Redge folding fruit knife.

[zoogirl]

Google failed me again. I only found one mention of Redge and that one was just called “vintage”.
It’s marked Redge on one side of the tang and Sheffield England Stainless on the other. The scales are French Ivory. I can clearly see the lines.
As you can see, the etch “Fruit Knife” is in what I would consider Victorian style. Of course, it could be much later, but the French Ivory does kind of give it an upper limit.

Any ideas?

[Gunsil]

Well, stainless steel was not available for commercial use until after WW1 so that would be 1919, but knowing Sheffield lost 80% of it's working age men in that war I would think it would perhaps have been made later. Another clue is that the word "stainless" was not often used at the beginning of the stainless era. The British inventor of modern Stainless was named Firth and I have seen a lot of British knives marked "Firth's Steel" which was used before the world grabbed on to the word "stainless". Here in the USA some early stainless knives were marked "neva stain" or sometimes "no stain steel". I would therefore guess that your little knife is likely 1920s-1930s. French ivory celluloid was still in use right up to the development of delrin in the early 1960s so the knife could be newer than 1930s. Love that etch by the way.

[FRJ]

Nice little knife.

[woodwalker]

Google failed me again. I only found one mention of Redge and that one was just called “vintage”.
It’s marked Redge on one side of the tang and Sheffield England Stainless on the other. The scales are French Ivory. I can clearly see the lines.
As you can see, the etch “Fruit Knife” is in what I would consider Victorian style. Of course, it could be much later, but the French Ivory does kind of give it an upper limit.

Any ideas? E31793C1-4C8F-4244-894C-23C58397CF68.jpegF91AB4E3-689A-46AB-9D0D-21D9C1F5760F.jpeg8158A1C5-ACD3-46D6-B38C-C1B1A57CE391.jpeg21D681CA-74B4-4181-998A-4B92F4A5C4D4.jpeg

That's a cool knife!!

[zoogirl]

I forgot to mention that it’s a folder.

[FRJ]

Have some coffee dear girl.

[zoogirl]

Yeah, you know, except for in the title...
Coffee. Great idea!

[Gunsil]

There are actually a lot of Redge knives shown on google images. None like yours though, most are table cutlery. I did find a reference to a knife marked Redge "Firth's stainless" and that would be their earlier stainless mark but still after about 1919. A lot of the knives shown look like circa 1950s kitchen table knives.

[zoogirl]

I have my suspicions about the search feature on this iPod. I think I’ll go straight to Google.
Thanks Gunsil, for the info on stainless and Firth’s, which I’d not heard of. I actually saved that post for future ref.

[Gunsil]

Just look up stainless steel history. What we refer to as stainless steel was invented simultaneously in the US by a guy named Sterling and the Firth guy in England about 1915. They both invented it without the other's knowledge but were smart gentlemen who instead of suing each other for the patent rights joined forces to share in the huge profits. There are knives marked "Firth-Sterling Steel" that show this merger. Like I said earlier, their steel did not come commercially available until after WW1. There are no knives marked "stainless" made before that time and it is a great way to get an age estimate. By the way, I googled "Redge cutlery" and google tried to steer me to "edge cutlery" but when I insisted on Redge I did find several references and some photos under "images", but no real definite info on when they were in business.