All About Pocket Knives

I rarely find knives for my collection anymore, but I couldn't turn this one down in hardly used shape, a 1922-1939 Robeson. Interestingly for a change I know who owned it, and learned a little about him in the 1940 US Census thanks to the engraving. So lets see some knives with the owners name or initials engraved!

I have seen probably two dozen or so of those Safety First Robeson knives over the years. That may be the first one I've ever seen with a name engraved on it.

Charlie Noyes

I bought a Schrade two blade candle-ended lobster knife with pearl handles off Ebay several years ago. I don't recall the tang stamp, but I suspect it would have been SCHRADE / CUT. CO. / WALDEN

Engraved on the front handle was "HERBERT NOOVER".

I got the knife for $22.00.

It was most likely a campaign give-away item for the upper echelon of Republican Party society.

Charlie Noyes

I have a few Robeson knives with names on them.

First knife is engraved "G. Hulsey"

Second, "E. H. Shaw"

Third, "Wm. Robison" (not R-o-b-e-s-o-n)

Fourth, "G. W. Wolf", but on the back side.

I had a Remington pearl handled letter opener with a "Hershey" name on it. Tried to connect it to the chocolate family, but could not.

Sold it.

Charlie

I've not bought any personalized knives but, several years ago I bought a Viet Nam ZIPPO lighter with the original owners name and unit on it: Rick Marzo, C Troop, 3/4 Cav. After a few years I was able to track him down and returned it to him. He said that he had had it engraved for his 21st birthday and that the last time he saw it was at a field hospital in Viet Nam when they emptied his pockets.

tj, you are a Good Guy.

Harold

I will never tire of hearing that story, TJ.



Charlie Noyes

Good thing, Charlie. I never grow tired of it either and reference it every chance I get. On the other side of the lighter was engraved; "When I die bury me face down so the world can kiss my a&&".

Good thread

Another Knife Collector wrote:Interestingly for a change I know who owned it, and learned a little about him in the 1940 US Census thanks to the engraving. So lets see some knives with the owners name or initials engraved!

If you can add anything more about the person who owned the knife I would like to hear about it as well

Here is an interesting one.

C. L. Alvord was the president of Empire Knife Company from 1890-1920.

He must have given these out to people as gifts during his involvement with the company.

Here is a Gold press button I bought last year at Blade Show. The first gold one I had seen in hand and just had to have it.

Tom

I have only one knife that is engraved with initials or name. My wife gave me this one a couple of years ago. Both our names begin with M.

A laser salesman dropped by work one day. He did this on my EDC Zero Tolerance to demonstrate. If you scan the QR code, it also shows my name.

From a quick look:
According to 1898 Winsted city directory: Charles L. Alvord was Located at 67 Prospect Winsted CT employed by E Knife Co

He attended Harvard University in 1888, unsure of graduation year but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Miller Bro`s wrote:Good thread

Another Knife Collector wrote:Interestingly for a change I know who owned it, and learned a little about him in the 1940 US Census thanks to the engraving. So lets see some knives with the owners name or initials engraved!

If you can add anything more about the person who owned the knife I would like to hear about it as well

Here is an interesting one.

C. L. Alvord was the president of Empire Knife Company from 1890-1920.

He must have given these out to people as gifts during his involvement with the company.

Thanks all for sharing your knives! There's quite an interesting variety here, personalized knives always hold a good story!

ancestry.com is what I use if I know a timeframe, name and a general location a knife may be from to learn more. Might not even need a location if it's an uncommon name.

I enjoy finding personalized knives.the sterling I have no history on,the Schrade was a past Commander of a local legion post,the Golden rule was a hunting buddies Great uncles knife.

Here are a bunch of them;some are full names and others just initials.I enjoy trying to decipher some of the initials.As an aside:Some people say monogram and others say initials.The difference between the two is:Initials are always sequenced first;middle;and last initial.Monograms are sequenced first;last;and middle with the last name initial slightly larger.
Anyway here are some from my accumulation.I'm sure they all have a story to tell'if we could only figure a way to get them to speak.

A few more.

Still more

Last batch

Beautiful collection K7K!

Dimitri, that Empire is really nice. I like that it is personalized with a name of a company head

They tell me that jewelers would stock pearl handled Cattaraugus knives to sell as gifts with the jeweler having the tools to personalize the knives.

JKB, I suspect that might be true for several, if not all, the major manufacturers.

I recall that Bruce Voyles stated in one of his published collector books on vintage knives that the reason there were so many mint examples of pearl handled gentleman's knives and multi-blades available is because so many of them remained in upscale jewelry and men's clothing stores and when the collecting craze took off in the late 60's and early 70's, enterprising and resourceful collectors and dealers began to scour such stores and bought up the unsold inventory.

Wish I had thought of it.

Charlie Noyes