The News from ElephantToenails.com

I know I am a week behind posting about these blades, but my internet service has been offline at home since last Tuesday. We are going crazy. My son, middle daughter and I am at my office today (Sunday afternoon). They are big WOW players and have their weekly raids shortly.

I saw these blades last week before the auction ended and thought it would be cool to add them to the ol’ collection. Needless to say, it is hard to buy online with you are offline. My guess is they sold to a knife maker.

It was a set of elephant toenail blades. I agree with the seller that they look like Catt blades.

How often can you find toenail blades that haven’t been tang stamped or drilled for the pin and are unsharpened, literally.

If you have ever wondered what an honestly full masterblade looks like- here is the fullest of full. Don’t you just love to see how it bows (bulges) out near the tip. You won’t find many used toenails with truly full blades, except for every now and then.

I need some help! Would a Cattaraugus expert please come forward to answer this question for me.

I’ll pose it to the group here- “Just how many pins does it take to pin handles on a Catt toenail?”

I thought I had seen it all on Catt toenails. I’ve seen toes with 3 pins, 4 pins and 5 pins, but now there is a 7 pin?! The most interesting aspect of this knife is it is at a pretty fair price of $355 on eBay so far, so maybe it is just me. I have never seen any toe with 7 pins before now that I can think of it.

Roger Cunningham, the ETCC Vice President, pointed out a Jumbo Swellcenter is being auctioned on eBay right now.

Here’s what the seller has to say about it-

“I have a great old sunfish knife up for bid.  It is a W.R. Case and Sons, winterbottom bone with full blades and excellent condition.  This knife is built on the old Platts frame, and I am dating it at about 1903.  These knives book at 3500 if you can find one .  This one is in great condition.  It takes a thick thumbnail to open it, the backspring is that strong.  Nice winterbottom bone handles make this an extremely rare piece.”

I’m not sure about the date being able to be pinned down to a single year.

Too bad the seller dictated a starting bid of right at $2000 to get into it. Personally, I am convinced an item will bring its worth without forcing buyers to start at a wholesale price. Plus, the market is deep enough (sufficient demand) that it would have brought what it was worth. We may have been willing to spend $2000- $5000 after being caught up in the fever, but he is asking us to commit to spend $2000 cold.

It will be interesting to watch a quality knife sell today via eBay. Before I bid, however, I would ask for additional close-ups of the handles and stamps, for sure. These are my favorite swellcenter handles. I don’t know they are technically Winterbottom. I was told by Joe Seale they called Platts Bone. But, I’m OK with Winterbottom bone if you are.

One of our members of the Elephant Toenail Collector Club brought to my attention a Napanoch Toenail for sale on eBay right now.

Napanoch is a rare and sought after brand, and is another one of those very early toenail makers. 

According to Rhett Stedham’s book entitled, Napanoch, “A White Man’s Knife with a Red Man’s Name,” this knife company was incorporated in 1909, but had been making knives prior to that. He goes further to say, “In 1905 the knife company became first known as the Napanoch Knife Company.”

Winchester Repeating Arms Co. bought them in June of 1919. The original founders of this firm later (1921) founded Honk Falls Knife Co., another very rare brand. In fact, these men returned to the original Napanoch plant where they started Honk Falls (Winchester had moved Napanoch to New Haven, CT).

Goin’s states the founders of Napanoch were making knives as early as 1900.

In its early years Napanoch made knives on contract for several firms that sold toenails, including, Wilbert Cutlery Co., Hibbard, Spencer & Bartlett, Challenge Cutlery Co., Henry Sears, and, of course, W. R. Case & Son!

As a side note- we understand the years of W. R. Case & Son to be 1902- 1903, so we know Napanoch was making toenails then.

Napanoch is another major player in the early history of Elephant Toenails.

All you guys know I am on a never ending quest to trace toenails back to the earliest date I can.

There are only a handful of firms that could have made them prior to around 1900. One of those firms, and a highly potential candidate, is the underrated- Cattaraugus Cutlery Company, Little Valley, New York.

This firm was a major player in early American cutlery history. Their history was the foundation of Case Brothers, W R Case, C. Platts and many other firms later to come.

Trying to find a connection between any firm in the late 1800s and our favorite pattern has so far been fruitless. Sure we know there is the 1904 Case Brothers Catalog with a photo of two toenails in it. I have an old Case Brothers Manufacturing Co., Gowanda, NY box with 8250 legibly written on its end, aside from those two items, as far as I have anyway, there are few clues to go on.

Cattaraugus Invoice May 24, 1894

Last week, I grabbed a 05/24/1894 Cattaraugus Cutlery Co. billhead/invoice off of eBay hoping it would have the sacred pattern number “92″ on it (a bone toenail is 22929), however struck out again. I actually have several now from the late 1880s and 1890s, but none of them have our patten number being ordered.

So, I will keep searching…if you happen on any lead we can use to trace back toenails to pre-Case Brothers, please let me know. In fact, I’ll name the discovery after you (like when someone discovers a new star it is named after them)!

Who is today’s knife collector? Well, this much we do know- the average NKCA member doesn’t necessary represent all knife collectors in the Knife World. In fact, we know there are thousands of knife enthusiasts on YouTube alone.

The universe of collectors is much larger than we know. To me anyone who has a couple of knives and likes them is a collector. They may only get one, or two, a year, but they are every bit as much a collector as I am.

In an effort to profile today’s collector, we are running a Knife Community Survey over at CNJ and I would very much like to have you participate.

We are not trying to stereotype collectors; instead we are trying to find out who they are today.

Thanks for helping out. Please follow this link. I know many of you may have already voted as a result of my email, but if you haven’t, please do.

On another note: If you would like to be added to our email list simply click here. Thanks

Knives are as popular as ever. The web has dramatically increased their visibility and availability.

Pocket knives account for the majority of knives owned and used. Within this group, we find hundreds of different patterns. The Elephant Toenail is a pocket knife pattern. There are thousands of toenail enthusiasts who own one or more. Some folks only buy the old ones and others are equally satisfied with the newer ones.

We tend to think of toenail enthusiasts to be a small niche’ group, but it may surprise you to know, the group isn’t as small as we might think. And it is growing….

Tracking Knife Popularity

Trying to track interest in knives isn’t easy. If the knives are new, then we could look at the retail sales numbers. But what about old knives? Well, we could interview dealers, but that would be such a microcosm of info, plus we’d have to conduct the surveys in each region of the country to get its national appeal.

Knife Show traffic? Well, that would provide some info, but not interest in a specific pattern. Price trends would offer some info too, but not necessarily how popular the knives really are, plus popularity doesn’t automatically always translate into higher prices. 

With the advent of the Web, we have an additional resource to gauge their popularity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday we celebrated a birthday. It wasn’t mine, or my wife’s, but it was one of my children’s, but not of the flesh and blood variety.

Actually, it was The News’ Birthday! Yes, that’s right. The News at ElephantToenails.com was born on Jan. 1, 2008.

Over the year we added 156 articles within 27 searchable categories and 484 tags for reference.

If you have a moment, take a trip down memory lane, but first let me say that I’m concentrating on being clearer and as succinct now as possible, so please take that into consideration as we step back in time, OK?!

The Elusive Platts Easy-Open Single Blade Jumbo

Another of the last few original toenail makers closes its doors

Gotta Watch Out

Dating the W R Case Jumbo Swellcenter 

Who was the first to make a toenail?

Tidioute: A Town with an edge

Here are links to February’s postings -

Feb 08: Group 1

Feb 08: Group 2

Feb 08: Group 3

It has been a fun year. 

Thanks for all your support!

You guys may be curious as to which are the most popular stories here at The News for the year of 2008.

They are ranked by number of times read (or at least clicked through to) out of the 155 stories published this year.

I’m going to list them in the order of most popular first. Drum roll, please: 

Cutlery News Journal- a new addition to our family

Toenail Trivia- What the heck is a Pumpkin-Seed?

Knife Company History- Lockwood Brothers and one rare bird

W R Case Toenail Reference List: TESTED XX - XX USA Lighting S Era

Featured Toenail- H. Boker & Co.

Rumor Mill- Case discovers a prototype toenail from its earliest days!

Welcome to my World- Early Toenail History

Knife Company History- Cattaraugus Cutlery Co., Little Valley, NY

Knife Company History- Napanoch Knife Company

History of Platts Cutlery Companies

We jumbo swellcenter collectors know you just don’t run on one everyday, not the vintage variety anyway, so getting one custom made is definitely an option.

Jeff Claiborne continues to keep us informed on the ones he makes.  Today he shows us a jigged peachseed bone handled easy open jumbo.

Jeff Claiborne Custom Jumbo

I’m sure if you want to order one to spec, he’d make one for you.