All About Pocket Knives

I recently acquired this knife and can find no information on it. Any help would be appreciated. It is a very nice quality knife and certainly appears vintage.
Thanks in Advance!

Tom

Tom:

I checked "Goins" and nothing came up. I also did a google search and came up empty. If I find anything I'll let you know.

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Mike

Just found this. Don't know if it's related but it's a start. http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... ing-knife/

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Mike

XX Case XX wrote:Just found this. Don't know if it's related but it's a start. http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... ing-knife/

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Mike

I saw that Mike but doesn’t have Dix Bros on it and couldn’t be farther from the kind of knife this one is. It has sure got me stumped. Pete Cohen was at the show where I bought this but I didn’t ask him as I was sure it would be something I could look up. Nothing so far though. Thanks for looking

Tom

I'm "guessing" it is german based on the look and especially because "Bros" was such a common name that the germans used to come off as Sheffield made knives - lots of examples such as Wilson Bros; Lord Bros etc etc... and often these are ones that come up empty on a search ...

Just doesn’t appear to be any information out there on Dix Bros.
Thanks for trying.

Tom

I can be of no help on the knife, however if you want to start cornering the market on DIX BROS items here is one for you: http://www.cmdnshop.top/programs-poster ... 12807.html.

Dennis

olderdogs1 wrote:Just doesn’t appear to be any information out there on Dix Bros.
Thanks for trying.

Tom

Tom - There often is not info on those german cutleries... as I said there were lots of german cutleries using Bros... here is just one other example in which I have a photo..

Knife is almost certainly German.

Circa WWI and afterward, lots of German makers sought to circumvent the prejudice against all things German by using Anglo/American sounding names. Even the Kastor Brothers did this; just look at all the branding stamps they used in Goins.

Charlie

Thanks, Dennis, Lee, and Charlie,
I have more to go on than I did for sure.

Tom

The link from Dennis is to old tickets for "Dix Bros." circus. Maybe Dix Bros. ordered a bunch of knives from Germany and sold them at the circus.

So it’s a circus knife Roland. Who knows, could have been a small hardware co. or something similar. Pete Cohan told me he had seen one before but really had no information.

If nothing else I guess it’s rare!

Tom

If it was an advertising knife (circus, hardware store whatever) I would expect the handles to be marked not the tang.

Dennis

"Circus" knives are usually the lowest end of knives and could have been purchased or won at a fair or circus. The O.P. knife is not low end but still could have been sold by the same "Dix Bros" that were promoting a circus as this is the only reference to "D.B." found. Maybe one of the brothers was a knife lover !
There are many examples of retail businesses that ordered knives with their name on the tang. It is not the same as an advertising knife that clearly displays a name or logo.
Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. was a hardware store chain that had knives made mostly by Ulster & Camillus with the tangs marked "H.S.B. & Co." and other brandings as well.
My theory is Dix Bros. were entrepreneurs and one was a keen knifer who tried his hand at knife selling and had a bunch of good quality German knives made bearing their name "Dix Bros." So not a "Circus knife" but a knife sold by a circus guy.
kj

Tom,

There could have been many "DIX BROS" companies over the years, but here is a possible way to see if the knife is really related to the circus of that name. See these two links:

http://www.schillhahnmodelcircus.com/4436.html

http://www.schillhahnmodelcircus.com/15614.html

Maybe contact Mr. Schillhahn. He might know, as he seems to be a DIX BROS circus aficionado.

Dennis

Thanks, Dennis,
Regardless they were apparently low production as the most knowledgeable people I know have only seen one other.
Going to be really difficult to document the knife. May just keep it and carry it.

Tom