Knives for Lucas.

[A. Grignon]

Here are two knives I found in the past couple years that actually still have parts of the original carved bone handles. I know Lucas said he was really into knives, so I thought he would appreciate them.
If you have any additional information about them, please let me know. Going out today, let you guys know how I did.

 

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[Lucas]

Oh SWEET! Handles are very rare. 99% sure these are Brit from Sheffield. Impossible to tell if they were straight bladed (not curved) table knives with a rounded end, or cartouche knives (straight bladed table knives with a spear point). Cartouche knives were a very common trade item, but table knives show up archeologically pretty often too. Date probably circa 1770's to 1820's.

Did you find any other trade items with them? That would really pin down the ID.

 

[nwctrader]

Oh yeah, that is neat. Even bone handles don't usually survive that long so that is unusual. I've been studing the use of table knives as an item of trade & wondered how often they were re-ground to a point at the post just to suit their purposes & Lucas & I have discussed that a little before on my forum. Its hard to imagine the Indians using a butter knife but table knives were evidently traded quite a bit. I doubt anyone has done a study on how many of those that were reground to points as simple utility knives, assuming they didn't care about buttering their bread with them. Plus its hard to tell when so many are broken up before they are recovered. Most people don't think of table knives as trade items. Recently I ran across this 1831 trade list (just the knives--excluding the other items) which was recorded at the time of Jedediah Smith's death in New Mexico territory.
The Manifest of Jedediah Smith's Trade Goods in 1831:
Chest No. 1:
2 dozen pen knives
1 dozen pocket razors
3 dozen pen knives
3 dozen pocket knives
1 dozen shaving razors
3 dozen shaving razors
2 dozen butcher knives
4 dozen table knives
7 dozen table knives
3 dozen butcher knives
4 dozen butcher knives
3 dozen butcher knives
Chest No. 2:
1 dozen table knives
14 dozen butcher knives
12 dozen pocket razors
6 dozen knives and forks
4 dozen pen knives
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