All About Pocket Knives

Here's a nice little Miller Bros.1872-1926 10k gold.

here is a colonial i found today...

I recently aquired this MILLER BROS/CUTCO/MERIDEN,stainless scales c 1892-1926

johnnierotten wrote:I really like that adjustable wrench knife & GS knife.

What do y'all think of this A.W.Wadsworth & Sons? Not my auction and I'm not bidding but I did consider it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-A- ... 1c1f52c79f

In that condition...I don't think much of it at all.
But cleaned up a bit...I think would do wonders for it.
Also the E/O is an awesome pattern.

jerryd6818 wrote:What do y'all think of this A.W.Wadsworth & Sons? Not my auction and I'm not bidding but I did consider it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-A- ... 1c1f52c79f

That knife doesn’t look right to me.
It looks like a shell handle.
There is no rocker pin not showing.
The one pin to the rear appears be cosmetic.
It looks like a shell handle with Wadsworth blades in it.

The shell was originally developed in Germany; Imperial bought the rights for the USA & Rogers got it for the UK. I thought it was developed after WWI in the 1920s.
It could be an early shell handle, but I am skeptical.

Dimitri, Smiling Knife and anyone else who knows; what say you?

I will put a little bid on it.
It is cheap enough.
It might be worth it to find out.

Its possible ,Dale....hopefully Dimitri or Smiling knife can shed some light on it.
I don't think it ever had shell handles.....I think its just an ugly knife. ...that needs a cleaning.
But then again...I've never been a shell scaled knife fan.

Here's a few of mine:

orvet wrote:

jerryd6818 wrote:What do y'all think of this A.W.Wadsworth & Sons? Not my auction and I'm not bidding but I did consider it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-A- ... 1c1f52c79f

That knife doesn’t look right to me.
It looks like a shell handle.
There is no rocker pin not showing.
The one pin to the rear appears be cosmetic.
It looks like a shell handle with Wadsworth blades in it.

The shell was originally developed in Germany; Imperial bought the rights for the USA & Rogers got it for the UK. I thought it was developed after WWI in the 1920s.
It could be an early shell handle, but I am skeptical.

Dimitri, Smiling Knife and anyone else who knows; what say you?

I will put a little bid on it.
It is cheap enough.
It might be worth it to find out.

Did you end up bidding on it? The opening bid got it. If that was you, what's it like?

Yea Dale, did you get it?

I'm quite interested in it also!!!
A little suspicious as well.

.... Joe

I did get it.
It is quite interesting.
Dimitri, do you (or anyone else for that matter), know when the shell handle was patented? IIRC it was patented in Germany and Imperial and Richards of Sheffield made them under license. But I am not positive on that; any info would be appreciated.

It appears to be heavier than the typical Imperial shell handle. The front part of the shell is held on with tabs like the Imperial. The back half of the shells are pinned through the knife; there are no tabs there. I am thinking this may be an early shell handle made in Germany for Kastor, perhaps made by the company that patented the shell?


The shell halves seem to be considerably thicker than an Imperial.
It is heavy enough it could easily be mistaken for a standard knife as opposed to a shell handle.

If anyone has any ideas or theories about this knife I would love to hear them.

Dale, here is some interesting information that applies to your Wadsworth. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... ns...again

This is a vintage sterling silver folding knife that is carved front and back. The main blade has Vulcan scribed on the tang. One side hac FAC monogrammed on it. The knife has descended through a Columbia County home.
wazu013

Wow Jerry, thank you!
That makes the knife much older than I thought it was!
Interestingly there are traces of paint on the handle near the edge if the easy open cutout.

Dale,

I do not have the German patent info on this knife. I do have all the Imperial patents for shell handle knives, non of those are exactly like this one, leading me to believe this knife was made in Germany under a different patent.

I have several of these inexpensive German knives with hollow tin handles, most of them are textured to resemble stag or jigged bone handles and then painted Black or Reddish Brown to keep them from rusting. Your knife was either polished or the paint has worn away over the years.

If I find any new information on this I will post it here

The link Jerry posted to BF had some interesting info from Bernard Levine.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... ns...again

I hope to make the OKCA meeting on Wednesday and take the knife to have Bernard look at it and see what the other members have to say about it.
Dennis Ellingsen is pretty knowledgeable on Imperial shells as I recall and is an accomplished researcher! Dennis rarely misses a meeting, so there should be more than one person there who might have info on them.


According to Bernard, (in the link above) the DRP on the tang means Deutsches Reichspatent. He dated a knife with the same markings as pre-1915 and probably pre 1905.
I will have to see what he says having the knife in his hand.

This one really fits in a bunch of categories. I'll just put it here. It is an advertising butterfly/balisong pattern for a company in London that was dissolved in 1886. The tang is stamped P.Metz for Paul Metz who was one of the partners. The pile side of the tang is stamped Patent 1500. It is all steel with nickel overlays that are stamped with the advertising.

That is a cool old knife!
I would assume horsenails are used for horseshoeing.
That is the only place I can think of that one would use a nail on horse!

An old Shapleigh advertising knife.

I got an old metal handled Challenge Cutlery knife thought u guys might wanna take a look at. (i say metal handle cause im not really sure what it is, just an all steel frame) The only others ive seen similar to it are two E.C Simmons Keen Kutters a friend of mine has that ive been keepong my eye on if he ever comes down on his price. Sure would like to see some other examples if anyone out there has any. Also any info on the style is always appreciated.
enjoy the pics,

Bill

Very cool old knife! I like it a lot! With that bolster work and the blade swedge I think it looks like a quality made knife which usually isnt the case with a lot of metal knives Nice find.

Getcha some more pics and info in this thread

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 35&t=21801

thank you Gino and Scott, theres some nice knives on that link im glad you gave that to me.
I knew i wasnt the only one with one with a knife like this!

Thank ya much,
Bill