Another never seen Case pattern.....

[knife7knut]

I may have posted this before and if I have please forgive me;the mind is a terrible thing to waste!
I've had this now for many years and whomever I have showed it to that is knowledgeable on Case items is stumped.
It is a Case Tested XX letter opener with a dagger shaped blade and spey type folding blade. The handle could be described as a tapered coffin shape(or a trapezoid sleeve board);the handles are celluloid or something approximating it,and the advertising is for," Hanley Co. Face Brick" whatever that may be.It is in pretty much unused condition(I don't like the word "mint";that should be reserved for candy). I have never been able to find a pattern number or even an illustration of another one.Does anyone have any information? It would be greatly appreciated.

[deo-pa]

That's a very cool find k7k! Face brick is thin veneer brick used to give the appearance of a brick structure.

What makes the letter opener special is that the Hanley Company was founded in 1893 and was originally called the Bradford Pressed Brick Company... yep the company was right in Case's hometown of Bradford, PA. You can read about the history of the company in this newsletter (http://bradfordlandmark.org/images/uplo ... nkwell.pdf) and you will see that many famous Bradford landmarks were made from Hanley brick.

I used to live in PA and still collect PA historical items. If you have an interest in selling it ping me.

Dennis

[deo-pa]

Here is an ad from 1912 and a photo of one of their structural bricks.

Dennis

[cody6268]

Great letter opener! Been meaning to add one like that, and currently have a Remington in my eBay watchlist--dont' know if it's even still available.

Any reason why office knives typically have spey blades?

[Gunsil]

On a stockman it is a spey blade, on an office knife it is an ink eraser. Back when documents were written with fountain pens on thicker paper than we use today if you made an error writing you would scrape off the mistake with an ink eraser after the ink dried. There are many antique ink erasers in antique shops and on ebay often advertised as scalpels or fleams. The letter opener/ink eraser combos use the spey type blade rather than the standard ink eraser blade which usually had a large protrusion toward the tip of the blade.