The News from ElephantToenails.com

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.

As reported in the December edition of Knife World, Camillus has gone out of business. I can imagine it is hard to compete against the foreign makers.

(more…)