Does anyone know about old fashioned BARLOW knives?

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Kaybee

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I have a couple new production Barlow knives that I really like, one is made by Case and the other is by GEC.

I’m looking to pick up some vintage ones on eBay but there are so many that look like crap.

Can anyone recommend desireable brands of vintage “made in the USA” Barlow knives?
 
How about Bear & Son? A lot of shops like Amazon sell those. Hen and Rooster and Queen are good but I don't know if they're USA made.

I like that you want USA made, I do that too.
 
I came across a nice Barlow in a junk shop that is Craftsman brand. From what I was able to research, its probably made by Imperial in the 1960s. Needed a little TLC to clean up, but it got super sharp and has a nice walk and talk. Not bad for $7.

Honestly, if you have a GEC, i dont think you'll be happy with what you're going to find. I have a couple of theirs and i dont think i could go back to anything lesser short of a great bang for your buck Rough Rider for beater work. That said, the ol' girls you stumble across certainly have charm.
 
A Barlow knife brings back good memories to me . It was the first knife that I owned as a boy . My granddad bought my cousin and I a Barlow knife in an old hardware store . They use to keep them in a glass bowl on the front counter , no box . I wish that I wouldn't have lost it . a few years ago I bought a Camillus Barlow . I think the one my granddad bought me was an Imperial .
 
Rough Riders are fine. I had one, didn’t feel great to me I will explain why. What draws me to Barlow knives is the history of them, George Washington had one. Mark Twain had one. Back in the day every working American man had one, and I think that’s really cool.


When looking for old knives on ebay you realize how many small American companies were making pocket knives. There were so many! You also realize how, essentially all at the same time, they all shipped work to china, or were bought by a bigger company that shipped their work to china, or went out of business. You can just see them all disappear at a certain dates.

Rant time:


To me it looks like a physical manifestation of the greedy, short sighted rich people that funded politicians (red&blue both) to allow them to move jobs overseas so they can make more money by reducing labor costs.


Well jokes on them, because the Chinese is not a free market capitalist system and their government intentionally allowed their businesses to *steal* all our innovations created by our system, all our production techniques, all our trade secrets. Everything. Across the board. I don’t blame China for that, I blame the chumps that allowed it to happen. In technology this has become a huge security risk for our country, they build all and the world is poised to be on Chinese 5g, which will be a disaster.
​
So yeah, I don’t want a rough rider knife in my pocket. I can’t avoid buying Chinese products, but I won’t have a classic barlow knife cynically branded as an American classic but made in china.
 
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Armored farmer said:
I recently bought some rough rough rider
Click to expand...

He's not interested in Chinese made knives.

Here's a nice site on barlow history. Remember that the Russell barlow brand vs. the barlow style of knife when searching and reading. Barlow style pocket knives have been made for a very long time (George Washington supposedly carried one and they were important in Tom Sawyer) http://barlow-knives.com/history.htm

American made barlows can be had from Colonial, Bear & Sons, Kutmaster, Great Eastern, make them in the US currently. Vintage barlows should be before the China imports started coming in anyway. Vintage Russell, Camillus, Cattaragus, Kin Folks, Kutmaster, Imperial, Queen, USA Boker, Western or a real USA made Schrade can be found in good condition for under $50. There are a few Bayes that were made by Colonial on Evilbae.
 
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I don't remember from who I copied these Samuel Barlow Neepsend (1790-1830) barlow knife pictures, but I am grateful to be able to see some of the earliest barlow patterns, if not the first Barlow knives, ever made.

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As a kid, I lost more Barlow's than any other knife type, most of them were Western Brand, easily purchased at KMart. As I grew large, I decided Barlows were a bit small for my hands, so I do have a few stashed in drawers, I don't actively carry the small ones any more. Nor the large ones, they are too heavy for their sizes.

I have wondered if the long bolsters actually did anything to strengthen the knife. Regardless of pattern, if you use your pocket knife as a crowbar, it's the pivot pin that bends and pulls out. I don't see how longer bolsters prevent that.

It is rare to see any knives as old as the one's pictured. These were "cheap", though given the poverty of the times, I wonder how cheap they were, but even so, these were working knives and such items were used till they were worn out. Such as this Samuel Barlow.

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Once the blade is worn out, what can you do with a knife, other than toss it out?
 
Slamfire said:
I don't remember from who I copied these Samuel Barlow Neepsend (1790-1830) barlow knife pictures, but I am grateful to be able to see some of the earliest barlow patterns, if not the first Barlow knives, ever made.

View attachment 836747

View attachment 836748

View attachment 836749

View attachment 836750

View attachment 836751

View attachment 836752

View attachment 836753

View attachment 836754

As a kid, I lost more Barlow's than any other knife type, most of them were Western Brand, easily purchased at KMart. As I grew large, I decided Barlows were a bit small for my hands, so I do have a few stashed in drawers, I don't actively carry the small ones any more. Nor the large ones, they are too heavy for their sizes.

I have wondered if the long bolsters actually did anything to strengthen the knife. Regardless of pattern, if you use your pocket knife as a crowbar, it's the pivot pin that bends and pulls out. I don't see how longer bolsters prevent that.

It is rare to see any knives as old as the one's pictured. These were "cheap", though given the poverty of the times, I wonder how cheap they were, but even so, these were working knives and such items were used till they were worn out. Such as this Samuel Barlow.

View attachment 836755


Once the blade is worn out, what can you do with a knife, other than toss it out?
Click to expand...
If it is important sentimentally you can have a new blade put in by someone who repairs old knives.
 
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