The first Robeson knives were imported by Millard Robeson from England and Germany exclusively. This continued from 1979 until 1896 when Robeson began manufacturing knives in the United States. Since inception, the company has gone through several reorganizations & eventually ended up as a Queen Cutlery brand.
I picked up this Robeson jack at the Oregon show this last weekend.
I see it has two different tang stamps, so help dating it would be appreciated.
I am also rather puzzled by the handle material, it is a bit softer than hard plastic or celluloid, it has a bit of give to it when I squeeze the handle. Is this possibly gum fuddy?
It is not the material that is sometimes called "gum fuddy".
That material has a real tendency to shrink, sometimes horribly, the material on your knife, if I am seeing it correctly, is often called "hard rubber".
I collect L.F.& C.'s and this hard rubber material is their most common handle material. You don't really see it on Robesons very often, however, they did use it. For another example, I posted one with this material in the thread, "Show your new (to you) Robeson" on the 4th page. This knife had a bezel around the handle.
The tang stamp is the most common of the Robeson stamps, with the script "Suredge" on the master and the curved "Robeson" on the secondary, I will defer to RobesonsRme as to dating, however, it is pre WWII.
