Knife??

[Banjoman]

Here’s a cheap knife I’ve had in my collection a while. Does it resemble any kind of historical knife or is it a fantasy knife? I’ve searched here and on the internet and think it kind of sort of looks like a fur trade era knife, maybe.

I do like that it has a thick blade which takes a good edge and is full tang. Does it actually resemble something carried in the 18th or 19th century?

Thanks!

 

[Jaeger]

The pins in the handle look a little fanciful, but the rest doesn't look modern at all.

 

[Banjoman]

When I got the knife, the blade had a bright and shiny finish that I didn’t like. I gave it a yellow mustard treatment to change the look.

I also hit the handles with a torch a little to darken them up.

 

[Banjoman]

And this iPad didn’t take the best pictures either.

 

[TDM]

Don’t have a good enough phone signal to open the photos but I’ll try again.

 

[Banjoman]

And this iPad didn’t take the best pictures either.

I posted new photos taken with my phone. Maybe better.

 

[tenngun]

Here’s a cheap knife I’ve had in my collection a while. Does it resemble any kind of historical knife or is it a fantasy knife? I’ve searched here and on the internet and think it kind of sort of looks like a fur trade era knife, maybe.

I do like that it has a thick blade which takes a good edge and is full tang. Does it actually resemble something carried in the 18th or 19th century?

Thanks!View attachment 289518View attachment 289519View attachment 289520View attachment 289521

Crazy crow sells it, while far from perfect it’s a good example of a ‘scalper’with added decoration

 

[Banjoman]

Crazy crow sells it, while far from perfect it’s a good example of a ‘scalper’with added decoration

Thanks! I saw those also.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Here’s a cheap knife I’ve had in my collection a while. Does it resemble any kind of historical knife or is it a fantasy knife? I’ve searched here and on the internet and think it kind of sort of looks like a fur trade era knife, maybe.

I do like that it has a thick blade which takes a good edge and is full tang. Does it actually resemble something carried in the 18th or 19th century?

Thanks!View attachment 289518View attachment 289519View attachment 289520View attachment 289521

It's a carbon steel blade. The handle and blade don't match a typical trade knife, but remember, those were rather cheap knives, often with only a half-tang, and two pins, because one would just not work that well, and three was "too much cost" during the making. What some local cutler would do with a the broken half of good sized butcher knife... is anybody's guess.

LD

 

[Banjoman]

Thanks! I wondered about it having 4 brass pins. The smaller ones are maybe just for decoration? I suspect this may have been made to look like a mountain man knife to someone who didn’t know any better. I got the knife in a trade with a box full of junk so I have nothing really invested in it.

 

[tenngun]

Thanks! I wondered about it having 4 brass pins. The smaller ones are maybe just for decoration? I suspect this may have been made to look like a mountain man knife to someone who didn’t know any better. I got the knife in a trade with a box full of junk so I have nothing really invested in it.

I have one and like it. It holds the edge through working up a deer, and can cut a patch clean at the muzzle, something I don’t regularly do, but can without difficulty
I too gave it some darking with mustard

 

[fubar22]

That's a fine-looking blade that would not look out-of-place on the frontier.
I make knives as a hobby and have done a fair amount of research on the knives used by early 19th century frontiersmen. Most were purely utilitarian and would be considered pretty crude by modern standards. Think beat-up wood-handled butcher knives rather than the sleek, polished hunting blades we carry today. There was no stainless steel, so they would all be carbon steel. Most of it would be pretty low carbon content. Working knives were handled in hardwood (as yours is) or antler. Hidden tang designs used less steel and were cheaper and presumably more common. If you had a blade that held a good edge, you used it until it was worn down to a nub. Yours shows no sign of such use. Yours doesn't appear to match any of the commercially-manufactured trade knives I'm familiar with, but lots of frontier blades were turned out by frontier blacksmiths with all sorts of variations.

 

[Banjoman]

I have one and like it. It holds the edge through working up a deer, and can cut a patch clean at the muzzle, something I don’t regularly do, but can without difficulty
I too gave it some darking with mustard

Tenngun & Fubar: I actually like this knife even if it’s not exactly historically correct. It’s evident I haven’t used it any. I have too many other knives that I like better so this one hasn’t made it into the rotation yet. Might have to change that.

 

[dracer]

at least it doesn't say made in China on it

 

[beardedhorse]

No. Not resemble period correct. Forged blades often had tapered tangs. Six or five steel, not brass pins. Good booklet by Hanson and Wilson is Fur Trade Cutlery. I.(John) Wilson trade knives good examples to model after. Butchers, scalpers and cartouche knives most prevalent shapes in mountain man trade. Mostly from Sheffield, England and area. Don't neglect French knives. Russell Green River knives a little late for pre 1840 rendezvous and modern styles with brass round, large cutler's rivets not correct either. Museum of Fur Trade quarterlies good source material. Though expensive, a coffee table volume of Great Knives of the West by Jim Gordon is a valuable reference. book with many excellent color photographs. If you can get up to his museum in Glorieta, New Mexico or The Museum the Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska you'll be able to see up close and personal authentic, period correct knives. With enough research you should be able to find a knife that fits into the era and area you want to re enact.