Knife

R

Rgk50

Jr. Member
Mar 20, 2015
27
15
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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Inscription on blade, _ _ OOLLEY & SONS , very old, round balls dug at same location
 

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Jimbo^ said:
http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33870612/jameswoolleyandcompany.pdf

Nice find.
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This Woolley seems to have no connection to cutlery manufacturing. The name on the blade is a cutlery manufacturer's mark, not a pharmaceutical company name. Your search will have to continue. I can find no reference to that name in Goins' Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings. By construction (bolsters appear to be forged from the same steel as the liners) and style it is likely a civil war era English made knife. (There were very few manufacturers of pocket knives in the US at that time.) It is one of the few knives I have seen recovered by metal detecting that is that old and somewhat identifiable. It is in amazingly good shape for being dug, what type of soil was it in?? It is also possible that although it is an old knife that it wasn't dropped so long ago. Usually the blade rusts away after a decade or so in the ground.
 

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The knife experts will say thst it is extremely difficult to date a jack knife without a name, congrats you have a good start with part of the manufacture's name.
 

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The knife was dug in arid, dry, sandy, (sage brush) soil, western US, high desert.

Thanx much for the comment, very helpful
 

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The Richard Woolley info offers some intriguing possibilities.

Also dug a "butt hinge" stamped "greenwood", which looks to be from a manufacturer of the same name around in med- late 1800s
 

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gunsil said:
This Woolley seems to have no connection to cutlery manufacturing. The name on the blade is a cutlery manufacturer's mark, not a pharmaceutical company name. Your search will have to continue. I can find no reference to that name in Goins' Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings. By construction (bolsters appear to be forged from the same steel as the liners) and style it is likely a civil war era English made knife. (There were very few manufacturers of pocket knives in the US at that time.) It is one of the few knives I have seen recovered by metal detecting that is that old and somewhat identifiable. It is in amazingly good shape for being dug, what type of soil was it in?? It is also possible that although it is an old knife that it wasn't dropped so long ago. Usually the blade rusts away after a decade or so in the ground.
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Not always in good soil I have found knifes from the 1870's that still have the complete blade. Good soil of course
 

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I am new to the forum and not a knife expert but when i zoomed in on the writing on the blade, it appears to be _colley instead of _oolley. Adding that gunsil said most knives were from english makers. i googled colly knife and a few things came up with this name being english cuttlery makers from the early 1800s and through the civil war period.
 

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BoreGrv said:
I am new to the forum and not a knife expert but when i zoomed in on the writing on the blade, it appears to be _colley instead of _oolley. Adding that gunsil said most knives were from english makers. i googled colly knife and a few things came up with this name being english cuttlery makers from the early 1800s and through the civil war period.
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Very good!! I was wondering why folks went with a "W" in the first place. I could not find Colly in my reference books, but there were thousands of cutlers in England when that knife was made. Being a life member in the Northeast Cutlery Collector's Association I was sure that it is an English made knife from the middle 1800s by the way the knife is constructed and the way the markings are stamped out on the blade and the type of lettering. High desert sure explains why the blade is still there. Back here in the northeast the blades are usually illegible after a fairly short time in the damp soil we have here.
 

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On the high desert I've found a gun part with wood still attached, and black powder cans still all together. That doesn't happen here in western Oregon. The knife is interesting to me because as a sailor, seaman's knives have the same shape blade, supposed to be best shape for cutting line.
 

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Looks like Colley is a good lead.....a Google search turned up a forum post on Britishblades.com referencing Colley knives. I registered on the forum, posted an inquiry, so we'll see what comes up
 

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Just a junk jack knife, we find them all the time. I have more than a few that I can post. I live in the Hi Desert and hunt both the Hi and High Deserts, lol.
 

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