The News from ElephantToenails.com

No this isn’t a Bud commercial, instead it is my fulfillment of my promise to a recent request.

As I posted earlier this week, I had a new collector want to see a toenail in hand (so he could show his wife how big toenails are). I have two confessions here- one is I am a terrible photographer and two, I only have time to play knives at night so the lighting stinks. I had to take the photos left handed which is hard due to the camera being made to push the button with your right hand, plus it is an bulky camera at that.

Anyway, you see how the knife is a handful, but honestly it fits like a glove. To me the toenail being a working man’s knife was perfectly made to fit the contours of the right hand.

Can you guess the knife I am holding? You probably guessed right. It is in my all time favorite standard style toenail (non-jumbo, that is).

I acquired it last year from a fellow collector who was raising money to buy a car or something…..really I don’t remember what he said, but you know as well as I do he could go out and nearly buy a car for what I had to pay for this pearly. While there is a bit of rust on the bolsters the knife still has original finish on the blades and is the best conditioned Case Brothers pearl I have ever owned. While the famous trademark XX is not stamped out on the blade, the rear tang is stamped TESTED XX.

As most of you are aware Case Brothers made this knives shorter than most other manufacturers. It measures out at nearly four inches long closed.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we mine for nuggests as we have here for going on 10 years now, we (as in ME/I) end up “collecting” other “stuff” (in proper terms it is called Ephemera, which is nothing more than a fancy word for stuff, junk, etc), well anyway, I was mining for nuggests and came across a pretty good one! Let me show you .

I know it is hard to make out what this is, BUT it just so happens to be a page from a Marbles Safety Axe Company (MSA) catalog.

In case you don’t know, this knife was made for Marbles by Case Brothers. I’ll feature the toenail in the upcoming weeks, but suffice to say, that knife today in Excellent condition would be worth probably $8500 to $15,000. Yeah, let’s all catch our breath for a moment now.. I’ve heard rumors of one that couldn’t be bought for $10,000. Heck, my very closest friend in the world (read ME) paid $1500 for a Junk condition stag handled MSA. It is up in the list. It even has a nail holding in one of the blades.Anyway, the point of the post this morning was the finding nuggets, so let’s shake the sick feeling of the value of the pearl handled MSA in the picture for now…..

This is an actual page with a MSA pearl handled toenail. Marbles didn’t make the toenails. Case Brothers did. In a 1904 Marbles catalog there is a Case Brothers stamped pearl toenail pictured.

The page above is dated October 11, 1907. Keep your eyes peeled out there. It is “stuff” like this that can provide us invaluable nuggets.