iKnife Collector
The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel
Tackler Blade
I have just acquired after a long search some of the discarded timbers from HMS Victory Nelson's flagship at the battle of Trafalgar. We are going to use the wood for knife scales commemorating the Napoleonic wars and the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo which is next year. We use all the old traditional blade types and was considering using the authentic tackler blade but whilst the blade is still made I can find no reference to it's origin. Some of the tackler blades you see are not tackler blades at all and if anybody has an ideas regarding it's origin just let me know. regards malcolm
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Steve Hanner on
-
Interesting Malcom, would love to see a picture of the wood to be used as well as of the knife profile. Whatever you have planned it is sure to be quite an adventure.
-
KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by M. Carpenter on -
Hello HMS Victory was the laid down in 1759. In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock and preserved as a museum ship and is the worlds oldest naval ship in commission. The wood comes from the 1923 refurbishment and many years later was sent to fine furniture makers to commission pieces - I have picked up some of the offcuts from that exercise. It is oak and still has the brass nails in it. I will post a picture of a piece.
-
KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by M. Carpenter on -
-
-
OK sure Thank you Malcom. It looks great and I am sure you can do a lot with that wood. Here is an example of Canal Street Cutlery, using a trapper pattern and applying reclaimed American chestnut as the knife scales. It came out very nice:
http://www.canalstreetcutlery.com/41twoblmopie.html
One thing we were talking about is the meaning of a tackler blade? Can you share with us what that is?
-
Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on
-
-
Looks like the Great Eastern "Viper" might fall loosley into this category.
-
Permalink Reply by John Bamford on
-
I pinched this pic off Greg's site, hope he don't mind.
This is my guess at a "Tackler's Knife", a Tackler was a mechanic in a weaving shed who fixed the looms when they went wrong. Weavers and tacklers had an uneasy relationship as the weavers tended to be payed on piecework, and a poor tackler could cost the weavers money.
-
KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by M. Carpenter on -
I have just worked out what it is. A Tackler is a job in the mills. The Ettrick shaped knives with the lambsfoot blades were used by tacklers and that is how the blade name came about. So a tackler blade would be most unsuited to my HMS Victory wood knife scales. A sheepsfoot blade would be more suited.
-
-
I'll agree that a sheepsfoot would be better suited. One with an ettrick style would look good and and be comfortable to use also.
Good luck on your project.
-
KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by M. Carpenter on -
This would be a tackler blade in the Ettrick shape which we would describe as Ettrick lambsfoot. The whole matter is from my wife's point of view getting slightly inconvenient as our HMS Victory timber has now joined the HMY Britannia Royal Yacht teak decking in the hall. Anyway you can see progress on http://www.sheffield-gb.com
- Attachments:
-
-
7thkife.jpg, 18 KB
-
-
-
OK like the look of this one and thanks to John , JJ and Malcom for clarifying a tackler knife and giving a bit of history! Even an old dog like me can learn something new!
-
-
Found this, while looking into this topic. Interesting read...
A POINTLESS STORY or KNIFE LAW IN ACTION
by Bernard Levine, (c)1990,
from "Knife Lore" #23, National Knife Magazine, June 1990
Jim Rohl of Indiana has made a hobby of tracking down the
original written sources of all sorts of interesting lore,
especially knife lore. His latest find involves a bit of
sailor knife lore that I have heard for years, but that I
have never before seen so clearly documented.
The lore involves the points on sailor's knives, or rather
the lack thereof. Sailor's rope knives traditionally have no
points. As far as I can discover, there is no functional
reason for this. After all, a knife with a point will cut
rope at just as well as a knife without a point. The story I
have seen and heard holds that, on most ships, sailor's were
not allowed to carry pointed knives, to discourage them from
stabbing each other when the strains of a long voyage under
sail got to be too much for some of them to bear.
Jim found a book called The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life
Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger, by one Frederick Pease Harlow.
The book was published in 1928, but recounts the author's
experiences at sea as a boy about six decades earlier. On
pages 90-93 Harlow describes the outset of a voyage to
Melbourne, Australia. The first and second mates are choosing
up the port and starboard watches for the voyage from the
newly hired crew. The first mate, naturally, chooses first.
"`I choose you... What's your name?'
"`Hans, sir,' he replied.
"`Let me have your knife,' requested the mate, who stood on
top of the main hatch, with a hammer in his hand, which he
was all the while turning and twisting. Upon receiving the
sheath-knife, which is as much a part of sailor's uniform as
his overalls and is always carried in a sheath or scabbard,
hanging from a strap about the waist and back of the hips,
where it is handy for cutting rope, for a sailor is not
dressed without his knife, the mate put the point of the
knife across the iron band on top of the combings of the
hatch and struck a sharp blow with the hammer, breaking off
the point.
"`You probably didn't have the mate, in your last ship,
break the point off your knife.' said Mr. Burris. `But I
always keep a ship sweet and clean by seeing that every knife
aboard the ship has no point. This is for your own
protection. If you get into a fight with a shipmate you know
you can't stick him with your knife or he, you. Knowing this
you both will fight like men and use your fists, the weapons
God has given you to fight with.'
"Returning the knife to Hans, he was told to stand over to
the port rail...
"The second mate then chose Jim Dunn... His knife was
broken in the same manner and he was told to stand over to
the starboard rail... The selection and knife-breaking
continued until the 14 men and two boys were all divided into
two watches.
"Going forward, I followed the men into the forecastle. A
big Irishman by the name of O'Rourke, was much put out by
having his knife point broken and was saying as I entered, `I
don't know phat ye's fellers tink about it, an' I haven't
been to sea for ten years, but fifteen years ago I sailed in
the [Clipper] ships Live Yankee [built 1853, wrecked 1861]
and the Phantom and if ships of that caliber can make a viage
widout breakin' our knives, why in the... does an old tub
like this wan want to do it?'"
The answer to seaman O'Rourke's question very likely lay in
a Federal maritime law enacted in 1866, during the ten-year
interval when he had been ashore. First Mate Burris had in
fact not gone nearly as far as the new law required. The Act
of Congress of July 27, 1866, which is still the law [Title
46 U.S. Code, Section 710] reads:
"Carrying sheath knives.
"No seaman in the merchant service shall wear any sheath
knife on shipboard. It shall be the duty of the master of any
vessel registered, enrolled, or licensed under the laws of
the United States, and of the person entering into contract
for the employment of a seaman upon any such vessel, to
inform every person offering to ship himself of the
provisions of this section, and to require his compliance
therewith, under a penalty of $50 for each omission..."
Note that the penalty for a violation falls not on the
sailor, but on the captain or the owner's agent. As far as I
know, U.S. Navy sailors at this time, and up until World War
II, were only allowed to carry folding knives, and those had
to have square-tipped blades.
* * *
http://www.knife-expert.com/
White River Knives
Latest Activity
KNIFE AUCTIONS
KNIFE MAGAZINE!!!
tsaknives.com
JSR Sports!
Click to visit
© 2024 Created by Jan Carter.
Powered by
