All About Pocket Knives

That is spectacular, David. Now I have to get acquainted with Luke Firth.

She IS beautiful PA are the scales ebony?

Very cool knife! Aside of the design, I hadn't heard of that company before. Great grab.

Its in the book, 1849-1870. That knife had to be a special order for some very high up person, maybe the Pope. Glad you got it.

Glad you got it David.I like to see people happy,especially good ones.Thanks again.

wow AMAZING KNIFE!!!! HOW COOL IS THAT. ...I'M HAPPY FOR YA BRO!
TALK ABOUT A TON OF WORK

Congratulations pa! Amazing knife. That's one I would stare at and examine every day. I love that feeling! Glad you got it.

Beautiful knife, PA!!!
I've been told that the process involved cutting/carving the pattern into the horn, (or wood) then pouring molten metal (pewter?) over it, cooling it, then final shaping and finishing. I have a couple of pieces of tableware that were done like that, first folder i've ever seen though.
Excellent snag, congrats!!!

WB

PA Knives wrote:OK gang, you'll know that I am die hard Pennsylvania related cutlery man, but when I saw this old girl streaming across the head of my computer screen while pontificating about old knives on AAPK, something screamed out that I needed it.

This is a LUKE FIRTH celebrated cutlery jack. Needless to say, the handle/bolster design is extremely interesting to me and quite a work of art. The black portion is horn and bolster design is all one piece on each side. I would love to know how they did that. This would be one for the modern day companies to recreate for sure. I thank "Historical Knives" for selling it to me. If you like OLD knives like me, this one is extraordinary in my opinion. I have never seen anything even close to it before and I have been a knife junkie for more than 40 years now. I am glad to know that something like this still gets me excited about knives.

Good score in finding this wonderfully unique knife. What a great bit of craftsmanship.

I'd been trying to acquire a knife made by J. T. Mount & Co for years. I was finally able to snag this pearl congress.

Nice knife Dave. I really like that secondary blade, the grind on the pile side is really neat. Is there a special function of that blade? Manicure, punch, etc.? I have a couple with that type blade and was told that it had just been sharpened down, but I don't think so. What do you think?

tjmurphy wrote:I really like that secondary blade, the grind on the pile side is really neat. Is there a special function of that blade? Manicure, punch, etc.? I have a couple with that type blade and was told that it had just been sharpened down, but I don't think so. What do you think?

It is just a pen blade originally designed to sharpen quills for writing pens.

That blade has been sharpened and worn down from use.

tjmurphy wrote:Nice knife Dave. I really like that secondary blade, the grind on the pile side is really neat. Is there a special function of that blade? Manicure, punch, etc.? I have a couple with that type blade and was told that it had just been sharpened down, but I don't think so. What do you think?

What MB said.

The grind is intentional and was done to create a good angle to sharpen a quill.

I picked up a pretty MOP whittler yesterday at the flea market. It has a crack from lower left to upper right above the shield, but the line on the right side of the shield is not a crack, just a line in the MOP. The master blade has been reshaped & appears about 3/64” short. I can’t find much about G.W. & H.; Geller, Ward & Hasner Hardware Co.
Goins dates them; “c, 1903-1939.”
Goins lists the tang stamp- G.W. & H. Hdw. CO.
This stamp is G.W. & H. Hdw. CO (in arch over)/ST LOUIS/MO. on all three blades. Goins also notes they marked some knives with the “E-Z” trademark.
This knife still has a legible etch of: H.W. GELLER’S/E-Z CUTTER David Anthony (PA Knives) mentions that Shapleigh bought the assets of G.W. & H. in the following thread:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... er#p203329

But other than a few items with G.H. & W. markings there is not much I can find about G.W. & H. on the web.
Does anyone have more info on G.H. & W.?

Good old knife Dale,I love the etch.I don`t know anymore about the stamp than what you have posted.It is old and rare.Are you going to put a new piece of pearl on it?

That's a nice knife-good find

I like that knife Dale.It looks like it nests pretty comfy.Doesn't appear to have much loss in length.

Thanks guys, glad you like it.
I am not a fan of MOP, especially if I have to work with it, so I doubt I will replace the handle.
What I liked was the pattern, neat whittler.

wlf wrote:I like that knife Dale.It looks like it nests pretty comfy.Doesn't appear to have much loss in length.

I don't think much was lost. It was in pretty good shape when I bought it and I didn't notice it until I was polishing it up a bit that I saw that the blade may have been modified.

It is hard for me to judge this, as I have never seen this brand before, let alone the pattern.

Miller Bro`s wrote:

tjmurphy wrote:I really like that secondary blade, the grind on the pile side is really neat. Is there a special function of that blade? Manicure, punch, etc.? I have a couple with that type blade and was told that it had just been sharpened down, but I don't think so. What do you think?

It is just a pen blade originally designed to sharpen quills for writing pens.

That blade has been sharpened and worn down from use.

dcgm4 wrote:

tjmurphy wrote:Nice knife Dave. I really like that secondary blade, the grind on the pile side is really neat. Is there a special function of that blade? Manicure, punch, etc.? I have a couple with that type blade and was told that it had just been sharpened down, but I don't think so. What do you think?

What MB said.




The grind is intentional and was done to create a good angle to sharpen a quill.

I'm still suffering from thick headedness. The grind on that blade shows up way too much to have been a pen blade simply ground down, but still may be for sharpening quills. Here are three blades of the same grind from different knives. One from DCGM, one from Drag and one that I own, a Hibbert, Spencer, Bartlett. I guess that I just find it odd that these three blades are ground the same and sharpened down the same and do not serve a specific purpose. 'Scuse my ignorance.
HS&B Holly J.T. Mount

I still see three knives with worn/sharpened pen blades

This is a old almost unsharpened( maybe unsharpened)spey blade.I have seen that swedge on mostly very old knives.

tjmurphy wrote:I'm still suffering from thick headedness. The grind on that blade shows up way too much to have been a pen blade simply ground down, but still may be for sharpening quills. Here are three blades of the same grind from different knives. One from DCGM, one from Drag and one that I own, a Hibbert, Spencer, Bartlett. I guess that I just find it odd that these three blades are ground the same and sharpened down the same and do not serve a specific purpose. 'Scuse my ignorance.

TJ, as I said earlier the grind is intentional. The grinds on all those blades are original and were put on at the factory.

The purpose of that particular grind was to get a good angle to sharpen a quill pen. I couldn't find a graphic of this particular grind, so I'll use a chisel ground blade as a substitute. See the picture but imagine that instead of a chisel grind, the grind is what you're seeing on the pen blades in question. The grind on these pen blades is designed to make sharpening quill pens easier.

Here's a "Fine Edge Ostiso" you wont see many of.

Made in Germany.

and so, weeks later, Joe stumbles on another old knife.

I recently got this Union Knife Works knife.
2 11/16"
Action is still very sound.

Both really nice looking Joe, good finds. The Ostiso has very pretty bone and its in good shape too!