A Little Robeson Demonstrator

[RobesonsRme.com]

I have never seen a Robeson DEMONSTRATOR as small as this little curved jack, which is only 2 3/4” long.

Nor have I ever seen a Robeson DEMONSTRATOR with pearl handles. The vast majority of these knives have pressure molded black hard rubber handles, although I have seen a couple or three with bone handles, all of which were on the table of an older knife seller from Murphreesboro, Tennessee. I was never convinced they had not been rehandled.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered this pattern before. And it does not have a pattern number.

The master spear is marked, SHUREDGE / DEMONSTRATOR and the secondary pen is marked ROBESON / ROCHESTER.

I’ve never seen that SHUREDGE / DEMONSTRATOR stamp before and it is not shown in Tom Kalcevic’s books.

I’m not sure how to date this knife. Given the block letter SHUREDGE, I’m tempted to say post 1948, but the stamp on the pen is an older stamp and the knife just looks older than that. Also, I always thought the Demonstrator marked knives were from an earlier time. Kalcevic dates the ROBESON / DEMONSTRATOR stamp 1911 - 1939, so I suppose this little curved pearl might be after 1940, but I cannot put an ending date on that.

At any rate, this is a master blade stamp I’ve never seen or heard of before, so I bought it off EBay this week for forty-eight dollars

Sweet little knife, though.

Interesting, rare stuff is still out there, waiting to be found. One just has to stay alert.

Ebay is, indeed, the biggest knife show on earth.

Charlie Noyes

[FRJ]

A sweet little knife, indeed, Charlie.
So glad you got that and it will be cared for.

[Landersknives]

Sweet knife Charlie! I love it.

[RobesonsRme.com]

Actually, I've been selling Robesons, not buying them, but I couldn't pass up a previously unknown (to me, anyway) tang stamp.

Needed to document that, if nothing else.

Charlie

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Can someone explain to this neophyte the term "Demonstrator" - were these salesman samples? Why bother stamping them as such? Why not just use a regular production knife?

Cool knife Charlie!

[RobesonsRme.com]

TwoFlowers, for whatever reason, that is what Robeson did.

It was most often, just a pattern example, as they usually had hard rubber handles.

Any DEMONSTRATOR stamp from Robeson is hard to come by.

I've seen no indication that they made one for every pattern they produced. Possibly, it was used for introducing new patterns.

Pretty sure, the practice ceased prior to WWII.

Charlie

[philco]

Glad you got that sweet little thing Charlie.

[Duffer]

Charlie, that is a pretty and unusual Demonstrator! I have a couple of Robeson Demonstrators so marked on the tang and with the high pressure black molded plastic handles. The only ones I have ever seen are the same—a very utilitarian looking larger folder unlike this pretty and diminutive pearl handled folder. If you haven’t seen one before they must be rare. It just seems odd but like you say you never know what will show up on EBay and you have to be paying attention all the time. Keep us posted about anything else you may find out about this obscure or perhaps unknown till now tang stamp! Thanks for sharing this great information (discovery)

[woodwalker]

I have never seen a Robeson DEMONSTRATOR as small as this little curved jack, which is only 2 3/4” long.

Nor have I ever seen a Robeson DEMONSTRATOR with pearl handles. The vast majority of these knives have pressure molded black hard rubber handles, although I have seen a couple or three with bone handles, all of which were on the table of an older knife seller from Murphreesboro, Tennessee. I was never convinced they had not been rehandled.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered this pattern before. And it does not have a pattern number.

The master spear is marked, SHUREDGE / DEMONSTRATOR and the secondary pen is marked ROBESON / ROCHESTER.

I’ve never seen that SHUREDGE / DEMONSTRATOR stamp before and it is not shown in Tom Kalcevic’s books.

I’m not sure how to date this knife. Given the block letter SHUREDGE, I’m tempted to say post 1948, but the stamp on the pen is an older stamp and the knife just looks older than that. Also, I always thought the Demonstrator marked knives were from an earlier time. Kalcevic dates the ROBESON / DEMONSTRATOR stamp 1911 - 1939, so I suppose this little curved pearl might be after 1940, but I cannot put an ending date on that.

At any rate, this is a master blade stamp I’ve never seen or heard of before, so I bought it off EBay this week for forty-eight dollars

Sweet little knife, though.

Interesting, rare stuff is still out there, waiting to be found. One just has to stay alert.

Ebay is, indeed, the biggest knife show on earth.

Charlie Noyes

Nice Charlie! Glad you found it!! Hope your Terrier search is going well!!

[kootenay joe]

Quote TFL: " the term "Demonstrator" - were these salesman samples?"
Is the answer "No" ?
kj

[RobesonsRme.com]

Roland, that has been, thus far, the published opinion.

If I remember correctly, without perusing their books at this moment, Dewey and Lavonna Ferguson, Bruce Voyles and Tom Kalcevic have all stated that the DEMONSTRATOR marked knives were most likely, salesman's samples.

The thing, for me, that tends to call that into question, is the lack of surviving examples. If the Robeson sales reps scoured the country with knife rolls filled with DEMONSTRATOR marked knives, I would think there would be more of them in the collector market.

Anecdotally, I don't think I see more than two or three a year show up on Ebay, if that many.

Unfortunately, anyone that could have answered this question is, most likely, now deceased or very elderly.

So, unless someone discovers some internal Robeson Cutlery Company documentation, we will be left with speculation only.

Charlie

[wlf]

It’s not there until it is.

Keep that eye out for the Robeson farmers jack or any others.

[RobesonsRme.com]

Lyle, you can rest assured that if I ever find a Robeson Farmer's Jack like the ones you collect, you will not be getting it.

Charlie

[RobesonsRme.com]

That was a joke. I hope you all understood that.

Charlie Noyes

[kootenay joe]

I think the 2 emogies you posted show you were having an 'in' joke with Lyle.
kj