General discussion > Contemporary Accoutrements
antique shop knife- ideas? Wick, Chuck, Randy, others?
rich pierce:
I bought this knife at a little antique shop in the middle of Missouri today because I am a sucker for knives. It is probably not very old. The tang is full length and it has 4 steel pins. The tang is thicker at the top edge than the bottom edge, matching the taper of the blade from top to edge. Handle wood is fine grained and could be beech. As you can see the length is 11" of blade, upswept. It is nicely tapered all the way to the tip. No markings on the blade, but if it was handmade it was well done. On the handle is stamped FBH and it was done with individual letter stamps, I think (maybe the owner, maybe the maker). It has no to little wear.
Thoughts on what it is, and whether you'd re-shape it or just use it? It would be a great meat slicer, but for "mid to late 18th century period use" what would you suggest to do with it?
I'm guessing I'd need to cut the rear of the tang off at the rear rivets and taper the tang to a thin edge at the rear, replace the handle slabs and put new pins in forward of where they are now. Or could I just cut the tang off 1/8" to 3/16" behind the rear rivets, grind it to a nice taper, and keep the existing handle?
Then how much reshaping of the tip and where to reshape it to make it a "scalper" or general purpose knife for the common man?
Longknife:
Rich, I really like the looks of that ol' knife, I wouldn't change a thing!!!!...Ed
Randy Hedden:
Rich,
You're right about this not looking like an 18th century knife. I am not sure it would be worth the trouble to make it look like an 18th century knife, but it would probably be just fine as is matched with a later period southern/mountain hunting pouch. I recently showed a picture in this forum of a knife very similar in shape and size to the photo you posted. http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=126.0 I don't know what I am going to do with mine, but I won't be trying to make it into an 18th century knife. You might just want to cover the handle with rawhide and use it as is?
Randy Hedden
Warner:
When the slaughter houses were still here in the Cincinnati area,there were allot of very similar knives at the flea markets .They were used to butcher hogs and the like.I have cut many of then down,they hold a edge well.
rich pierce:
--- Quote from: Randy Hedden on September 07, 2008, 06:46:58 PM ---Rich,
You're right about this not looking like an 18th century knife. I am not sure it would be worth the trouble to make it look like an 18th century knife, but it would probably be just fine as is matched with a later period southern/mountain hunting pouch. I recently showed a picture in this forum of a knife very similar in shape and size to the photo you posted. Randy Hedden
--- End quote ---
I see it's a lot like yours. I think that it would be a "project". That later time period is not my focus, but maybe somebody else leaning that way could use it as is.
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