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]

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

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.

[Larry Pletcher]

Here is a somewhat similar knife that was made by my grandfather  sometime after 1900.  My dad thought he used a piece of band saw blade.  It butchered countless hogs and cows.  Grandpa was one of those guys that the neighbors call when they were ready to butcher.  Everybody helped everybody in those days.  It was obviously sharpened a lot, leaving little blade to compare with yours.  There are no markings of any kind, and the handle slabs appear to be held on with nails.


I plan no changes to it except to use it.  It sharpens easily and touches up nicely with a steel.

Regards,
Pletch

[Randy Hedden]

Rich,

If you really want to make this into an 18th century trade knife I believe you could use the upswept shape for the blade except considerably shorter. Maybe an 8"-9" long blade. The handle would also have to be made maybe as much as an inch shorter say down to 4-1/2" long, and possibly make it into a half tang. That should make it fit into the 18th century?

Trade knives are just not my thing. Maybe someone like Chuck Burrows or Tim Albert would have more ideas about this.

Randy Hedden

www.harddogrifles.com

[Brian Jordan]

Rich, I really like the looks of that ol' knife, I wouldn't change a thing!!!!...Ed

I agree totally

[rich pierce]

You guys make sense.  Heck, I must have bought it because I like it the way it is!  I just sharpened it up and told my wife "It's obviously a watermelon knife" and stuck it in the kitchen drawer.

[Dphariss]

I have some modern (old Hickory etc) butcher knives Dad has picked up in yard sales and such in AK that are pretty similar to this I use for salmon and cutting up deer etc. Its a very useful blade shape.
Knives such as this have disappeared in modern America for the most part since most people have no use for them them. Also dishwashers are hard on the blades and handles.
Dan

[Brian Jordan]

Here is an old knife I picked up at a gun show. I decided to leave it as is.

[hyltoto]

Trick is getting a nice sheath made, I really like the looks of that knife!

[T*O*F]

Trick is getting a nice sheath made,

Same style knife.....different application.  This one is tied between the pouches of a double bag, but can also be taken loose and slid into my sash if I want to carry it that way.

[T.C.Albert]

Those are all nice knives...the big one that started the thread is a brisket or "steaking" knife I think...big blades like that were slaughter house and butcher shop work knives, but the farms would have needed them too for butchering large stock. I cant tell if its factory or hand made, but with just 4 pins I suspect its home made? Dating it is pretty hard, but I would guess early 20th century, or very late 19th??? Factory made blades like that were usually marked, and marketed by firms like Dexter to professional meat cutters.

As Randy said, I think making it into an 18th century styled piece would indeed require a bit of grinding...theres alot of steel there, and I dont think that was too common for the average "trade" knives of the era...You could grind a rat tail tang onto it and mount it into an antler crown with a poured lead or pewter ferrule...that makes a neat looking "frontier "style knife...a regular "Long Knife" knife...weather such a converted blade is strictly PC or not is questionable, but they sure do look nice, and the steel is usually excellent on old knives, so you would have a good working too as well...and if it is a home made knife to begin with, so much the better...the wavy spine and hammer marks will look great if it has them.
And it would still slaughter water melons as needed. 

Thanks for sharing the pictures...
T.C. Albert