I have this nice old knife. It was my girlfriend's grandads, and maybe her great grandads.
It was made somewhere between 1890 and 1901.
It's very nice!
It was made by Joseph Rodgers who was probably one of the top 2 makers at the time. It is about 5 1/2" closed, has 7 blades, a toothpick and tweezers.
The stag antler handles are amazing. They are made from sambar deer antler from India, the best quality available. Protected now as apparently sambar deer are the favourite dinner of Bengal tigers so they need to make sure there is lots of food for them still.
It doesn't look to have ever been sharpened either.
It is however, a little rusty. But considering it's 120 years old, I guess that's to be expected. It needs a good clean up, maybe a little polish, but not too much. I know I could ruin this knife value (it has a fair bit of value apparently, but not sure how much) if I do anything stupid, like make it look new.
There is one other small issue...
2 of the back springs have snapped.
This means it needs at least one pin removing, or maybe the whole knife disassembling. 2 new back springs need to be cut and tempered, then get it back together.
WITHOUT DAMAGING THE ANTLER. Which I've been told will now be brittle.
I'm not silly, I have already tried to find a professional to do this work, but no one seems to want to touch it. I'm still trying, but all the knife makers keep saying it's too complicated.
I should probably take that as a warning sign, but I have that optimistic nievity of someone who has no idea what they are getting themselves into.
There is one last guy who might take it on, but it looks like I'm on my own with this.
It was made somewhere between 1890 and 1901.
It's very nice!
It was made by Joseph Rodgers who was probably one of the top 2 makers at the time. It is about 5 1/2" closed, has 7 blades, a toothpick and tweezers.
The stag antler handles are amazing. They are made from sambar deer antler from India, the best quality available. Protected now as apparently sambar deer are the favourite dinner of Bengal tigers so they need to make sure there is lots of food for them still.
It doesn't look to have ever been sharpened either.
It is however, a little rusty. But considering it's 120 years old, I guess that's to be expected. It needs a good clean up, maybe a little polish, but not too much. I know I could ruin this knife value (it has a fair bit of value apparently, but not sure how much) if I do anything stupid, like make it look new.
There is one other small issue...
2 of the back springs have snapped.
This means it needs at least one pin removing, or maybe the whole knife disassembling. 2 new back springs need to be cut and tempered, then get it back together.
WITHOUT DAMAGING THE ANTLER. Which I've been told will now be brittle.
I'm not silly, I have already tried to find a professional to do this work, but no one seems to want to touch it. I'm still trying, but all the knife makers keep saying it's too complicated.
I should probably take that as a warning sign, but I have that optimistic nievity of someone who has no idea what they are getting themselves into.
There is one last guy who might take it on, but it looks like I'm on my own with this.
