All About Pocket Knives

This one is pretty old, 1841-? Lyman Bradley of Connecticut. Fairly scarce I have only seen one other in person and only a handful altogether. If anyone has an example would love to see it.

Beautiful ebony, my kind of relic. Wish I had one to show. J.O'.

I am lucky enough to own 2 L. Bradley's , both Pruners and with the same tang stamp as yours.

Those are pretty sweet. Thanks for posting them. I had some other rare pruners at one time but traded them. You can probably guess what I traded them for. Managed to hang on to a couple though.
Jay

Excellent old pruners.

JAMESC41001 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 16, 2025 12:58 am This one is pretty old, 1841-? Lyman Bradley of Connecticut. Fairly scarce I have only seen one other in person and only a handful altogether. If anyone has an example would love to see it. IMG_9780.jpegIMG_9779.jpegIMG_9778.jpeg

knifegnome wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 1:29 am I am lucky enough to own 2 L. Bradley's , both Pruners and with the same tang stamp as yours.

Not too recently, this pocket knife arrived in a group or lot of pocket knives that I bought. It now becomes my most recent example to be posted under this topic or thread. I did NOT buy the group or lot of pocket knives to obtain this particular pocket knife. However, it did turn out to be a keeper. It did get added to my general, pocket knife accumulation. It is a VAN CAMP 708, two blades, one tool (a punch or awl), two tang stamps, 3 1/2" closed, two springs, cattleman, pattern or style of pocket knife. The main blade tang stamp says, "VAN CAMP (over) USA" The main blade back tang stamp says, "708" (the pattern #) The shield is a replacement shield, it is NOT original to the knife. The main blade does NOT have a half stop. The main blade does have an OK opening snap. The main blade does have an OK closing snap. The secondary blade does have a WEAK half stop. The secondary blade does have a GOOD opening snap. The secondary blade does have a GOOD closing snap. The tool does open and close properly, without any issues. Overall, this pocket knife is in FAIR+ condition. This pocket knife did require some VERY minor cleaning. I took some pictures and here it is.
Caption(s), if any, are on the BOTTOM of the corresponding picture(s).
Click on a picture to ENLARGE.

New_Windsor_NY wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 2:30 pm Not too recently...

That one almost stumped the mystery knife crew too.
even your giveaway "708" clue derailed me, finding a Primble Belknap HDW & Co having similar jigging, a long straight nick and 708 stamped on the tang and from a hardware retailer.
search 708 knife on the auction block, its still there.
Good one!

SwedgeHead wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 4:19 pm That.....

Thank you, SwedgeHead.

Not too recently, this pocket knife arrived in a group or lot of pocket knives that I purchased. It now becomes my latest example to be posted under this topic or thread. I did NOT purchase the group or lot of pocket knives to obtain this particular pocket knife. But, it did turn out to be a keeper. It did get added to my general, pocket knife accumulation. It is a SIMMONS, two blades, one tang stamp, 3 3/8" closed, two springs, "barehead jack", pattern or style of pocket knife. The main blade front tang stamp says, "SIMMONS (over) ST. LOUIS" The main blade has a CRISP half stop. The main blade has a GOOD opening snap. The main blade has a GOOD closing snap. The secondary blade has a VERY CRISP half stop. The secondary blade has a NASTY opening snap. The secondary blade has a NASTY closing snap. Both the main blade and the secondary blade have seen some use. This pocket knife is in FAIR+ condition. This pocket knife did need some cleaning.
I took some pictures and here it is.
Caption(s), if any, are on the BOTTOM of the corresponding picture(s).
Click on a picture to ENLARGE.