Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 12, 2015 at 19:28

and it is a Belknap tang.  Great find and it does certainly appear to be in good condition

Permalink Reply by Timothy Morris on May 12, 2015 at 19:38

Nice knife I'm a fan of Boker, Bulldog, FightnRooster, and Case. Mostly bone and stag handled knives are what I seek. There's a nice link I found to dating Boker Tree knives. I'll post it shortly. Nice bone on this one. Good find.

Permalink Reply by Timothy Morris on May 12, 2015 at 19:45

The link is here on ik...ha! Just search for dating Boker knives. Want let me paste the link.

Permalink Reply by tim payne on May 12, 2015 at 19:48

good looking jigged bone on this primble!

Permalink Reply by Syd Carr on May 12, 2015 at 19:50

Thanks guys! Of course, it can be risky buying used knives online, but I'm pretty experienced with the bay, and if you know the relative value of an item and are careful you can find deals; especially from those who don't necessarily know, (or care), what they have. I was a little nervous while waiting for this to arrive, but I quickly fell in love with it, so it was worth the effort. I'll search for that link Timothy, thanks for the heads up.

Permalink Reply by Mark Zalesky on May 12, 2015 at 22:11

Yep, a Boker for sure. A couple years back I sold an old collection for a friend that must have contained every Primble knife from a given year -- sometime in the early to mid '70s I would guess. All but maybe 3 were Bokers, and the others were by Schrade.

I purchased three of them for myself -- well ostensibly for my son John, who turns 5 in a few days. They are the "Big John" series, the 15BJ congress, 72BJ stockman, and 74BJ junior stockman. They're all delrin handled and the quality is just OK, but they do display well. I am pretty sure that's the complete series, I've been watching eBay for quite a while now and have never seen any other patterns.

Speaking of which -- and I'm not trying to be contrary -- but are you sure the handles on this knife are bone and not delrin?

Mark Z

Permalink Reply by Syd Carr on May 12, 2015 at 22:51

Not contrary at all, actually I kinda threw that out there as bait, and you bit; thanks Mark.

I wasn't sure at all, just hopeful. I think I always want to think it's bone when I find an old knife I don't know much about, but the only way I know to check if it is or not is to stick a red hot pin into it, then see if it smells like chemicals or burning hair, (which would be bone)...I just don't like doing that on knife handles. On other knives I have I could tell it was Delrin by the haze that old Delrin can get with age, but this one had a shine and looked "pocket worn" to me, so I thought it could be bone, (I guess I shoulda said that to begin with). Knowing a knife's history and manufacturer is the only way to reliably tell if it's bone or not, and I only had limited info, so it really was wishful thinking. If there is a way to know conclusively please share. Thanks, I appreciate the information.

Do you have any photos of that old collection you spoke of? I love seeing old well-preserved knives.

Mark Zalesky said:

Speaking of which -- and I'm not trying to be contrary -- but are you sure the handles on this knife are bone and not delrin?

Mark Z

Permalink Reply by Mark Zalesky on May 26, 2015 at 14:27

Just saw your reply now, sorry for the delay...

Delrin feels 'slick' compared to bone, and the colors in it are often not as varied as they are with bone. It and many other plastics shrink with time, and if you look at stressed areas (around pins) you can often see where the plastic is stretching just a bit, trying to stay together - bone doesn't shrink and won't 'give', under stress it will hold together until it gives way and cracks. Also, delrin is softer than bone, so it scratches differently.

For conclusive proof, get on it with a magnifying glass -- somewhere on a piece of bone, you will probably see pores -- maybe just a few. Delrin doesn't have any pores.

I don't have any photos of that collection, but it was an interesting one -- mostly a wide variety of old Hen & Roosters, but also what seemed like it should have been one of every pattern of Primble from sometime in the 1970s -- like they had completely cleaned out an old display case or something. There were about four full rolls of the stuff, and I sold them out at knife shows over a period of maybe 3 years.

Mark Z

Syd Carr said:

Not contrary at all, actually I kinda threw that out there as bait, and you bit; thanks Mark.

I wasn't sure at all, just hopeful. I think I always want to think it's bone when I find an old knife I don't know much about, but the only way I know to check if it is or not is to stick a red hot pin into it, then see if it smells like chemicals or burning hair, (which would be bone)...I just don't like doing that on knife handles. On other knives I have I could tell it was Delrin by the haze that old Delrin can get with age, but this one had a shine and looked "pocket worn" to me, so I thought it could be bone, (I guess I shoulda said that to begin with). Knowing a knife's history and manufacturer is the only way to reliably tell if it's bone or not, and I only had limited info, so it really was wishful thinking. If there is a way to know conclusively please share. Thanks, I appreciate the information.

Do you have any photos of that old collection you spoke of? I love seeing old well-preserved knives.