What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

Hartshead Barlow version of the lamb foot knife along side the Guardians' 2018 ebony.

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Another antique mall find! This is a great barlow knife although I don't know much about the history of this knife. I cleaned it up and but I can't read the tang stamp, the price tag said it was from Massachussets with no date at all. The letters on the tang stamp are worn but I can make out "PENK DWE CO." on the top and on the bottom "QUINCY" on the bottom. Its a great knife, very solid and the blade pull was about a 6 before I flushed out everything, now its a 10!!! I am going to try and work at it still. The handle is a candy like sawcut brown that has been repaired with what looks like a resin mixed with sawdust to try and match the handle covers. If anyone has any info about where this came from or could point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know more about the history of this knife. Also I sharpened it it up and into the pocket it went because it still has a lot of history left.
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Another antique mall find! This is a great barlow knife although I don't know much about the history of this knife. I cleaned it up and but I can't read the tang stamp, the price tag said it was from Massachussets with no date at all. The letters on the tang stamp are worn but I can make out "ENK DWE CO." on the top and on the bottom "QUIN" on the bottom. Its a great knife, very solid and the blade pull was about a 6 before I flushed out everything, now its a 10!!! I am going to try and work at it still. The handle is a candy like sawcut brown that has been repaired with what looks like a resin mixed with sawdust to try and match the handle covers. If anyone has any info about where this came from or could point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know more about the history of this knife. Also I sharpened it it up and into the pocket it went because it still has a lot of history left.
ck7w6rM.jpg

L3KTSS6.jpg

8pHEnC8.jpg


Jeff, nice old Barlow with a lot of character. Looks to be enough of the tang stamps left to identify, try looking at with magnifying glass first, if that does not work try working on the tang stamps with 0000 steel wool and oil, I've brought tang stamps back enough to read without damage that way.
 
You may know but there is a Quincy Mass, the rest of the stamp could be from a hardware store. the bolsters look like Schrade. Looks to be old, usually the tang stamps with a line between upper and lower lettering are early 1900's.
 
Jeff, may have identified it for you, found another example from The Tenk Hardware Co Quincy Ill. Looks like the antique shop was wrong as far as which Quincy. Very common for old hardware stores to sell knives stamped with their name, made by other companies, Tenk was in business 1865 to 1925 approximate. Borrowed pic from another site.


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Wow thats fantastic Augie, I have been slowly using and steel wool on it, its removing alot of the black stains. This knife is so well made for its age, its solid with a very pronounced walk and talk, "Snap, Clap".
Thanks for the information, its greatly appreciated. I always like seeing your pics in this thread as well.
 
Wow thats fantastic Augie, I have been slowly using and steel wool on it, its removing alot of the black stains. This knife is so well made for its age, its solid with a very pronounced walk and talk, "Snap, Clap".
Thanks for the information, its greatly appreciated. I always like seeing your pics in this thread as well.

Thank you, I love trying to identify old knives, learn a lot about the history of the knives that way. That tang stamp is pretty rare.
 
Posted a couple very nice vintage Barlows Dwight, nice finds!
Thank you John. Much appreciated.

Another antique mall find! This is a great barlow knife although I don't know much about the history of this knife. I cleaned it up and but I can't read the tang stamp, the price tag said it was from Massachussets with no date at all. The letters on the tang stamp are worn but I can make out "PENK DWE CO." on the top and on the bottom "QUINCY" on the bottom. Its a great knife, very solid and the blade pull was about a 6 before I flushed out everything, now its a 10!!! I am going to try and work at it still. The handle is a candy like sawcut brown that has been repaired with what looks like a resin mixed with sawdust to try and match the handle covers. If anyone has any info about where this came from or could point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know more about the history of this knife. Also I sharpened it it up and into the pocket it went because it still has a lot of history left.
ck7w6rM.jpg

L3KTSS6.jpg

8pHEnC8.jpg
Gorgeous old barlow! Very cool and exciting to view and learn from.
 
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