All About Pocket Knives

I was oiling my antique knives this evening and it struck me that while most of the knives I have are pretty common patterns, I have a few that I personally don't see very often. That got me looking through my collection trying to figure out which pattern I had that I would consider the rarest. My Valley Forge sway-back jack and A. F. Bannister & Co. double-end surveyor jack were finalists, but in the end I decided my H. Boker & Co. Improved Cutlery slim sleeveboard jack was the rarest because, while I've seen a number of slim sleeveboard pens and whittlers before, it is the only slim sleeveboard jack that I can recall ever coming across.

So here's my question to all of you: What is the rarest pattern you own?

That is a very nice knife. How about posting pics of the two runners up?

Dan

Great looking knife.
I hope this topic gets lots of posts.
Here is my contribution, a Miller Bros congress jack.

danno50 wrote:That is a very nice knife. How about posting pics of the two runners up?

Thanks, Dan. I'll get some pics of the runners up posted in a day or so.

edgy46 wrote:I hope this topic gets lots of posts. Here is my contribution, a Miller Bros congress jack.

Sweet knife, Bill! I hope this gets a lot of posts too. I love seeing old, unique patterns.

dc, that is a very interesting knife. strange blade design, how they have the nail pic so far back from the front of the blade. because of the offset leverage i imagine it makes it harder to open. very kool

very nice Bill & Dave

Can't really say that I have anything that is rare. The closest I have is this old H. Boker & Co. champagne pattern from the early 1900s. You can just barely make out the "RADIUM" blade etch.

Thanks, Paul and Chet. Chet, you're right about it being a bit awkward to open because of the lack of leverage. The best way to open it I've found is to use the nail nick to start it then grab the blade closer to the tip for better leverage to finish opening it.

rangerbluedog, don't worry if your rarest pattern isn't super rare. The purpose of this topic is not to see who has the rarest pattern but to see the different patterns we all have collected over the years. And might I add, that champagne knife is a beaut! I love it when a person's name is engraved on those old metal knives. It helps me feel more connected with the past. I certainly wouldn't mind having it in my collection.

This old Catt. Jack pattern is pretty cool and you dont see a lot of them

Nice knife, Gino. Kind of like a reverse gunstock, huh?

This is one of my JACK KNIFE BEN knives from UNION STOCK YARDS CHICAGO. Circa 1890's, these are kinda rare.

danno50 wrote:How about posting pics of the two runners up?

Dan, here are the pics of the runners up. Hope you enjoy them!

1. A. F. Bannister & Co. double-end surveyor jack. c. 1884-1915.
2. Valley Forge sway-back. c. 1892-1899. This one is extra-special to me since it was a Christmas gift from my grandmother.

Probably not my oldest family heirloom but most of the other vintage heirlooms are common patterns. This little Catt was given (Sold to me for a dime!) to me in 1952 at age 14.

The Marbles is the oldest and probably the rarest one in my collection . . also a family heirloom.

Nice knives guys ! i think my rarest pattern would be a 12124 Catturugus Dogbone

What beautiful knives you all have.
As far as my knives go, I guess these are my rarest patterns.
A Union from Naugatuck, Ct., in a tuxedo.
A Northfield from, well..... Northfield, Ct., in a quill.
Tortoise shell and horn, respectivly.

All posted are great knives. dcgm4, thanks for the photos of the runners up, I like them both, especially the Valley Forge swayback.

Dan

Here is a rather simplistically, but elegantly, designed Robeson two blade jack. It is rarely seen and I think it just might have been the inspiration for a line of knives that Bob Cargill made back in the 1980's.

It's pattern number is 622357 and it's 3 1/2" in length.

Charlie Noyes

Sweet knives, guys!

Paul, I love that Catt.

Charlie, I think you're right about Bob Cargill copying that pattern. A lot of modern companies copy patterns from yesteryear. One that comes to mind is Case. Their Tony Bose "designed" knives are just copies of old patterns. But even though they aren't actually designed by Bose they are still great knives. I'd actually like to see GEC take a crack at reproducing a few really unique out of production patterns, like Paul's dogbone Catt.

This was probably one of those little dime store knives you used to see back in the 40`s-50`s, but Id say it`s defintiely rare to see one of them nowdays. Does`nt even have a tang stamp but I`d bet it was made in the USA. Has a heck of a snap and great half stops to boot and sharpens up to a razor edge

Bob

Great idea for a thread, dcgm4. I bet we see some really unusual patterns. I don't have anything too rare, but this one you don't see every day. Plenty of knives with one or two backsprings, a few with three but hardly ever one with four. This is a Case 64052 SS.

here is a ec simmons keen kutter sleeveboard it has a big pin or spear master blade on one end and a file on the other end not sure how rare but you dont see the file blade to offten on patterns other than a whittler or a least i dont can anybody give me any info on this knife the numbers on the back side of the master blade is 0198f i tried to get a pic of the tang stamp but it is to wore out to get a good pic of hopefully the pics and the numbers will be enough thanks in advance

Sellens lists the knives with pattern numbers from 0195 thru 0199 (at least the early ones) as a series of 3 3/8" sleeveboard pen knives. I own two of them, a K0195 3/4 and a K0196. This knife is shown on page 54 of Sellen's book. the production dates given are from 1914 thru 1929.

By the way the "F" at the end of the pattern number apparently indicates the file blade.

Great-looking knives, everyone.

trail, I can't ever recall seeing a knife with four or more backsprings other than some Swiss army knives. Very unusual. I like it.

Not a Swiss Army Knife. Actually, not much of a knife at all, but it has seven blades, all on top.

Charlie Noyes