Questions About Pocket Knife

[44-henry]

Picked this up at an antique shop near Lancaster PA this afternoon. Don't know much about it other than it appears to be quite old. Stamp on the blade appears to be GRAYSON, but I could be way off with that. Measures about 8 1/4 overall, blade is about 3 1/4 inches. Bone handle. What are your thoughts on age and origin?



































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[Stoner creek]

That flips my switch!

[44-henry]

Mine to. For the most part I just follow my wife in these stores and carry her Fiestaware finds, but this time found something a bit out of the ordinary. Looks a lot like this one on display at the Museum of London.



http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/599741

[jdm]

I believe this one in my collection  by Yeomans   dates around 1840/1850. It seems  to be a popular style of the late 18th to early 19th century. You have a nice find!
  You don't see them like that very often.

[jdm]

Sheffield directory of trades and professions lists Grayson  1821-1822. That  was with a quick look.

[RobertS]

Great find!  Thanks for sharing!

[bluenoser]

Nice find.
The shape of the blade suggests it might be a grafting knife.

[Kevin]

44 Henry,

Very nice find.  A folder on page 153 in Madison Grant's "The Knife in Homespun America" has the grips decorated in the same manner.  It's tagged as circa 1815-1830.

Thanks for sharing the images,
Kevin

[mr. no gold]

Great knife! Don't see these hardly ever. Perhaps many made, few survived; and yours is one of the best. Thank you fo bringing it in. It pays to look through the antique shops every now and then.
Dick

[R.J.Bruce]

I don't care when it was made, I like it A LOT. I thought grafting knife also because of the shape of the end of the blade.

Good find.

[44-henry]

Thank you for the comments/info. I really like this knife and would like to use it to make a bench copy at some point. Based on what I have learned it would seem to be early to mid 19th century with somewhere in the early 1820's being likely. Could be later, could be earlier, probably will never know for sure. Happy to add it to my small collection nonetheless.

[Keith Zimmerman]

I like it.  Nice find.

[Daryl]

Picked this up at an antique shop near Lancaster PA this afternoon. Don't know much about it other than it appears to be quite old. Stamp on the blade appears to be GRAYSON, but I could be way off with that. Measures about 8 1/4 overall, blade is about 3 1/4 inches. Bone handle. What are your thoughts on age and origin?

The blade shape 'almost' appears to be a sailor's knife type, as for cutting rope.

[jrb]

from "Post Office Directory of Sheffield with the Neighboring Towns and Villages", printed 1854. Grayson doesn't show in the sheffield 1781 or the 1828 directories. But maybe it could date between those years or maybe was made in another place.
John