Hi,
I recently bought this William Rogers fighting knife and was wondering if anyone could give me any information about it and William Rogers as a company.
I'm told that William Rogers made the type 3 military issue Fairbairn Sykes knives and that this is probably a private purchase possibly for someone in the RAF. If anyone had any information about it, I'd be most grateful. Below is a link to my Facebook post with a picture.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1160717270662376/permalink/5338646312869430/
I recently bought this William Rogers fighting knife and was wondering if anyone could give me any information about it and William Rogers as a company.
I'm told that William Rogers made the type 3 military issue Fairbairn Sykes knives and that this is probably a private purchase possibly for someone in the RAF. If anyone had any information about it, I'd be most grateful. Below is a link to my Facebook post with a picture.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1160717270662376/permalink/5338646312869430/
First of all, while there are thousands of Sheffield knives, marked 'William Rodgers', both folders and fixed blades, they were not made by a William Rodgers company. Most were made by John Clarke & Son, who acquired the William Rodgers mark from another cutler, Thomas Hobson, in around 1910. Clarke's interest in the name was certainly because it was similar to the better-known, and more prestigious, Joseph Rodgers & Sons, and they used it as a 'stand alone' brand, in preference to their own name (though they also continued to use this as well). Both the Joseph Rodgers, and William Rodgers, names and marks are now owned by the same company (Eggington), who acquired them, together with a few other old Sheffield marks, in the 1980's. Your knife is certainly a private purchase item, but it could have been purchased by anyone, Clarke's produced tens of thousands of sheath knives, of various patterns, that being one of them 
