The Elephant Toenail Knife
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"An imposing piece of serious cutlery."
Bernard Levine Knives 1991
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The Elephant Toenail is a massive knife with gigantic blades. It has one of the largest master blades ever made for a pocketknife. It was not one you'd simply forget you had in your pocket as you went through the day.
The complete history of this unusual knife is partially a mystery to us today; however, we can conclude that it wasn't a letter opener, a "fruit knife" or a gentleman's "Sunday knife," though limited numbers were made back then with pearl handles. I also doubt it was designed for combat or as a weapon of self-defense. How quickly can you get that master blade open?
One aspect of the toenail we can conclude from old advertisements and catalogs is that it was marketed as having many different uses. It is for this reason we have so many different names for the same pattern.
The Toenail has been referred to as "Old Honesty," "Camp Knife," "Oyster Shucker," "Pumpkin Seed," "Rope Knife," "Old Faithful," "Jumbo," and "Vest Pocket Axe."
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Anyway, it is not a sheath knife either, though I am aware of a Case Bros. Cutlery Co. Little Valley, NY Pearl (No. 8250) (c.1900-1912) that was originally sold with a suede pouch. Other than that one, they were sold strictly as a naked pocketknife. I can imagine though as expensive as the pearl handled Toenail was back then, we would have wanted it protected in a suede pouch too; for that matter, considering the current value of that particular knife, we'd want it protected it that pouch even more so today!
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