Colonial Virginia Knife, Revolutionary War?

[ricketts1]

This knife came out of an old home in New London, Virginia. The old man who I got it from told me it was said to have been made prior to the Revolutionary War in New London.
New London was formed in about 1760 and was the county seat for Bedford County before Campbell was formed in 1781; when new county seats were created for both counties. Bedford courthouse moved to Liberty (now Bedford).
During the Revolutionary War there was a military magazine and several workshops for repairing arms. New London served as the Armory for the newly formed United States of America until around 1800, when it was moved to Harper's Ferry, Virginia (Now WV).
I have a flintlock and use a handmade knife when loading it. I can only imagine this knife being used by a Patriot in the 1770's.
Any help you can give me on this knife will be very helpful. The acorn symbols on the handle are said to be of the American colonial period.
I believe the silver-colored metal on the handles are either silver or pewter. The old man kept them clean along with the blade. The part of the blade that is beneath the handle has corrosion on it which has pushed the handle outwards on both sides.
Thank you. Robert Ricketts - Forest, Virginia

 

[LRB]

I am not an expert on acually authenticating early knives, but my gut instincts say mid, to late 19th c. or possibly even later. I don't think 18th c. Brass pins would be uncommon. The tang appears very uniform in thickness, and the entire blade has the look of being stamped from a sheet. The overall appearance looks factory made, mass produced to me. Just my thoughts on it. I could be totally wrong. LaBonte could likely tell you more about it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Wish I could date it also. It does look factory made but still, possibly, from the Rev. era. Sadly, someone crudely sharpened it recently.
Probably a table knife or general 'usin' type.
Would make a great pattern for replicas.
Don't use it, just take care of it. And don't sharpen again.

 

[ricketts1]

The older fellow who owned it kept it clean and 'sharp'. I agree the sharpening is not very good, so I think he used some mechanical sharpener on it.

 

[ricketts1]

I appreciate your input. If it turns out to not be from the 18th Century I'm perfectly fine with it. Too many antiques have been passed down through families with histories that are too good to be true, so maybe this is one.
I'd like to see what other knife experts think about it also.
Thanks!

 

[LRB]

So would I. I was hoping for LaBonte, or Crockett to post their opinions. Even if my opinion is right, it is still a nice piece to have. I have one in very nice condition that if yours and mine were silhouetted, you could not tell them apart except for the excessive blade wear on yours. Mine is a one piece grip of walnut with a pewter bolster, sculptured on the front much as yours. I am pretty sure mine is late 19th, or early 20th c.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Too many antiques have been passed down through families with histories that are too good to be true,

I well understand.
My mother gave me some 'wampum' that was carried by our ancestors aross the western praries in cover wagons.
Only problem(s) with that is, the item is not wampum, it is just a beaded strip. We never had ancestors cross any praries in any kind of wagon. Our ancestors came from Canada and moved not far across the border in to Minnesota. Oh, well.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Canada has praries, too. ;-)

 

[BrownBear]

Too many antiques have been passed down through families with histories that are too good to be true,

I well understand.
My mother gave me some 'wampum' that was carried by our ancestors aross the western praries in cover wagons.
Only problem(s) with that is, the item is not wampum, it is just a beaded strip. We never had ancestors cross any praries in any kind of wagon. Our ancestors came from Canada and moved not far across the border in to Minnesota. Oh, well.

My mom sezz we're from rich Okie stock, cuzz when she crossed the prairies in the depression they had TWO mattresses on top of the car. :rotf:

 

[LaBonte]

Pretty much what Wick said - at earliest I would date this from the 1840's, but it could be much later. The acorn motif was common on knives and other gear all through the 1800's.
Brass pins weren't as common in the earlier 1840-60's period but do show up now and again - even some types of brass cutler rivets show up earlier than most assume - the Steamship Arabia has a knife with two big cutler type rivets and that is dated at 1859 when the ship ran aground.
The castings on both ends are most likely some type of pewter of which one common type was Britannia metal. The handle appears to be gaboon ebony or perhaps African blackwood, but could also be an ebonized wood such as birch or boxwood - all of these were pretty common knife handle materials during the mid-late 1800's.

Are there any visible markings on the blade? Sometimes holding it up to the light and looking at while holding the blade at a slant markings can be deduced. With any markings it's hard to say exactly when it was made since this type of butcher knife was made by several companies, both American and English, and the patterns often stayed the same for many, many years and some even well into the 20teh Century. Russell/Greenriver in America made them and John Wilson in England to name just a couple of the more famous makers.
Without markings or other further evidence my best guesstimate would be the 1860's or later.

One thing you should consider if you want to keep the knife from further deterioration is to cleanup/stop the rust and then seal the whole knife with something like Renaissance Wax - a product developed by the British Museum for maintaining such goods. Once cleaned up the bolster piece could also be glued on to hold it in place.

 

[Rifleman1776]

My mom sezz we're from rich Okie stock, cuzz when she crossed the prairies in the depression they had TWO mattresses on top of the car.

BB, I know folks for whom a story like that would not have been far from the truth.

 

[BrownBear]

They sound like kin to me!! :grin:

 

[tom deinek]

I'm an American Indian. My mom gave me a Clovis Point spearhead she claimed had been in the band forever, Custer, ManyCoups, Wounded Knee, etc.

I put it under ultraviolet light in my ofice. It said:





MADE IN CHINA