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

[Jack Black]

Great picture! Thank you.

Cate

Cheers Cate :thumbup:

 

[afishhunter]

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) pocket knife is on display, in the paddlewheel museum, in his beloved Hannable, Missouri.
It just happens to be a Barlow. It has been several decades since I visited, I do not remember the maker or handle material, and I want to say it had two blades. However, it has been at least 30 years since I was there, so I may be mistaken on the number of blades.

Since he carried a Barlow, it makes sense he would use that style knife in his writings, as he was (probably) most familiar with it.

 

[davek14]

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) pocket knife is on display, in the paddlewheel museum, in his beloved Hannable, Missouri.
It just happens to be a Barlow. It has been several decades since I visited, I do not remember the maker or handle material, and I want to say it had two blades. However, it has been at least 30 years since I was there, so I may be mistaken on the number of blades.

Since he carried a Barlow, it makes sense he would use that style knife in his writings, as he was (probably) most familiar with it.

Neat.

:thumbup:

 

[Jack Black]

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) pocket knife is on display, in the paddlewheel museum, in his beloved Hannable, Missouri.
It just happens to be a Barlow. It has been several decades since I visited, I do not remember the maker or handle material, and I want to say it had two blades. However, it has been at least 30 years since I was there, so I may be mistaken on the number of blades.

Since he carried a Barlow, it makes sense he would use that style knife in his writings, as he was (probably) most familiar with it.

Excellent, any pics available? :thumbup:

 

[screened porch]

I went to the museum website and couldn't find any mention of a knife. Their gift shop sells yo-yos with MT's picture on them, but would you believe, no Barlows.

 

[Jack Black]

I couldn't find any mention of it either

 

[screened porch]

By the way, Jack, I like your theory that different edges caught on based on what people were eating with.

 

[Jack Black]

By the way, Jack, I like your theory that different edges caught on based on what people were eating with.

Thanks mate, if you look at those early Barlows, most of them have have either scimitar blade shapes or the slant edge blade shape, like a long coping blade or lambsfoot. Both are the same blades people were eating with at the time. A little later, pistol grip hafts became fashionable for eating cutlery, and that influence can also be seen on early Barlows. Prior to the invention of spring knives, people had to carry around their own eating knives, which were slender fixed blades, so it makes sense that the designs of eating knife blades would be used for early spring knives. I don't know why I've not thought of this before, but it has been really enlightening to learn more about the history of table cutlery.

I also suspect that the slope-blade or Short Beak might have been the precursor to my beloved Lambsfoot, rather than it being a refined version of the much older Sheepsfoot.

 

[Balrog99]

I'm reading huck Finn right now, probably Barlows, but his pap chased him around with a clasp knife.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

I can remember when the old Pond Hill Works was still standing Will. Things have certainly changed a lot since the Indian export ban on Sambar, with the few remaining Sheffield cutlers struggling to find substitutes. Stan Shaw is OK, he bought a sackful of the stuff from one of the firms that closed down in the eighties for £5, reckons it'll see him through

Excuse the Yank, but how much did he get for 5 pounds back then? I am dead serious.

 

[Jack Black]

Excuse the Yank, but how much did he get for 5 pounds back then? I am dead serious.

You're excused my friend! Thats just over $7.50 (don't think the exchange rate has varied all that much), and judging by the amount of antler he has left, it must have been one heck of a big sack! :thumbup:

 

[Ishrub]

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:

In Full:

Russell Barlow info:

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 hardcover with great illustrations, catalog images and photos throughout for a very reasonable price)

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks a lot for re-posting it in full Ishrub, it's very pertinent to this thread I think :thumbup: I must again make the point though that the Sheffield Barlow 'legend' is sadly mostly misinformation! :thumbup:

 

[22-rimfire]

On a more historical note, in 1856, a steamboat named the Arabia was traveling up the Missouri River. It sank and was buried in river mud near what today is Kansas City. It was carrying 200 tons of freight. Over the decades the river changed course and the wreck's resting place became a field. The resting place was discovered in 1988 and is now a museum. I say all this because amongst the freight was a shipment of pocket knives.

So historically, here are some of the types of knives to which Tom and friends might have had access.

Not much has really changed in over 150 years. Tom and Huck might have had great difficulty affording a GEC barlow.

Samuel Clemons probably used a barlow in his books because the name gives anyone who knows anything about traditionals knows what a classic barlow looks like. Also, it is a very classy name and I feel sure that they really were status symbols of a blue collar sort back in the day.

 

[Jack Black]

Not much has really changed in over 150 years. Tom and Huck might have had great difficulty affording a GEC barlow.

They'd probably be carrying Rough Riders! :thumbup:

 

[Jack Black]

Out of interest, has anyone visited the museum where the Arabia knives are on display, it'd be great to see more detailed pics? :thumbup:

Edit - Adding link to Arabia Steamboat Museum - http://1856.com/

 

[Jack Black]

Here's some images I was able to find online:

 

[5K Qs]

Very interesting images you found, Jack! Thanks for posting them! :thumbup::thumbup:
The "layer cake" display the museum has for the pocket knives seems a very curious choice to me!

- GT

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks GT, yeah, makes it really difficult/near impossible to view them Maybe they publish a catalogue or something with some better pics, but I can't seem to find any

 

[Jack Black]

I came across these passages in Simon Moore's Cutlery For the Table; A History of British Table and Pocket Cutlery last night, which I thought were relevant to the prior discussion here, and would be of interest to those who have followed this thread. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in cutlery history :thumbup:

The diversity of form and uses for folding knives (and forks) reached a peak during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were used at fashionable al fresco meals and they were a definite requisite for experienced travellers. Folding cutlery was also used in more everyday walks of life, replacing the knife in sheath of earlier centuries. Examples of early 18th-century folding-knives show that their mechanism remained unaltered from the time of the spring-back knife’s invention in the mid to later 17th century. Blades echoing styles of contemporary table knives were made for folding-knives, until the scimitar blade was superseded by the sharper pointed blades towards the turn of the 18th century...

Whilst folding-knife blades changed shape, either to serve a special purpose or to suit a cutler’s whim, the demand for pocket knives steadily grew and cutlers searched around for new ideas; new designs were required to increase the versatility and popularity of their products. This gave rise to a massive variation in proportional designing: bolsters increased in length or were kept short, blade points were almost infinitely variable: spear-ended, square-ended, rounded, or sloped...

Scimitar-bladed knives were made either with the blade tip overrunning the end of the handle (c.1700-c.1770) or, later (c.1770-c.1790), with the cutting edge only, enclosed within the blade slot so the blade could be easily opened. The coming of the sharper-tipped spear point blade necessitated the point, and therefore most of the blade, to be enclosed within the haft making the blade more difficult to open. In order to solve this problem, cutlers regularly stamped nail nicks onto blades from about 1790.

A new and longer-bladed folding-knife evolved during the later 18th century which appears to have proved popular since this type of knife has been frequently found both in English urban archaeological digs and in America where it was exported at the time of the Independence uprising. The bolster was extended to twice its usual length and the end of the tapering pistol-grip haft was often made from metal only, roughly equalling the bolster in length and leaving a shorter area for the scales, like an inset scale knife. It’s scales varied in composition from bone and wood to tortoiseshell and even leather. The blade shape also varied, from the standard fish-shape, to a scimitar but with a sloping and sharp point. Although many firms produced knives of this style, those of John Barlow [Grandson of Obadiah Barlow of Campo Lane, Sheffield] were the most renowned, the new-styled, long-bolstered knife was dubbed, during the 19th century, the ‘Barlow Knife’.