The News from ElephantToenails.com

I’ve been asked to write an article for Blade Magazine and I need your help…no, not actually writing it for me, just providing me your feedback. All you have to do is click a button for me.

I know we here at The News tend to be a shy lot…just read and go (and I do appreciate you checking out The News when you are online), but now I need you to participate in a poll I have running over at Cutlery News Journal. If you are willing to help me out, just head on over and click that button for me. It will be the first post there at the top of the page.

Cutlery News Journal’s Poll

Thanks for your help. I’ll let you know what I am doing once I get finished.

I love being able to get real time feedback from the members here on various topics of interest. While I recognize only a representative segment of our visitors and members take part in our surveys/polls/postings, it does give us a snap shot of feedback at that time. The most Recent Poll asked you to identify your favorite toenail style.

The clear majority of the voters said the Jumbo Swellcenter to be their favorite. Then it was almost a tie between that cute Tear Drop style and what I call the “Standard” style.

The fact that you guys like the Jumbo the best doesn’t surprise me. The Jumbo represents best of all what I think of when I think of a toenail- Massive knife, huge scales (handles) and mother of a master blade. When I think of a toenail the sheer size and weight of the knife instantly comes to mind and the Jumbo is all of that and more!

I will say I was surprised by the level of interest in the Tear Drop style, however, I have always been fond of it. While the standard style, compared to the other two, may strike you as a bit vanilla (plain), we all know it is by far the most common and offers the most variety in the number of different cutlery companies that produced it.

I have a particular fondness for the Jumbo though because it was that knife that jumped out and grabbed me when I, for the first time, flipped the page of Levine’s Guide to Knives and their Values, 4th Edition and saw the various examples of toenails shown on that page.

Did you know there are different variations of the Jumbo? It is true and while they might be considered to only be slight differences, the fact remains there are differences. I have been working on a article on this, but I am not finished, so allow me to illustrate two of the most notable ones below.

While we don’t know this for sure but believe the one shown below is the later model produced by W R Case (after the merger with Platts) and the last model made. Notice the style of the master blade compared to what is called the “Platts Jumbo.” You can see it is a much narrower master blade.

Below is the Platts Jumbo stamped W R Case & Sons, Bradford, PA. This particular knife was either made by Platts on contract for WRC or was made after the firms merged in 1905. Also, you will note the “Platts shield” on these. (I am of the inclination that there is even an earlier version of the “C. Platts” Jumbo and will be sharing that with you in a couple of weeks).

We love the JUMBO!

So far in the poll we have running, the Tear Drop style is out pacing the “standard” style, which I find interesting.

The tear drop style has always intrigued me. So few were produced and to my knowledge, other than a Union Cut. Co our member Barry Stephenson owns (I plan on sharing that one with you soon), Hear Sears is the only firm to have made it (it could be a contract knife for them actually). Obviously, I am only counting old ones.

The tear drop style is actually a sleeveboard style with one end bigger than the other. It is right at 4 inches in length closed. The front bolster is 15/16 inches wide and the rear bolster is 1 1/16 wide.

I could speculate why the tear drop style was produced, but won’t other than to say, I don’t believe form followed any function. Instead, I believe it was made more as a novelty. One day I’ll post on Henry Sears but this post is about the style. I’ll be wrapping up the poll in a few days.

I was doing some research on Napanoch Knife Co. and ran back across this magnificent stag handled tear drop. If you know who owns this knife please let me know. This knife was published in Bruce Voyles’ Book, The IBCA Price Guide to Antique Knives Second Edition published in 1995. He had it at $700 in that edition. The photo above is from his 1st edition. This knife now would be worth probably around $1250 to $1500- my guess anyway. It is the only one I have seen in stag. I do know it was made in pearl, black composition, celluloid and now stag by Henry Sears…some were marked Prussia and then Germany.

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.

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…)

First off let me thank those of you who participated in our first ET.com poll. I put it up right after launching the new The News. I wanted to try out the new toy that allowed me to poll you guys- so here is a summary of the results.

The question was: How long have you collected Knives?

• 10% indicated they had only been collecting 1-3 years
• 10% indicated they collected from 4- 8 years
• 30% indicated they collected from 9- 15 years
• The largest percentage of voters (50%) indicated they have collected 16 years or more.

I find this very interesting- as you know for the most part, the folks who come ’round ET.com are a fairly specialized group of collectors. I would speculate (maybe another poll topic down the road on this) that most older collectors have specialized and have branched off into a higher caliber collectible (more valuable/more expensive) than the newer collectors who have yet to focus. I haven’t compared but have observed toenails do tend to cost more than an average old knife. (We know there are many reasons for this- sheer size for one!)

Most ‘older’ collectors have settled in and focused on a particular pattern (like toenails) or brand (like New York Knife Co, or Napanoch), or even a subset within a pattern (like stag handled toenails or simply jumbo swellcenters). When I was a new collector….I was spending just as much, if not more, but was buying anything and everything made by this one knife company. The result of a concentrated focus is a better allocation of financial resources- by being more selective and having a smaller universe of collectibles, many collectors can afford to “invest” a higher dollar amount in each knife, as opposed to what I had experienced.