All About Pocket Knives

Why thank you. ..................... No! Wait! ................ Oh, the knife of course!

Here's an interesting Southington advertising knife with a metal handle I picked up earlier this year. Aside from the nick on the edge of the main blade, it's in pretty good shape with good walk and talk.

You've got a little jewel there, Lama.
1867 - 1905. Production years for Southngton.
It's got a little age on it.

Thank you, the solid metal handle does feel like a sleek piece of jewelry in my hand. I can easily imagine it sliding nicely into a waistcoat pocket of a business man in the early 1900's.

From what I've found online, this knife probably dates from later in Southington's history. National Lead Company started when some of the USA's oldest lead mining companies merged in order to compete with larger ones in 1891. According to Wikipedia, at least one of these may date to 1772. Originally they primarily mined white and red lead. White lead was used to make paint brighter. Red lead was the primary pigment in barn paint. National Lead Co. now goes by the name of NL Industries and produces a wide range of metals and chemicals. Titanium is one of their leading products, used as both an alloy and as a pigment.

Dutch Boy is one of their trade marks. Aside from paint, they produced metal alloys. Phoenix Metal seems to have first emerged around the turn of the twentieth century as a top of the line highly ductile bearing metal. It was used in high stress applications like bearing blocks for crank shafts. Apparently it contained no lead. I wonder if this knife's handle is made from Phoenix Metal as part of the advertising scheme?

Interesting.

My only Southington, love the pattern.

WOW that is a gorgeous example Mike

Very nice Mike!! Great find

Those blades! They look unused. Pristine.

A very nice addition to the thread, Mike.

Thanks for posting it here.

Mike

Killer knife Mike!

Beautiful knife Mike.