Pocket Knife Age???

[VOL1266-X]

Dug it yesterday while Dman & I scouted for a CW camp. He thinks 1920-30s era. Any ideas? Thanks, Q.

 

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[ARC]

Only way to truly find out is to run electrolysis on it to try and salvage some sort of name if any off of the main blade.
OR someone recognizes it.
millions of em out there it seems.

 

[BosnMate]

How big is it, and what is the handle made out of?

 

[thrillathahunt]

Q, I am certainly not a pocket knife expert by any means, but I have found many from many different ages of sites and I would guess yours to be much older than the 20's or 30's. Just my opinion.

 

[VOL1266-X]

How big is it, and what is the handle made out of?

It's 3 in. long. The handle appears to be plastic or Bakelite. The other side of the handle is cleanly broken in half so it's definitely NOT wood. Where it's broken, the handle is a consistent brown color all the way through so I'm not thinking bone. Thanks, Q.

 

[VOL1266-X]

Q, I am certainly not a pocket knife expert by any means, but I have found many from many different ages of sites and I would guess yours to be much older than the 20's or 30's. Just my opinion.

There was supposedly an "all boys school" located in the area there in the 1800s TAH. Dman found a gold child's size ring in the area. Thanks, Q.

 

[VOL1266-X]

Only way to truly find out is to run electrolysis on it to try and salvage some sort of name if any off of the main blade.
OR someone recognizes it.
millions of em out there it seems.

The blades are broken basically gone. No hope of electrolysis without totally destroying it. Thanks, Q.

 

[Dman]

I thought you would know the age of the knife. Didn't you work in a factory making knives around 1900-1916?

 

[gunsil]

Knife has no bolsters and "bird's eye" rivets which is a cheap means of construction, likely a depression era knife. Bakelite wasn't invented until 1906 and isn't often found on knife handles. Celluloid is an early plastic and very common on knife handles and still used in some cases today. I believe the knife here has celluloid scales, and AARC is correct that in most cases you will never know the exact age of a rusted out pocket or any other knife since the maker's marks are gone. But there are patterns of pocket knives, and mechanisms, construction components like the aforementioned rivets that can narrow it down some. Personally I toss every rusted out old knife in the trash although I am a life member of the Northeast Cutlery Collector's Association with a collection of over a thousand antique knives.

 

[thrillathahunt]

I thought this was interesting.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Found a pic of an old Case knife that was close and I only mean close because of the round rivets to hold the knife together and the shape of the nameplate.Although on yours the nameplate is centered.

 

[gunsil]

Found a pic of an old Case knife that was close and I only mean close because of the round rivets to hold the knife together and the shape of the nameplate.Although on yours the nameplate is centered. View attachment 1120680

Many American knife companies used the bird's eye rivets besides Case, and the position of a shield on a knife is no indicator of the manufacturer. Oval shields and federal shields are also not an indicator of maker. There are only a couple of odd shaped shields used by only a couple of makers, but most shield shapes and their placement on the scales (handles) were used by many companies and cannot by themselves be used to ID a knife's age or maker unless marked as the one in Back of the boat's picture.

 

[tennessee digger]

I talked to a well known expert named "Blackberry" or something like that (DMan's mentor) and he confirms that it is 1920's era. If Harold says it's so, it's so! Anyway, my opinion is the same.....probably 1920's or so.