Knives from PA

[Just Plain Dave]

Oh MAN! You done turned on the drool valve with that one!

[PA Knives]

When it comes to a knife from the great state of Pennsylvania, they don't come any nicer than this one. NICE find and congrats on a real keeper.

David

[ratlesnake75]

Sauconian--You are so true, you would think, it would have been the NORM, not the other way around.--thx Mark

Just Plain Dave--thx so much for the compliment--without "PA KNIVES" and AAPK, I would have past on buying such a knife off ebay, they gave me a thumbs up that the knife was legit--thx Mark

PA KNIVES--thank you very much--Without your help, I would not own it 2day. MANY THANKS!!! It will be in my knife roll for LONG TIME--thx Mark

[knifegirl888]

Hello... Bret888 & I bought a few Pennsylvania knives this weekend at a local flea market. Although, they look pretty "right" to us, we see these tang stamps so rarely that we were hoping to get some opinions on the validity. I am hoping the pictures are good enough.

KANE
CUT. CO
KANE, PA





UNION RAZOR
CO.
TIDIOUTE, PA





U.R.CO
TIDIOUTE
PA.





Actually, got this one off the bay...

HOLLINGSWORTH (arched)
KNIFE
CO.
KANE, PENNA

[knifegirl888]

Here are a couple more we got today.

Schatt & Morgan
TITUSVILLE
PA





This Queen was different than I am used to seeing. It has a crescent moon shield. The tang is worn, like the blades, but reads like this...

Queen City
Titusville, Pa.

[vikingdog]

Nice Pennsylvania knives Knife Girl. Are you specializing in PA knives? I have a S & M like the one you bought. It's one of my favorite knives.

The copy from the ebay listing:

"This is a vintage antique pocket knife rare curved jack knife pattern stamped S&M (Schatt & Morgan) Titusville, PA, on both blades, c1896/1931. It is 3 1/8" overall length closed. It is in excellent used condition with normal wear, handles are old cow bone stag, no cracks, has excellent snap on blades, with no wobble. Rare knife."

[tjmurphy]

KnifeGirl and VikingDog - Those are some really nice knives, character out the wazoo, them's the ones I like. Congrats.

[knifegirl888]

Nice Pennsylvania knives Knife Girl. Are you specializing in PA knives? I have a S & M like the one you bought. It's one of my favorite knives.

The copy from the ebay listing:

"This is a vintage antique pocket knife rare curved jack knife pattern stamped S&M (Schatt & Morgan) Titusville, PA, on both blades, c1896/1931. It is 3 1/8" overall length closed. It is in excellent used condition with normal wear, handles are old cow bone stag, no cracks, has excellent snap on blades, with no wobble. Rare knife."

Wow! Yours is a good example! Those blades are full & nice. I have lived in Western PA my whole life and really am quite new to knife collecting. I love the history and background of Pennsylvania knives. My boyfriend & I have been reading several of the books on the subject, including "Tidioute Brand Pocket Knives".

It's difficult for me to pick a favorite of the ones we just got. I have a couple more, that I will try to get pictures of soon.

[vikingdog]

Thank you TJ. For once I got lucky on ebay. Don't you just love the old
stuff?

Thanks Knifegirl. You're picking up some really nice knives, made in your area too. You must live out there in The Magic Circle where all the knife makers were early on and still are. I live in North Central Pennsylvania and admire those early PA knives.

I'm going to take a swing across Route 6 and visit some of those places this fall.

[tjmurphy]

Yes I do. There's just something about the old, worn, loved PK's. And they're just chock full of MOJO.

[knifegirl888]

I live about an hour from Titusville. I know that I am addicted... My boyfriend, my eleven year old & I all have the fever.

Has anyone seen a Queen with a half moon shield? I looked in all the books I have and haven't found one similar yet...

[PA Knives]

You all know this is my FAVORITE thread. LOVE em. If only I could have a girl friend called knife girl!!!!!!!! lucky devil Bret and she is into PA KNIVES, what more could one ask for? Thanks for the great pics of some of my favorite names.

[knifegirl888]

Thanks, PAknives! LOL

I was hoping to get your expert opinion on the ones I have gotten so far.

I have this Penn Cutlery one, that I am very curious about. I know that stamp is worn & this knife has seen some better days. One of the issues I wonder about is that the bolsters don't match up evenly on knife. I believe Atkins was the individual behind Penn Cutlery Co? I think I need to re-read that chapter...

[nifbuf]

Queen City did use shields on most of their knives before WWII, but when they changed their name to Queen Cutlery after the war they started publishing catalogs and most of the knives made after WWII did not have shields at all until more recently. Queen City did use shields frequently, much in the style of Schatt & Morgan after they bought that company in receivership. Shown here is star shield that Queen City used, one never even seen on a Schatt & Morgan.

[knifegirl888]

Queen City did use shields on most of their knives before WWII, but when they changed their name to Queen Cutlery after the war they started publishing catalogs and most of the knives made after WWII did not have shields at all until more recently. Queen City did use shields frequently, much in the style of Schatt & Morgan after they bought that company in receivership. Shown here is star shield that Queen City used, one never even seen on a Schatt & Morgan.

Thanks so much for the info! That is a beauty.... I would love to have one like that! The tang stamp on mine is written the same way. It's not in all capital letters like most I have seen. Its Queen City, Titusville, PA. Did Schatt & Morgan ever use a half moon?

[nifbuf]

To my knowledge, S&M did not use the half moon shield. I have a Washington Cutlery, Milwaukee with a half moon. Another very unusual shield is the claw hammer shield from Canton Cutlery. Welcome to knife collecting.

[knifegirl888]

I wasn't familiar with Washington Cutlery, so I just did a quick search in my books... Washington Cutlery Co. states "see Gray & Dudley Hdw. Co & Keith Simmons & Co." When I cross reference Gray & Dudley it states "Washington Cut., Hermitage-was Gray, Fall & Co.-1895; knives by S & M? Brand assigned to Keith Simmons c1927." So, it might be possible your Washington Cut. knife, is a Schatt & Morgan knife.

[nifbuf]

It is a real possibility the S&M made Washington knives, at least some of them. I bought several knife blades from a vender a few years back and in the bunch were some Washington Cutlery blades. I was told that the batch of blades was from old inventory sold by Queen in 1985.

[Miller Bro's]

David,

Those shields are unusual. You should post pictures in knife lore in the "Shields" thread

May I see a closeup of the tang stamp on your Washington cutlery knife?

[PA Knives]

Knifegirl,

The Penn Cutlery you have in the photo is NOT an Atkins knife nor a Penn Cutlery Tidioute! Here is an excellent opprotunity to learn how to READ a knife. Forget what the stamp says for a moment. Look at the bolsters (steel not nickle silver) look at the liners (steel not brass) steel pins not brass or NS either. Look at the bone. Smooth bone no bolster. All of these things tell me that it is not from Tidioute era, but actually made in England by an early company called PENN Cutlery. Now look at the stamp. the Script writing is indicitive of English cutlery. Therefore it has nothing to do with Tidioute, Atkins etc. but is indeed English. OLD too. I have one stamped the same way. GREAT lesson to learn. hope others join in on it. Thanks for showing it.

Now close your books and lets have a quiz. OH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

LOL

[knifegirl888]

I was puzzled by the Penn Cutlery Co knife & had suspicions that it wasn't right. I am a newer collector & that was a knife we got out of a batch on ebay. I do really appreciate all info, thank you. Bret & I did notice it didn't have the quality of workmanship as the other PA knives and were skeptical. I am still learning every day! Just wondering, do the other knives I have just gotten this weekend look correct?

[nifbuf]

I realize that I am off subject and in the wrong state, but here are other pictures of the two Washington Cutlery jacks I have. The ebony handled one is stamped “Washington Cutlery Co.” in two lines. The Stag is “Washington” in a half circle and “Cutlery” in a straight line below it. Both knives are very old and no attempt has been made to clean then at all. Hope the stamping is visible.

[knifegirl888]

I do think the odd shields are so desirable! Thanks for sharing.

David, the stag on the second Washington Cutlery is just awesome! Maybe PAknives will know if these are Schatt & Morgan related for sure?

I did happen to get pictures of another one we have that is Schatt & Morgan related. This is our Chris Wolf knife. He was a foreman at S & M, from what I have read. I wish I had more information about why these were possibly made?

[nifbuf]

I have been researching the Chris Wolf name for some time now and find nothing but dead ends; nothing in the census or city directories of Titusville or Gowanda, NY. I am now thinking he may have been a traveling salesman for S&M living out of state. Someday something will turn up. Shown is an identical knife with Jess Crouch stamped into the blade, also the heavy stamp used to make the blade stamp. It is hard to believe but that stamp has survived and is still in the Queen Cutlery today. What an artifact it is.

[knifegirl888]

It is quite a mystery. It's interesting that those names do not show up in any census. Too bad there isn't some payroll sheet of Schatt & Morgan out there some where?

I am really enjoying your pictures!