Rogers Bone

[tjmurphy]

Can bone handles with Rogers jigging still be obtained?? Where??

[jerryd6818]

Are you talking about unfinished slabs (except for the jigging of course) like Culpepper and others sell???

Edit: Culpepper sells one they call "RJB", which I think stands for Random Jigged Bone. In their description they say "It is inspired by the old patterns commonly referred to as "Rogers" bone."
Form your own opinion ---> http://www.knifehandles.com/rjb.html

[orvet]

If you mean new Rogers bone, no.
Culpepper's makes two or three jigging patterns that are similar to Rogers bone and they also make it in various colors. It is about as close as I have been able to find to the original Rogers bone.

The actual Rogers bone company still owns the jigging machine but will not sell it, nor will they use it to produce knife handles.

[jerryd6818]

I was going to add that but I see Dale beat me to the punch.

[KnifeSlinger#81]

The actual Rogers bone company still owns the jigging machine but will not sell it, nor will they use it to produce knife handles.

[tjmurphy]

Thanks fellerz, Culpepper was the name I was trying to think of. Doggone that Ohio River water!!

[SolWarrior]

If you mean new Rogers bone, no.
Culpepper's makes two or three jigging patterns that are similar to Rogers bone and they also make it in various colors. It is about as close as I have been able to find to the original Rogers bone.

The actual Rogers bone company still owns the jigging machine but will not sell it, nor will they use it to produce knife handles.

I've noticed different jigging partterns dubbed Rogers bone. Did Rogers bone jigging change over time or did they have different jigging machines for different jigging patterns? Also wondering how long Rogers bone co was in business?

A couple of more questions either you orJerry may be able to answer: Were the 72 short-lines with bone handles all Rogers bone? Cause from what I can gather - and can't gather much at this point - the 1st generation 72s appeared to be Camillus, with a yellowish bone color. Rogers bone or not, my opinion is that it looks awesome on the 1st gen 72s. I forgot my second question, and there's no Ohio river water down here.

[orvet]

As I recall from Bernard Levine's article based on an interview and visit to the Rogers bone Factory, there were three or four different jigging patterns that Rogers used.
Rogers called their bone "Roger's Stag", if I recall correctly.
I'm not at home now, I'm posting from my phone. When I get home, and remember it, I will post a link to Bernard Levine's article on Rogers bone.

There is also a difference in color, but a lot of that comes from age and wear.
I can take a piece of bone and artificially wear it down and the color will change. Also wearing down the jigging will change the appearance of the jigging.
I think many of the perceived differences are due to wear.

[SolWarrior]

Dale, I did toss the thought around about wear changing the color some but on some of the 1st gen 72s that I've seen around here, a couple of them look virtually new so no wear, or hardly any. Thanks

[Miller Bro's]

There is also a difference in color, but a lot of that comes from age and wear.
I can take a piece of bone and artificially wear it down and the color will change. Also wearing down the jigging will change the appearance of the jigging.
I think many of the perceived differences are due to wear.

About ten years ago a guy in Connecticut found a crate or wooden barrel addressed to Remington, inside were found handle slabs of pearl and jigged bone. The barrel came from the Rogers company, most of the handle material was made for switchblades but not all. He was selling them on eBay for years, a lot of "custom" knife makers were buying the ones that were not pre-drilled first the last one's he had available were the one's pre-drilled and slotted for switchblades.

Needless to say I bought several sets, they are exactly as they came from Rogers a very dark brown color which looks nothing like the color we are use to seeing. The point is the handles are buffed to bring out the true color we are use to seeing at the knife factory when they were made.

I posted some pictures of these slabs on this site, if I can find them I will post pictures here

[orvet]

A correction to my earlier post: there were at least two jigging patterns that Rogers bone Company made and Bernard Levine interviewed the senior president of Rogers Manufacturing Co. via telephone not in person and apparently did not tour the factory in person at that time.

Here is Bernard's article from his website and the link below the article.
There is also an interesting article following the Rogers bone article on Winterbottom bone for those of you are interested.

ROGERS BONE (c)1987 | WINTERBOTTOM BONE (c)1990

by BERNARD LEVINE * BOX 2404 * EUGENE OR 97402 * 541-484-0294

KNIFE WORLD * PO BOX 3395 * KNOXVILLE TN 37927
WHUT IZZIT NUMBER 119 NOVEMBER 1987

Rogers bone was made by the Rogers Manufacturing Company of
Rockfall, Connecticut. On the telephone I interviewed Mr. Vincent
Bitel, Senior, president of the Rogers Manufacturing Company, and his
son, Mr. Vincent Bitel, Junior.
Mr. Bitel, Senior, informed me that the firm started in business in
1891, making manufactured bone products, and also bone fertilizer.
They began to make jigged bone pocketknife scales around the turn of
the century. Other manufactured bone products included combs,
toothbrush handles, baby pacifiers, and one of their biggest sellers,
corn-cob pipe bits. This particular item was discontinued in the
1950s.
Early in the century, one of this firm's competitors in the bone
business was Rogers & Hubbard. About the time of the First World War,
Rogers Mfg. Co. traded its bone fertilizer operation to Rogers &
Hubbard, and received in return the other firm's manufactured bone
products business. From that time forward, Rogers Mfg. Co. was the
nation's largest maker of manufactured bone products.
At first, all of the bone used by Rogers Mfg. Co. came from domestic
cattle. By the 1920s, and perhaps even earlier, all of it was coming
from overseas, mainly from Argentina.
Most of Rogers's pocketknife handle material was made in the
distinctive jigging pattern that collectors call "Rogers bone," but
that the firm in fact called "Rogers Stag." Rogers Stag was made
using a specially designed jigging machine which the company still
has, but that has not been used since 1962 (they have no interest in
starting it up again). They also made small quantities of other
styles of jigged bone for pocketknives.
Rogers Mfg. Co. also made jigged bone for hunting knives and for
kitchen utensils. For hunting knives, they made a style of jigging
they called "Indian Trail." This is a long random "worm" style of
jigging. Their biggest customer for bone kitchen utensil handles was
Landers Frary & Clark, who used the bone mainly on kitchen forks.
During the Second World War, Rogers's production of jigged bone
handles continued without interruption. Many of those handles wound
up on cutlery items made for the government.
The bone used by Rogers during the war was all imported. It came
from Argentina, Brazil, and a new source: Australia. The Australian
bone came mainly from old (15+ years old) tough range cattle, and so
was very thick and dense and strong. This heavy Australian bone was
used mainly for hunting knife handles.
In the 1950s, cost-conscious cutlery manufacturers began to
discontinue the production of bone handled pocketknives. Rogers Mfg.
Co. changed with the changing times, and began to offer synthetic
pocketknife handles. Mr. Bitel, who started with Rogers in 1955, was
involved in the transition. He states that Rogers Mfg. Co. was the
first firm to produce pocketknife scales made out of Delrin (a DuPont
acetal resin). One trademark Rogers used for synthetic handle
materials was Romco.
Rogers Mfg. Co. last sold bone pocketknife handle material in 1962.
The firm still supplies limited quantities of synthetic handle
material to the cutlery industry, but domestic and foreign competitors
have taken most of that specialized business away.

******
http://www.knife-expert.com/bonehand.txt

[royal0014]

Interesting read.
Thank You Mr. Dale ....

[SolWarrior]

A correction to my earlier post: there were at least two jigging patterns that Rogers bone Company made and Bernard Levine interviewed the senior president of Rogers Manufacturing Co. via telephone not in person and apparently did not tour the factory in person at that time.

Here is Bernard's article from his website and the link below the article.
There is also an interesting article following the Rogers bone article on Winterbottom bone for those of you are interested.

ROGERS BONE (c)1987 | WINTERBOTTOM BONE (c)1990

by BERNARD LEVINE...

Thanks for sharing that with us, Dale. Very interesting Article. It's always a pleasure and great learning experience communicating with you on here.
Here are a couple of photos of Winterbottom Bone found on the web.

[Mumbleypeg]

This older thread contains a great deal of info and pictures related to Rogers bone. I recommend it for learning about Rogers bone. http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... ogers+bone

The "search" feature here on AAPK is a wonderful, and often underused feature!

Ken

[orvet]

Bernard notes in his article that the last bone handles were shipped from Rogers Mfg. Co. in 1962.
I understand that some companies have had a stock of Rogers’ bone that they used after 1962, but for the most part they were probably no new knives made with Rogers bone after about 1965. That is my assumption but most manufacturing companies are in business to turn raw materials into finished products and do so in a timely fashion so they don’t lose money. I know of no large-scale manufacturing company that intentionally buys material and holds it for years before manufacturing a product with it.

One of the things that struck me when I looked at Ken’s link to the other Rogers bone thread: ( viewtopic.php?f=35&t=45098&hilit=Rogers+bone ) was that there are a number of recently manufactured knives listed in that topic that are purported to be Rogers bone, knives made after the year 2000! Someone may have called it Rogers bone somewhere, maybe even the factory that made the knife but it is not bone from Rogers Mfg. Co. which I feel is the only true maker of Rogers bone.

In my repair and customizing work I often use Culpepper’s RJ B jigged bone, (RJ B = Rogers Jigged Bone), but I do not consider that to be real Rogers bone.

I wonder if we can find a litmus test for Rogers bone?
Maybe we could put together a collage of pictures of what we can all agree is Rogers bone?
Something like that would be helpful to me, how do the rest of you feel about that?

[Colonel26]

That sounds like a great idea Dale.

[jerryd6818]

In my repair and customizing work I often use Culpepper’s RJ B jigged bone, (RJ B = Rogers Jigged Bone), but I do not consider that to be real Rogers bone.

Or does that stand for "Random Jigged Bone"?

[Miller Bro's]

Ok, I found the thread I started six years ago on the subject.

Read this from start to finish:

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 35&t=27389

I find it ironic that the person posing the query on the other forum is now a member here, hey Roland you still have that "fake " Primble knife?

Dale I don't think BRL even knows what genuine Rogers bone looks like, judging from his assessment of the Primble knife. For the record the handle slabs I show in this thread are genuine Rogers bone NOS never used the real deal.

[orvet]

In my repair and customizing work I often use Culpepper’s RJ B jigged bone, (RJ B = Rogers Jigged Bone), but I do not consider that to be real Rogers bone.

Or does that stand for "Random Jigged Bone"?

I guess that could be, I was going by Culpepper's description which does not mention "random" in their description but it does mention "Rogers bone."

"RJB pattern is a hand operation pattern that has alternating depths of jigging. It is inspired by the old patterns commonly referred to as "Rogers" bone. It is very popular in the cutlery industry especially in Amber color."
This is Culpepper's picture of Amber RJ B.

[Mumbleypeg]

Maybe we could put together a collage of pictures of what we can all agree is Rogers bone?

Now that should be interesting!

Ken

[orvet]

I took the liberty of copying Dimitri's pictures from the old thread to this new one.

[Paladin]

Very interesting thread, guys. One thing I haven't seen mentioned and which I would enjoy knowing more about is "old Rogers Bone" vs "new Rogers Bone".
Seems like the deep dark recesses of my mind contains something like a fire that destroyed their plant and maybe that led to the "new Rogers Bone"? Anyone have a photo that might demonstrate the new vs old Rogers Bone?

Ray

[tjmurphy]

Here are four UTICA Jacks. Are they Rogers bone or did UTICA jig their own bone? I have a lot of bone handled knives and most all look the same to me.

[orvet]

TJ,
Those are all gorgeous!

But.... I see some waves running lengthwise of the handles on the first knife. I don't think that is Rogers Bone. Rogers should not have a pattern.
The second one is closer, but I am not sure about it. there seems to be a crescent pattern (along the bottom half) that I have not seen in Rogers Bone before.
If you have trouble seeing them I will try to show it with Photoshop when my PC scanner stops running.

The last two knives I would call Rogers Bone.

I have some pics to post, after the scanner does its thing, that shows the new Culpepper RJB and several WW II 4 line tang stamp Camillus knives.
I am reasonable most folks would agree the bone Camillus used at the beginning of WW II was Rogers Bone.

[tjmurphy]

Thanks Dale. When you say a "crescent" pattern do you mean like a "wave" pattern running along the bottom edge?