What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

Jack Black said:
Rather than being an occupational name, Barlow, Barley, Barlowe, (and Bierlow, as well as various other related forms) derive from a common place name, with Barlow and Bierlow certainly still being in use here.
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So in other words, Beerlows are traditional.


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Augie said:
The bolster stamp is pretty classy...
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I'll say! That's a great look. :)

Luger1952 said:
Here is a wonderful YouTube video by ApostleP (Rob) interviewing Charle C about vintage Barlows and his TC GEC Barlow at the GEC rendezvous last week.


https://youtu.be/nmKZrOCf2Vw


Enjoy, Lloyd
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If Lyle and I had known they were trying to film an actual video, we may have stopped talking throughout.

Maybe.

:eek:

;)

~ P.
the background noise
 
Well, its been a very very hard week, I just got home - its around 10.15pm - and I have just watched Charlie being interviewed, i wasnt going to spend too long on BF tonight as I was so tired -saw this and havent looked back :o

I have enjoyed chatting to Charlie over the last few years over the phone - every now and then we send a parcel, but one of the highlights of Sue's and my trip - in fact one of the two or three massive highlights in my LIFE - was the meeting of friends in person, Charlie and Joanne, and Paul and Nancy, in Sue's and my last trip - we got to do the same with Jack!:)

So - back to Charlie and Joanne, one of the warmest couples that I have met, I didnt quite know just how to express myself to Charlie- I felt extremely comfortable- and the feeling wasnt in awe - because I already knew that Charlie was quite a fantastic person - but both Sue and I...well we sort of felt like we were home - when we were at Charlie's Home, I apologise if that sounds silly, but it's just how Charlie and Joanne are - the you tube video simply confirms this.

Im so happy that Charlie some years back coerced me to Traditionals - the beginning was when I knew nothing ( so nothings changed ) about Traditional pocket knives- I collected Bowie knives - I came across the Maher & Grosh - asked about it in Bernard's forum - and Charlie asked if I could show it in Traditionals - now from memory it was a Fur & Trapper advertisement Knife made by Maher & Grosh for the Magazine Fur & Trapper ( or was that Game and Fur - Fur and Game ? Charlie please correct me if I have slipped up here ).

Thank you Charlie for everything that you do for everyone who just knows how important our knives are, and thank you for being a friend.

So.... I guess what I am trying to say in a very silly way it was extremely neat for Sue and I to have a few oohs and aaahs while watching charlie being interviewed.

Luger my friend ( another real neat guy ) THANK YOU for posting this - for all of us.
 
Thank you Duncan, Sarah, Dean and Jack, lucky find. One other neat detail of this knife, it looks like they tried to make the pen a smaller copy of the main, the way the back of the blades taper pretty well match.

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Jack Black said:
Thank you for a most fascinating post Cambertree :thumbup:

No worries Jack; and thanks for your kind words GT, r8shell, btmccutcheon and augie.

Yes it's certainly interesting to see how many details of these old Sheffield patterns and blades have remained identical over the years.

I'm guessing that although the blades in the above catalogues are claimed to be hand forged, the blanks were actually drop forged to a standard die pattern and then ground, polished and finished by hand. Likewise for those stepped, long bolsters. It's almost like once a pattern or blade style entered the canon, so to speak, you just didn't mess with it - or more to the point, go to the expense of changing the tooling, unless a customer requested specific variations.

That clip blade with the long swoopy trailing point (to borrow one of pertinux's phrases) looks very appealing, when combined with the clean, stout lines of the Barlow handle. I think I prefer the nail nick placement on the original rabbit knife, rather than on those Schrade IXLs, though.

Jack, you're a fountain of cutlery knowledge!

One thing I did notice in those old cutlery catalogues is that steel pickers and tweezers seemed to be an upgrade option available for quite a few barehead patterns, not just for the veterinary and 'sporting knives'. I can't reference any Barlows that had them, but there were certainly short bolstered teardrop handled jacks and stockman knives that did. The tweezers look a bit sturdier than the flimsy SAK versions, and seem to have a groove and tooth pattern that intermesh when pinched closed, like good medical tweezers. I use the picks on my SAKs quite frequently - mostly to clean and oil my other slipjoints' blade channels with a bit of Ballistol moistened cotton wool.

What do people think? Would you like to see that option return in good quality steel in select models of Barlows or boys knives? Or would it ruin the appearance of the fine cover materials?

Oh, I enjoyed that clip of Charlie very much, thanks for posting the link Luger1952.
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pertinux said:
So in other words, Beerlows are traditional.
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That's definitely not a traditional variant ;)

Enjoying watching the videos (even with my rotten internet connection) :) :thanks :thumbup:

Nice post Duncan :) :thumbup:
 
Cambertree said:
Thank you for a most fascinating post Cambertree :thumbup:

No worries Jack; and thanks for your kind words GT, r8shell, btmccutcheon and augie.

Yes it's certainly interesting to see how many details of these old Sheffield patterns and blades have remained identical over the years.

I'm guessing that although the blades in the above catalogues are claimed to be hand forged, the blanks were actually drop forged to a standard die pattern and then ground, polished and finished by hand. Likewise for those stepped, long bolsters. It's almost like once a pattern or blade style entered the canon, so to speak, you just didn't mess with it - or more to the point, go to the expense of changing the tooling, unless a customer requested specific variations.

That clip blade with the long swoopy trailing point (to borrow one of pertinux's phrases) looks very appealing, when combined with the clean, stout lines of the Barlow handle. I think I prefer the nail nick placement on the original rabbit knife, rather than on those Schrade IXLs, though.

Jack, you're a fountain of cutlery knowledge!

One thing I did notice in those old cutlery catalogues is that steel pickers and tweezers seemed to be an upgrade option available for quite a few barehead patterns, not just for the veterinary and 'sporting knives'. I can't reference any Barlows that had them, but there were certainly short bolstered teardrop handled jacks and stockman knives that did. The tweezers look a bit sturdier than the flimsy SAK versions, and seem to have a groove and tooth pattern that intermesh when pinched closed, like good medical tweezers. I use the picks on my SAKs quite frequently - mostly to clean and oil my other slipjoints' blade channels with a bit of Ballistol moistened cotton wool.

What do people think? Would you like to see that option return in good quality steel in select models of Barlows or boys knives? Or would it ruin the appearance of the fine cover materials?
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One of the reasons that hand forging lasted so late in Sheffield is because of the Little Mester system (and the unwillingness of the factory owners to invest), since labour was much cheaper than paying for new tooling, particularly when you were using cutlers all over the town to make knives for you, all of whom would require tooling, which might not always be returned afterwards, or used exclusively for your knives. Hand-forging was also considered to be far superior by the Sheffield cutlers though, and was the rule rather than the exception into modern times.

Yes, there are accepted Sheffield 'town patterns', which were produced by a great many individual cutlers, and to a lesser extent that is still the case. That clip design, for example, is used by all the Sheffield firms, despite being a rather lacklustre clip in my opinion (I think the swoopy clip is better too :) ). Innovation among Sheffield cutlers seems to have largely been a thing of the distant past unfortunately.

My grandad's Bunny Knife had tweezers in the handle. I've seen them on quite a few patterns, along with the picker, but no, not on a Barlow. Personally, I don't think they'd look right.

Thank you for the kind words my friend, I'm very much enjoying the discussion :thumbup:
 
Not a barlow but one of my favorite carry knives.

A 15 pattern made by gec
 

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supratentorial said:
Nice looking barlows, Phil! Is that a recent knife from Ken? Ken's knives are always a treat!
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I forgot the dating on his tang stamps..but it's one of his older one's. From 2006-2007? It's in his thread somewhere..beautiful knife though and real chirpy walk and talk.
 
Augie, Phil, dbla wonderful Barlows!!!

I've had this same Schrade before but sometimes when I see one I just have to pick it up. All I've done is add an edge and tightened a fairly loose main blade. I was just swayed by the covers and the fact that I feel is a WONDERFUL Barlow like this needs to be back in action:thumbup:

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