what sort of folder should Huckleberry Finn and tom sawyer should have had?

davek14 said:
And then the "clasp knife" might be a friction folder. That makes sense.
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Yes, it would be I think. I love my 'military clasp knives', but they're not really clasp knives at all, in the true sense of the term! :D :thumbup:
 
Frank : Thanks for the picture of the " Gold " on the Arabia. I went through the photo again 3 times and only see 2 Barlows with what appear to be either wood or bone handles , both with straight line cross hatching , both with 3 pinned handles , and both appear to be made by the same maker based on the pin positions and blades . I guess that is the type Barlow that he would have had. Not a bad choice , but I do not care for the blade.

Harry
 


I make it three Harry ;) Probably made by Squire's dad ;)



Charlie has some nice scratted bone Barlows, including a couple by Oates I think, you'll find pics in the Barlow thread. Here's one of them (below) :thumbup:

Jack

waynorth said:
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I've been after a TC for quite a while.
I always seem to be an hour or more late on the sales threads.
Someday maybe.
 
Jack : I stand corrected and will thank you very much for those pictures of the old Oates.



Harry
 
I was noticing the blade shape on the three Barlows in the picture. It matches the one you (re)posted Jack, a kind of a sheepsfoot thing. Interesting. It figures that the inexpensive workingman's knife of the day would have and easy blade to manufacture. Am I on the right track?
 
I always thought that many of those long squared off sheepsfoot-like blades were rope cutters.
 
davek14 said:
I was noticing the blade shape on the three Barlows in the picture. It matches the one you (re)posted Jack, a kind of a sheepsfoot thing. Interesting. It figures that the inexpensive workingman's knife of the day would have and easy blade to manufacture. Am I on the right track?
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BigBiscuit said:
I always thought that many of those long squared off sheepsfoot-like blades were rope cutters.
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There's been quite a bit of discussion here about that blade shape over the years, specifically in Charlie's Barlow thread, and about about straight-edge blades generally in Carl's excellent thread here - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...foot-and-the-spear-American-and-English-taste - for example. It's a sort of extended Lambsfoot or Coping blade, and nobody here seems to be able to give it a name. Intrigued by this, and by the issues raised in Carl's thread, I've been quietly researching it for a while. So far, I've only seen that style of blade referred to as a 'Short Beak' or 'Slope Point'. The Sheffield cutler's were skilled craftsmen, and their labour was also cheap, so I don't think the design comes from its ease of manufacture, but rather because British pocket cutlery developed directly as a result of a requirement for portable EATING cutlery, not for portable tools, or even hunting knives. That slope point blade shape, and the scimitar style seen on other early Barlows, exactly mimics the eating cutlery of the time (a time when people carried their own eating irons). Here, the Lambsfoot blade style, a shortened version of this slope point blade, is still popular, but it seems to have never really taken off in the US, perhaps because a pioneer nation required more robust pocket tools, and people with less restricted access to game (hunting has always been very restricted in England) had need of a knife with more belly?
 
Ahhh. I knew you'd come through with a fairly thorough hypothesis Jack. :thumbup: Sounds logical indeed.
 
leghog said:
Using modern examples, his barlow would likely have been much closer to an inexpensive one. An any man/every man knife --- what to me a barlow should really be.



Or perhaps like this...
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Bob & Jack : Charlies old photos show the integral Bolster / Liner much better than mine. When I was looking into my old Russell , I read that there were many repro's of Russells made after Russell no longer functioned as Russell and one way to tell a real Russell was the placement of the Blade Pivot Pin and the placement of the Handle Pins or Rivets. It is hard to say for sure but , the Handle Pins placement in the Oates Barlows in Charlie's photos look very close to the Barlows in Frank's photo IMO. Or is that just me hoping they do. I guess we have just blown to ____ my chance of sneaking up on another $ 5 SEO&S , but it is nuce to rhink that I may have the same Brand of Barlow the the Fictional Little Guy carried. Thanks Jack for your input and Charlie for having those old phoyos posted.


Harry
 
BigBiscuit said:
I believe that Jack. :D :thumbup: You are our resident encyclopedia of blade knowledge. :D
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LOL! You're too kind, hardly my friend! :D :thumbup:

leghog said:
Using modern examples, his barlow would likely have been much closer to an inexpensive one. An any man/every man knife --- what to me a barlow should really be.

Barlows.JPG
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Brumby53 said:
Or perhaps like this...


Interesting thread that has thrown up some beaut Photos and discussion that I am really enjoying but of course because both Huck & Tom are fictional characters the question can't really be answered.
We can only hazard an educated guess as what Mark Twain had in his fertile mind when he wrote those passages.
Do were know from the archives what Mark Twain carried as his preferred pocket knife??? (Assuming he did carry one)
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Lovely Barlows guys :thumbup: I think it's certain that the boys would have had less expensive knives, but maybe old Barlows, like Charlie's Oates for example, wouldn't have been too costly then? I'm not sure what they went for back then, but they certainly weren't fancy knives. Also I think there's a limit to how much any knife could have been 'cheapened' at that point - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876 (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884) - both because of available technology, and because the market may not have stood for it. I guess we'll never know what Huck and Tom would have carried, but I did track down Mark Twain's knife ;) :D :thumbup:

Imperial%20Mark%20Twain%20barlow%20knife.JPG


Old Engineer said:
Bob & Jack : Charlies old photos show the integral Bolster / Liner much better than mine. When I was looking into my old Russell , I read that there were many repro's of Russells made after Russell no longer functioned as Russell and one way to tell a real Russell was the placement of the Blade Pivot Pin and the placement of the Handle Pins or Rivets. It is hard to say for sure but , the Handle Pins placement in the Oates Barlows in Charlie's photos look very close to the Barlows in Frank's photo IMO. Or is that just me hoping they do. I guess we have just blown to ____ my chance of sneaking up on another $ 5 SEO&S , but it is nuce to rhink that I may have the same Brand of Barlow the the Fictional Little Guy carried. Thanks Jack for your input and Charlie for having those old phoyos posted.
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Very interesting Harry, and I do think those Barlows on the Arabia probably are Oates Barlows. We may need someone to go and check for us! ;)
 
Ishrub makes an interesting post in answer to Harry's question in the Barlow thread - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...od-Traditional-Barlow?p=14841210#post14841210

Hope it's ok for me to quote it here :thumbup:

Ishrub said:
According to pp36-39 of the definitive work on Russell knives (The History of the John Russell Cutlery Company 1833-1936 by Robert L. Merriam; Richard A. Davis, Jr.; David S. Brown and Michael E. Buerger, Bete Press Greenfield, Massachusetts publishers C1976 and still available in a 120 page Hhardcover with great illustrations, catalog images and photos throughout for a very reasonable price) the first Russell pocket Jack knives were made in 1875 with 50 'styles' were to expand to 400 'styles' within a year. These styles were often just variations of handle, rivets etc, on one basic design but there was no doubt more designs than just Barlows. By 1877 50,000 dozen jackknives had been sold. The Barlow pattern which was already in common use from its English origins and also already and continued to be made by a number of American makers. Russell's reputation for quality allowed them to 'own' the Barlow in later years.

re the Mark Twain references, the first Tom Sawyer reference was to the Barlow pattern and was published in 1876. Russell versions were not specifically mentioned in the 1884 Huck Finn publication but the Barlow prices quoted match the Russell version at the time.
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Not my pics, just some I uploaded while discussing old Barlows with Charlie (just came across them again now by chance), but I thought this old Oates Barlow found after The Battle of Gettysburg might be of interest :thumbup:





 
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