Rough Rider and a Grandaddy Sabre), and I sure like your Blue Grass! I've never seen a Remington Barlow with the very recognizable green and yellow covers (I finally realized that I think I'm drawn to the Remingtons with those covers because they remind me of John Deere colors, even though growing up, we were a Farmall and Case operation on my Dad's dairy farm), and I like it a LOT! The covers on your Uticas are knockouts, and that's true of your Grandaddy Case, too (corncob jigged bone??)! Who made the SMKW and the old black one, and how long ago, do you think? I'd really appreciate some details on the Barlows (all big ones?) in the group shot. Winning pair, Rachel. :thumbup: As usual, I especially admire your Böker, but I'd pick up a Keen Kutter Barlow in a heartbeat, too, if the opportunity arose!TC Barlows are wonderfully made examples of the pattern, and I wish everyone who wants them could get them, but there is definitely more demand than supply. But take solace in the fact there are some lovely old Barlows to be found: My favorites:
Terrific trio, Atiger!I agree - T/C Barlows are beautiful and likely to be tomorrow's classics but there is as much to admire and enjoy in today's classic old barlows as well.
Some favorites of mine...
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Lloyd, deltaboy, Tsar Bomba, r8shell, and Atiger, did you ever know that you're my heroes???
:thumbup:(While I was composing this post, Augie posted some beautiful red Barlows, and I should acknowledge that he's been one of my Barlow heroes for ages!)
- GT
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You've got the genuine goods there, Tsar! :thumbup:
Thanks, GT.
The newer Utica is one that floored me with that wonderful grain. I'd only days before acquired the "flatter" wood Utica, and in fact had carried it that week for Wooden Wednesday, when I stumbled upon the other one. I guess I can't say no to a nice Barlow.The green and yellow Remington is a Camillus-built Barlow from the 80s or 90s (estimated). I actually took the iPad out back last night to grab a group shot of some Delrin Camillus builds that I have from the same period but for some bizarre reason (and even though the Flickr app keeps saying all the images uploaded) I can't seem to get them online. :grumpy: I'll take another crack at it and if it doesn't work I'll just manually copy them off the tablet and upload them myself. It's pretty clear from the group shots that the Barlows are all related.
I'm working on getting a very clean Camillus-branded (and shielded) green and yellow stockman, should know more in the next couple hours. They're about the only Delrin-handled knives I go out of my way to try and procure these days.
The big Case is a Pocket Worn daddy Barlow. I thought it was my first PW Case until I discovered today that the red 6318 is also most likely Pocket Worn, so that means I've now got two. The SMKW knife is a Colonial, and the black large Barlow is an old Robeson that's clearly seen a lot of use; I'm at a loss to date it, though I'd make a rough guess of the 1960s due to the synthetic handles. The blade is still insanely sharp, though, so it has become an occasional user. The Belknap has a five-digit number stamped on the mark side of the master tang, where the maker's mark normally is (that is, instead, on the pile side of the master tang). I'm assuming it's a serial number, though why Belknap would serialize such a large run is beyond me. As for the Grand Tour Barlows, I'll just quote what I wrote in another thread:
r8shell
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Please forgive the off topic, but what size stockman are you getting? I found one that's pretty much the same size as a Buck 305. That is to say, tiny.I'm working on getting a very clean Camillus-branded (and shielded) green and yellow stockman, should know more in the next couple hours. They're about the only Delrin-handled knives I go out of my way to try and procure these days.
Barlow content:
The one I'm sizing up is a medium stockman. Looks very similar (they all kinda do, with the slanted and squared bolsters) but longer, around 3 3/8".
I'm also working on an old Queen Barlow in Winterbottom bone. Hoping not to be priced out of it.
That Camillus you posted is probably within a couple years of the one I photographed for a comparison shot with my green Remington (pics I am currently trying to pry off my tablet with minimal success).
Blah. Priced out of both. People are nuts.
So anyway, here're the Camillus comparison shots:
L-R: Camillus 51, Remington 9505, Camco 551, Camco Barlow with sheepsfoot+pen (unknown model #), KaBar 1013
The #51 Barlow (and Camco #551) appear in most of the catalogs I have and seem to have been the popular Barlows for the company. There was a spearpoint version of the #51, the #50, throughout the 40s and 50s. They seem to have dropped the #50 altogether by the 1975 catalog. I could not find hide nor hair of the sheepsfoot Barlow (Camillus or Camco) in any of the catalogs I have. The KaBar has a nail nick in place of the long pull but seems otherwise identical to the others.
So anyway, here're the Camillus comparison shots:
L-R: Camillus 51, Remington 9505, Camco 551, Camco Barlow with sheepsfoot+pen (unknown model #), KaBar 1013
The #51 Barlow (and Camco #551) appear in most of the catalogs I have and seem to have been the popular Barlows for the company. There was a spearpoint version of the #51, the #50, throughout the 40s and 50s. They seem to have dropped the #50 altogether by the 1975 catalog. I could not find hide nor hair of the sheepsfoot Barlow (Camillus or Camco) in any of the catalogs I have. The KaBar has a nail nick in place of the long pull but seems otherwise identical to the others.
Hard to say. The green and yellow Delrin knives seem to have been made from some point in the 80s until some point before Camillus went out of business in 2007. The two I have seemed to be NOS from the 90s but that could vary 10 years in either direction easily. I have one with the original Remington box and pamphlet but unfortunately both are completely undated.
Funny how all five of those knives show the same exact sawcut pattern, down to the distance and placement between the "deep" cuts every half-inch or so. Clearly the same tooling was used to cut the handles for all of them, despite the fact that there's probably a 30-40 year spread between all five. I have a twin of the Camco clip Barlow in my clean-em-up box with an identical sawcut pattern but a smaller tang stamp and the model # 551 on the other side which, I believe, dates from the 60s.
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Went over to Fire Island for drinks with my girl. Only I was drinking, got another one here expecting our first baby in about a month.
Those older barrows are just gorgeous. I see what you mean about the same cuts in those sawcut covers.
Dave
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Those older barrows are just gorgeous. I see what you mean about the same cuts in those sawcut covers.
Dave
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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r8shell
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I was noticing that about the "saw-cut" pattern. I'm thinking that the Delrin covers were molded rather than actually cut. They probably used that same mold for many years.
This is more than likely the case. I've gotta wonder if, towards the end of the 80s, they didn't find an equivalence between the Camcos and the Camillus-branded knives since most of them at that point were Delrin-handled anyway. I suppose that's why you see a drop-off in the number of newer Camcos -- at that point, Camillus was just trying to keep it together with contract knives and their primary line of knives. I think that's when Sword brand fell off, Camco, and some of the other imprints they were responsible for. Towards the very end, their #51s in Delrin all seemed to use that faux-wood mold instead of the sawcut. I'm still trying to get my hands on an example of that. Some time ago I missed out on a mint bailed version of the last #51 and a NOS example of the regular version within a week of each other. I'm still a little upset over that.
Edit: Just bagged a single-blade post-2005 version in the aforementioned faux-wood handles for twenty bucks.
Who needs a TC anyway?
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So far it hasn't been easy, lol. But I still have high hopes! These look like winners to me. It's the size that's perfect to me. I love the look of the 15, but never pursued because of their size. A 14 is 'the' size for me! Here's to hoping I can get one!
Absolutely sweet Barlows, Lloyd!
Terrific trio, Atiger!
Lloyd, deltaboy, Tsar Bomba, r8shell, and Atiger, did you ever know that you're my heroes???
(While I was composing this post, Augie posted some beautiful red Barlows, and I should acknowledge that he's been one of my Barlow heroes for ages!)
- GT
Here you go starting left.top
Pair of Camco' s
Imperial
SABER
Imperial
Kutmaster
Grand Daddy is a Robeson
White bone Rite edge
Remington
Case
RR
Mini RR
I didn't forget about you, deltaboy. My shipment was apparently running late, but according to USPS it is waiting for me in the 'box at home. I'll have it out to you in a day or two.
(What the blazes is going on with USPS lately? If they can't handle the slow season then just how badly will the end of year holiday rush blow up in their faces?)
(What the blazes is going on with USPS lately? If they can't handle the slow season then just how badly will the end of year holiday rush blow up in their faces?
)