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Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on May 25, 2018 at 19:45

Almost sounds like the discription that was used by CASE when they introduced the Gum Fuddy line.

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Permalink Reply by John Bamford on May 26, 2018 at 3:43

Some Victorian razors had vulcanised rubber handle scales though I don't know if it was used on knives.

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Permalink Reply by John Bamford on May 26, 2018 at 3:49

A stuff called Gutta Percha was used as a pre-plastic material for all kinds of things, more info below.

There could well be an answer somewhere else on this site as it deals with all kinds of plastics.

http://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14211 

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Permalink Reply by Frank on May 29, 2018 at 14:08

Thanks all, so far.
And J.Bamford - plastiquarian re. Gutta percha has enough description of applications that I can say it may have been, but they don't mention commercial knifehandles, or esp. dates for said.

My guess is 'hard black' was depression era or before.

When was Delrin first used for knives??


Anyone?

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Permalink Reply by John Bamford on May 29, 2018 at 14:45

I have no idea about that I am afraid Frank.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 29, 2018 at 19:07

Frank,

Based on this information I am going to make a guess that Delrin made a knife appearance in the early 60's

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Permalink Reply by Frank on May 30, 2018 at 15:24

Jan Carter -  Thanks -  that nails Delrin well!

I am amazed that more people don't know more about the hard black materials, it was so common..

Thankx again! 

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 30, 2018 at 19:02

Frank,

I assume that is because it never took off among collectors.  The material was loved by users and I assume that is why Case returned to a product close to it

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Permalink Reply by Jim Johnson on June 6, 2018 at 22:24

   Might be referring to what CASE used to call 'Rough Black'.I reckon that is what they now refer to as that gummy wummy or whatever they're makin' nowadays.They used 'Rough Black all the way  back to theTESTED' Days.

     Delrin was invented in 1960 by DuPont

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Permalink Reply by Frank on June 8, 2018 at 16:57

Thank you Jan Carter and Jim Johnson:

More trivia recalled:   Some brands with similar looking handle material had handles that shrank

   and some absolutely 0 shrinkage to this day.       Totally different materials or correlation with some info re gutta percha differences in source plant and refining..   

Seems at least some collectors ought have an interest in collection of what was practical back when..       

Thanx!!

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