The News from ElephantToenails.com

Secured Party Orders Absolute & Total Liquidation!
ABSOLUTE AUCTION
70,000 Knives - Brand New Original Manufacturers Inventory - Camillus Cutlery.
54 Main Street, Camillus (Syracuse) NY 13031
with Simultaneous Online Bidding @ Bidspotter.com

Saturday, April 5, 2008 @ 11:00am
Live Internet Bidding Available for this Auction!

Click Here to leave Pre-Bids & To Register For Live Online Bidding

I pride myself on keeping up with knife auctions and must tell you these guys only allowed 6 days notification…..there was no ad in Knife World that I saw either. I just got this email of the auction today by virtue of the fact that I am an auctioneer through the National Auctioneers Association, not because I am a knife collector….go figure.

I’ll digest this more and let you know. I’m sure it will be a historic event- the final chapter of Camillus.

The results are in and the ET.com staff  (all three of us- me, myself and I) is busy analyzing the numbers and studying the implications, but I wanted to give you the raw data tabulations from our second official poll. Again, I appreciate all you who were willing to stand up and make your voice heard on this all important issue (I just hope the guys who work on the knives don’t visit The News).The Question was “As a collector, when looking to purchase an old knife, would you buy…..?”

• 41.2% answered- ‘A knife that has been worked on provided replaced parts were original to the pattern and era”
• 35.3% answered- ‘I only buy 100% original condition knives.’
• 23.5% answered- ‘Any knife I like, regardless of if repaired or had parts replaced.’

I find this very interesting and will be offering my observations in my editorial post coming out on April 2 entitled “Collectible Condition Part II- What about Reconditioned, Restored & Reworked Toenails?” It is sure to stir things up a bit, but I am just going to offer my thoughts and observations on what these results mean for us here at ET.com. I have been waiting on the poll to close for me to draw my conclusions and finish the editorial, and I have. It has been cued up and is scheduled to come out at 7:01 CT Wed morning, April 2nd, so be sure to pick you up a copy of The News to go along with your first cup of coffee.

My name is Barry Stephenson and I live near Morrow, Ohio which is about thirty miles NE of Cincinnati.

I am married with three grown daughters and six grandkids. I am a retired pipe fitter and busier than when I worked. I am restoring a 1949 Ford auto and watching a lot of sports with grandkids playing. We have a small farm of twenty three acres and have a nice home in the country. Life if Good!

I have been collecting knives for about 15 yrs. And belong to the Fort City Knife Collectors Club in Norwood, Ohio.

Like many collectors I bought everything with a blade when I started. I bought my first ToeNail at a Kentucky auction and was hooked every since. I also have a collection of ivory fruit knives which have ivory blades and back springs, but toenails are my favorites. I enjoy the old hardware store brands and the obscure names the most. This site has been a valuable source of info for me, to see pictures of knives I find at the show and compare info. Scott has been a blessing for me to ask about knives I see and receive answers I need.

My favorite knife is a Union Cutlery, Tidioute Toenail which is a teardrop pattern with one blade. I always try to up grade my knives or add to the collection when I can. It is really hard to believe the way knife values have went up. One thing I have learned collecting is if you think the price is too high now, wait a few years and you’ll think it was cheap!

My brother and I go to the national shows in Louisville, Cincinnati and also a show in Lexington. See a lot of knives and meet a lot of people, the quality of knife is generally better than you find on Ebay and you can hold what you buy before purchase. It is the hunt to find a quality knife you do not already own that makes the shows fun.

A historic meeting is in the works!

Word has been leaking out and it wasn’t because we were going to have a secret meeting, instead I wanted to work out the last details before I announced it, BUT also didn’t want all the hotel rooms to get gone.

So, YES it is true. The Elephant Toenail Collectors Club (ETCC) is going to get off-line and actually have our first-ever meeting!

Can you believe it? We have been an online community here since 2003 and now have a great opportunity to get together around a major Case event.

Here are the details. Case asked me to come back and conduct the auction this year. I was asked to do the auction at the Swap Meet in 2006 and guess I did OK cause they asked me back- with that I heard several of you were also coming up to the Case Appreciation Day so some of us here decided we would get together. This was the start of discussions about us having an ET.com club meeting.

The folks at Case are helping us find a room for our meeting. It won’t be formal. We will not be passing the hat or voting on any by-laws, instead we will meet and put a face with the name.

Many of us have been having email conversations for a long time, so we desire a chance to put a voice to a name. Some of you have been brave enough to send in Collector Profiles with your photos, so for some of us, we feel we know you, at least those guys anyway.

Go ahead and mark you calendar now. July 18th -19th. I’ll let you know which of those two days we plan on getting together as soon as I can.

Case’s website has some more detailed info on the event they are hosting along with hotel info. I’ve linked to it here.

Come on up. Make sure you are attend our first-ever meeting. One day we will all look back and say, “yeah and I attended our first meeting back in July 2008.”

Are you interested in toenail memorabilia? You know I am, but I already have two of these books.

Up for eBay auction you have the 1973 edition of Romance of Knife Collecting. Obviously, it wasn’t the contents as to why I wanted this book (although there is some interesting reading)….it is the picture on the cover. It is a Case Brothers pearl 8250 with TESTED XX stamped out on the master blade.

If interested Click Here

Another popular theory knife collectors hold is that the toenail was an “English Rope Knife.” This belief principally stems from a reference in a W R Case Cutlery Company catalog in which the caption under the toenail reads “Old English Rope Knife used on sailing vessels.” While it is commonly agreed that one of the uses of the knife was to cut rope, it seems to have been more than likely in mercantile stores back in the early 1900’s, for example, as opposed to on the open sea.

In Dr. Foy Mitchell’s wonderfully informative article “Speaking of Rope Knives” in The National Knife Magazine May 1995, he convincingly argues Toenails were only used as “point of sale” rope knives and were not used at sea as was the Sailor or Navy Rope Knife. He contends, “The main commonality between them (an elephant toenail and Navy Rope Knife) is both host a very wide blade with a thick back that enabled them to be ‘driven’ through a very thick rope using a wood peg such as a fid or belaying pin.” Moreover, although a few do exist, it is extremely rare for a toenail to have a bail (the metal loop used to secure the knife to the carrier with a string or small chain) or drilled hole, as do rope knives.

Furthermore, there no evidence that indicates the knife is of English origin (although there is a toenail that was manufactured in the early 1900’s by an English firm, Lockwood Brothers. See The List).

It is my opinion WR Case simply used this name as a marketing ploy.

Navy Knife Photo Credit: Mike Silvey

As you know I always solicit and welcome your feedback on both The News and ET.com. We have just completed our first-ever online ET.com survey of the membership and even though folks don’t like to fill them out and The News is still relatively new- we got a good response. And I thought you might want to see what you as a group said. I intend to use this feedback as I develop the site’s content and postings, at least for this next quarter. Thanks again for taking the time to help! SK (more…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you see this Marbles 1910 Trade Catalog that sold on eBay recently? It sold for $468 and was only 13 pages.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll do a post on MSA Toenails as a Feature Toenail soon, but we know they did list toenails in the 1905, 1906, 1907 and their 1908/09 editions. Don’t know if this edition that sold on eBay had toenails or not.

 

 

 

 

You do know that Marbles never made toenails. The toenails were made on contract by Case Brothers, but I don’t want to steal my own thunder by going any further into toenails, as this post was just about this valuable catalog.

 

 

 

 

Mr. Larry Gagner of Gladstone, MI helped me when I first started to try to get my arms around Marbles catalog and listings of toenails. Larry wrote a good article on Marbles Safety Axe that was published in Michigan Traveler in May, 1996 and possible for other pubs as well.

 

 

 

 

Old cutlery company catalogs offer a wealth of information and can help us learn tidbits about their toenails. Grab them when you can. If you run across any you think I might be interested in please let me know.

 

 

 

 

If you remind me one day I’ll do a Page on all the catalogs from the old cutlery companies that do list toenails- that way you can let me know of ones I am not aware of so we can compile a complete for future reference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few of you may know, the H. Boker brand is one of my sentimental favorites. I won’t delve into the details, other than to say, when I first started back into knife collecting I focused on old H. Boker knives and was well on my way to a decent collection until I got stopped dead in my tracks the first time I saw a toenail.

 

Boker has a very rich history going back to the 1700’s. The Boker (you will see it spelled several ways if you research their name) family was a very prominent manufacturer who branched out to the US very early.

 

Their 1928 catalog states they were “Established in New York City in 1837, H Boker & Co. Inc., for nearly a century has been known from coast to coast as manufacturer and importer of fine cutlery and hardware. During that period the name ‘Boker Tree Brand’ has become recognized as a standard of quality in cutlery.”  Unfortunately, in that 90+ pages of Boker cutlery the toenail is not pictured. 

 

 

 

JUMBO No. 9331- 1914 Greer and Laing of Wheeling W. Va catalog -

 

 

The Boker brand has all the interesting facets to me that Case does-rich history, family, entrepreneurial brothers, yet maybe without the degree of intrigue. 

 

Boker was started by Herman and Heinrich Boeker in the late 1700’s in Solingen, Germany. The Boker firm made tons of patterns and probably imported them all over the world. They were big importers to the US in the 1800’s.

 

Robert Boker went to Canada and later Mexico. Herman Boker came to the US and was responsible opening their office in New York. Obviously, the cutlery they imported was their own. 

 

In 1916,  Boker USA “officially” gained control over an American cutlery manufacturer Valley Forge Cutlery Co. of Newark, NJ. The Bokers direct venture into the US market was probably to avoid the tariffs (Cutlery Act of 1890) imposed by our government on all cutlery imported into the US. Their acquisition of Valley Forge also gave them an American brand name that had been around since 1892. Goins states Carl Bowker became president in 1902. Boker USA owned controlling interest at that point.  In 1921 they opened a new plant in Maplewood, NJ and the Boker/VF factory was moved to that location, where they produced knives under both brands until 1950 when the Valley Forge marking was dropped. The firm sold later only to be repurchased by the Heinr. Boker Company of Germany. In 1986 they opened Boker USA in Lakewood, Co. as their distributor firm for the US market.

 

I’m sure there are numerous examples of old H. Boker toenails out there today, I’ve been fortunate to locate a couple, in addition to Valley Forge made samples. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite is my H. Boker & Co’s Improved Cutlery pearl handled toenail dating back to around c. 1920.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Boker knives are highly desirable, I think the factors that have “held back” the Boker brand from being widely collected is: First, their complete records were destroyed in the bombings of their plant in WWII, therefore little “documented” support exists to help collectors. I do have two old catalogs dated 1914 and 1928, and have read about a 1906 catalog). The second reason is it isn’t American. 

 

 

 

To me one of the intriguing aspects of collecting H. Bokers was the Tree stamping on the really old samples. Their brand was the Tree Brand and according to Goins stamped the tree on their knives starting in 1848. It is interesting to see the evolution of the tree stamp through the years. Serious H Boker collectors use the trees to date the knives as well as the various stampings. On the majority of the knives, the tree stamp is on the rear tang of the blades. Goins also shows the various stamping, so if you are interested grab you a copy of his book to dive a little deeper. 

 

The tang stampings typically date the knife as well. One of the older more desirable stampings is what is referred to as the “Improved” stamp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You probably know that our favorite knife pattern probably has more documented names (nicknames) than any other pattern- The list includes, Old Honesty, Butterbean, Pumpkinseed, Red Eye, Toenail, English Rope Knife, Toe, Sunfish, Camp Knife, Pocket Axe, Vest Pocket Axe (my favorite), Jumbo, The Bulldog and probably others.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED?

I know it has been a topic of conversation as to when Case first referred to the toenail as an “Elephant Toenail” in one of their catalogs. Do you care to guess when this first occurred?

The answer is- Case first used the nicknamed for the 6250 pattern as an Elephant Toenail in their Cat. #70 published in 1968. Did you get it right? This is not to say, the knife wasn’t referred to as an Elephant Toenail prior to that, but that was the first time Case used it in one of their catalogs.

Second question- When was the first time Case used the nickname “Sunfish” in one of their catalogs?

The answer is- Well, it was also in the same catalog #70 from the same year.

I want to thank Brad Wood for researching this question for me in his extensive collection of Case catalogs. In fact, as Brad researched this question for me, he made an observation, one he had not noticed before. In going all the way back to the earliest Case catalog he owns (c. 1934) he concluded, “I hope this information is helpful. It was interesting for me too to see the first time Case listed nicknames for its patterns in catalogs was 1968 (prior to that the knives were simply referenced by the pattern numbers. SK). I had never notice that before.” Thanks Brad.