Wilbert Cutlery

[espn77]

I know anything about Wilbert knives but that knife you have Wayne is amazing!!!!!!

[ratlesnake75]

You've been posting some really nice Wilbert's lately Mark! Thanks for the show. I let a Wilbert TL-29 with bone covers on it get away a few yeas ago and gave regretted it ever since.

Ken

Found a picture of that bone handled Wilbert TL-29 I let get away.

Ken
image.jpeg

Thanks Mr. Ken, That sure is a very weird looking TL-29 and the 1st one I had ever seen like it,,,Now I know why you regret letting it get away from you. Its so difficult to be a Seller when we have the LOVE for the knives.
Kind Regards,
Mark

[ratlesnake75]

Hey Guys, Thought I would post another "Wilbert" find,,One blade broke as you can see. I never seen this pattern before
All blades stamped with "Wilbert" without the Chicago.
Kind Regards,
Mark

[Mumbleypeg]

I know anything about Wilbert knives but that knife you have Wayne is amazing!!!!!!

I'll second that! If you go back to the first page of this old thread, toward the bottom is a post with a picture of another like it. Same saddlehorn jack pattern and beautiful worm-groove bone as Wayne's knife. Goins Encyclopedia has a reproduction 1908 Sears catalog cut of what looks like this same knife, says it was called an "Arkansas Lock Blade Hunter".

Keith, Wilbert was a premium cutlery brand name of Sears, Roebuck & Co. in first half of the 1900s. Goins says c 1908-1921. Knives were made by Napanoch among others.

Ken

Edit: Mark, that's another Wilbert pattern I had not seen previously either. Another fine example. I'm gonna guess it was made by Camillus?

Here's a Wilbert gunstock whittler I've posted pictures of before but since this old Wilbert thread has resurfaced, I'll post it here for posterity.

[thefarside]

Wayne, I have a cousin to the saddlehorn you posted photos of recently.

[outkast]

Not much etch left but it's still a little there. Was at the 2017 Blade Show it is the only one of these I've ever seen. So you know what happened next I had to bring it home with me.

[thefarside]

Outkast, Very nice knife!

[btrwtr]

Good looking cousin! There goes my weakness for 4 1/4" double ended jacks kicking in!

[ratlesnake75]

Not much etch left but it's still a little there. Was at the 2017 Blade Show it is the only one of these I've ever seen. So you know what happened next I had to bring it home with me.

Beautiful Gladiator knife!!! Just curious where the 72c Catalog Cut came from???
Kind Regards,
Mark

[outkast]

Not much etch left but it's still a little there. Was at the 2017 Blade Show it is the only one of these I've ever seen. So you know what happened next I had to bring it home with me.

Beautiful Gladiator knife!!! Just curious where the 72c Catalog Cut came from???
Kind Regards,
Mark

From a Sears Catalog #124 which was 1912. For anyone who doesn't know from what I've read Wilbert was a contract knife made for Sears Roebuck & Co. by Napanoch and/or Empire.

https://archive.org/stream/catalogno124 ... 6/mode/2up

[FRJ]

I bought this serpentine stockman not for its covers but for its mechanics. The awl locks in place and to fold it into the well you have to press the main blade down. I like stuff like that. I was curious as to how it worked.
Looking in the well you can see two blocks of steel and they are accommodated by the opening in the center liner. Pressing on the main blade pushes on the block just below it and that block pushes the other block thus raising the spring and freeing up the awl.

[LongBlade]

Thats a cool mechanism Joe for popping the awl ... Unique for sure... I hate to say this buddy but it looks like those celluloid handles are offgassing - You may need to get them off - save the shield and have it re-handled - It is probably worth it just for the cool mechanism and a nice EDC ...

[BWT]

That's a really interesting knife Joe, thanks for sharing it I only have one Wilbert that I posted in the Wards thread last week. It's just a plain Jane compared to yours.

[wlf]

Super find Joe.

[FRJ]

Thanks guys.

[Mason]

I bought this serpentine stockman not for its covers but for its mechanics. The awl locks in place and to fold it into the well you have to press the main blade down. I like stuff like that. I was curious as to how it worked.
Looking in the well you can see two blocks of steel and they are accommodated by the opening in the center liner. Pressing on the main blade pushes on the block just below it and that block pushes the other block thus raising the spring and freeing up the awl.

Neat knife with a clever blade locking mechanism. This type of lock was originally registered on Feb. 9, 1850 by John Lingard of Sheffield, England.
It was a good system that many German cutlers used in the late 1800s through the much of the 1900s.

[FRJ]

Hey Neal, thanks so much for that great information on this old knife.
It sure would be nice to see this mechanism in more folding knives but it is obviously kind of labor intensive/expensive.
I wonder who made this knife.
I really appreciate knowing more about it. Thanks again.

[Ropeman]

I just recently picked up an old Wilbert knife. I have been looking for more info on Wilbert knives and wondering if there is any distinction between tang stamps and manufacture. So far I have seen some opinions, but no hard evidence. One poster thought that the Wilbert name was not used after WWII.

Does anyone have any additional info?

More pics added. The master blade looks to be reshaped, the sheepsfoot is broken at the tip and the punch has a broken tip. I couldn’t even see the tang stamps until I cleaned it up.

[JAMESC41001]

Rope man, im no expert but if you can take a pic of the other side of the punch we can tell if it was made by Napanoch lnife co. The bone looks like Napanoch bone to me. Nice knife.

[OLDE CUTLER]

The Ritchie and Stewart Knife Collectors Guide I have states the Wilbert name was in existence from 1908-1921. I pictured my Wilbert Moose in another thread you had posted in. I was interested in comparing your Wilbert tang stamp to mine because of the multiple companies that may have made them, and they look the same. I have an older edition of Goins that says Wilbert was Sears from 1908, maybe someone has a newer Goins to put an end date on. I was talking to a Winchester collector at a gunshow a couple of years ago, and he was of the opinion that when Winchester started making their own knives about 1919 after they bought Napanoch and another company called Eagle, there were no more Wilberts. I dont know for sure if this is correct or not. Hopefully there will be more info coming.

[peanut740]

Wilberts were made by other companies beside Napanoch.The punch would can be telling.

[Ropeman]

New pics added. Thanks for the info!

[stockman]

He ran this knife in the general forum, it does not have a Nap punch.

[peanut740]

Harold is right,that's not a Napanoch punch.

[JAMESC41001]

Well so much for my two cents. Love the master blade though.