The News from ElephantToenails.com

I’m excited to share with you a special feature for us here at ET.com. Within the next couple of weeks, I’ll be bringing to you two very special guests.

As you know, I have a little (tongue in check) project I have going over at Cutlery News Journal. It is the Audio Interview Series with key players in the knife industry. Two of the guests I’ll be interviewing are directly relative to us here. These knifemakers are Tony Bose and Don Hanson III.

Both of these men are very respected makers and both have made toenails. Before you jump back by saying ”but these are custom knifemakers, Scott, we’re into vintage (OLD) toenails here at ET.com,” allow me to say, I know that. Hang with me on this.

T Bose Pearl Jumbo

Mr. Bose was the first knifemaker to actually make the Jumbo Swellcenter. He will provide us with keen insight into what it is like to make one of those puppies. He told me recently, the Jumbo is the hardest knife to make of all he has ever made…and we’ll get him to tell us why.

D Hanson Blue Mammoth Bark Ivory Scales

Don Hanson III, if you don’t know him, is known throughout the world as Mr. Sunfish. He established himself in the custom knifemaking Who’s Who by making toenails. And even adopted it as his trademark, except as you know he calls them sunfish. 

Since we can’t go back and interview anyone from the early days of the C. Platts, Case Brothers, or early W R Case companies, obviously, in order to get insight into what it was like to actually hand forge and finish a toenail, these men are the modern-day equivalent. I think it will be fascinating to talk with these men.

Here’s what I’m going to do- The CNJ Interview will be a 30 minute in-depth conversation and will be released there in its entirety, but for you and me here, I’m going to cut out the heart of the toenail discussion and post it here. Be patient as it takes time to work out all the scheduling and production, but will let you know as soon as I can.

You will be able with a click to hear these conversations right here without any special plug-ins or downloads. I hope you will listen in!

You guys know we have been following the progress of the making of a Jumbo Swellcenter by knifemaker Jeff Claiborne.

Jeff told me it is now finished. And I’m exciting to present the unveiling of Jeff’s excellent representation of this rare vintage pattern. 

This is a stag handled Jumbo Swellcenter. Custom made jumbos are very rare. From my conversations with two knifemakers, both of which have made jumbos, it is a very difficult knife to make, but I’ll post more on that in a later post.

With that allow me to present this handful of a beauty-

If you missed the earlier posts on the stages making this knife, here you go: Part I  and then Part II 

Would you believe me if I told you you could buy a W R Case Jumbo Swellcenter for only $2.00? The one pictured here wasn’t it though.

Well, it is true. Here’s the story. Got a call this morning from a knife friend I met at the Case Collectors Appreciation Day back in July. He told me that he has a friend who bought a knife at a Flea Market who approached him about what it was worth. My knife friend immediately recognized it as a Jumbo.

The long and the short of it is this- his friend bought it for TWO DOLLARS! It sounds like it is probably in at least good+ to maybe VG condition. Aside from the fact that knife may be worth bumping on $1000 (I haven’t seen it, so could be more), the fact that there are rare toenails sitting in a box of knives at flea markets and trade days, just drives me crazy.

So come on guys, let’s not sit on our duff and wait on the next one showing up on eBay, let’s mobilize and scurry the country. I bet we can turn up a dozen or more in unexpected places.

As a side note: I rarely go to trade day down here in my area, BUT two weeks ago, I got up and went. I even went by myself and at the crack of dawn. I didn’t find any toenails, but did buy me two chains

Our life is filled with a deluge of thoughts and image impressions. Our memories are, to put it in computer terms, are like a folder on our hard drive. All day, every day, our internal video camera is recording everything our 5 senses are encountering. Think of the shear amount of data our brains filter on a daily basis. Most studies conclude the brain retains this information for your entire lifetime.

Well, while it is interesting to ponder all that I’m just a knife guy who can’t seem to “call up” my kid’s cell phone numbers, so trying to remember what I got for my birthday when I was 10 years old is fruitless.

BUT some things I can remember easily and as if it was just yesterday.

And the day I saw my first toenail is one of those instant recall memories. I’ll never forget it; that knife just jumped out and grabbed me.  It was so different from any of the knives I was familiar. It was so different, unusual, peculiar, and cool, that I knew right then and there I had to find me one!

Long story short- I was “studying” Levine’s Guide to Knives and Their Values 4th edition and when I flipped to the page- those ET’s just reached up and grabbed me ’round my neck.

Here is exactly what I saw

To be honest, it was the C Platts that stood out to me the most.

You gotta love that knife. I mean look at that master blade. It is huge.

I lusted over it for some time (before I turned the page). I was disappointed to see Levine say these knives were popular and expensive. I concluded they were going to be hard to find and really doubted if I would ever actually own one.

So, do you remember your first time?

As an aside, forget the value he had on it at the time (The jumbo had $675 and the pearl MSA at $1200). I’m guessing the book was published close to 25 years ago. That knife today is worth going on… Well that exact knife is owned by the Platts family and is worth probably $10,000 to $15,000! The pedigree of that knife being in the founders family for all these years is what knocks that price out of the park.

I know of two cleaned excellent condition W R Case swellcenters sold a few months ago for $4500 a piece. I know of another one in Near Mint condition offered for a tad under $6000.

Got an update from our friend and custom old knife maker, Mr. Jeff Claiborne recently providing us with additional behind the scenes of the knife getting real close to being finished.

He’s what he had to say about the later stage the knife is in:

“Scott, here is the next set of pictures- showing liners milled, stag cut and ground, blades handrubbed, and first fitting. Hope you enjoy behind the scene look at birth of the swellcenter. Thanks Jeff”

Here you go-

Don’t you love those Gen. Stag handles? I do.

Thanks Jeff for letting us see this beauty as she is being crafted.

Got the “heads up” the other day from a collector who has ordered a swellcenter custom made. I thought it was a cool idea and was surprised when a couple of weeks later was contacted by the actual knife maker. He confirmed the order and expressed his excitement about producing a custom made swellcenter toenail.

I have yet to ask permission to annouce the knife to the world at this point, but feel I can share with you some behind-the-scenes photos of this baby as it is being made.  This unique maker specializes in the old patterns- multiblade folders- and told me his favorite is the toenail. I’ll get the actual specs soon and hopefully will be provided additional shots of the final stages and finished produced. In the meantime, check out the creation of this old style swellcenter-

I was contacted by a reputable dealer recently making me aware of a super nice Platts Jumbo Swellcenter he had available. He deals in only the best of the best.

Check it out-

She’s a beaut that is for sure! Of course, a minty knife like this has a minty price- just a few dollars under $6000.

If you know where any Jumbos are out there for sale better grab them while you can. If and when they get hard to find, then you will see prices that will take your breath…..

One day I’ll post the prices for Jumbos were for sale for back in the early 80’s. You will be amazed at how affordable they were then (at least to us today anyway). We will probably look back and feel the same way 10 years from now.

If you are interested in this one let me know and I’ll hook you two up.

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!

At the NKCA Show in Dalton, Georgia, I found two jumbo swellcenters for sale for $5000 each. One was a WR Case (Platts production). Nice full blades and great handles. The other was a later W R Case swellcenter with the more “modern” style master blade. It appeared to have a variation of Rogers bone and bowtie shield. It also had the matchstriker in the nail nic. Both of these are up in The List for your review (not the ones I found at the show but the two I have). I would say both were EX + to NM.

This morning, I made one more quick walk through just to see if there was anything I missed and to say goodbye to my old and new friends. I took a stab at getting the swellcenters, but to no avail. Even though I had both of them, I am always willing to have some more .

As I was trying to come to terms on them the dealer asked me an interesting question and one to which I hadn’t really ever thought about before. He was trying to convince me I needed to snatch them up because he felt there aren’t many “out there,” so he asked “So just how many jumbo swellcenters do you think there are out there today?” Now that was an interesting question. He expected me to say something like “…oh, you are right, there aren’t very many.” But you know, after I thought about it I said “dozens.” He was taken back by my response, but the truth is I believe there are dozens out there in collections today.

Heck, I know quite a few folks with one or more. I also know of at least three single bladed Platts floating around. Then factor in the folks who are closet collectors (folks who don’t want anyone to know what they have) and the folks who don’t really know what they have. All you have to do is read the Toenail Q & A to see what I mean. I know of at least two folks who have emailed me asking about Jumbos they either found and didn’t know much about them or inherited.

Anyway, I was pleased to say that I believe there are dozens that have been identified and are being preserved in collections out there.

I learned through the Rumor Mill there was a really great jumbo swellcenter in circulation (for sale) for $6500 at a recent show. Believe it or not, this price really doesn’t surprise me.  

Jumbo Swellcenters are highly sought after among collectors for several reasons:

• There are enough in circulation so that collectors know they aren’t counterfeits. 
• There are still many in EX+ to NM original condition.
• The handles are huge (one of the desirable traits we like about toenails to begin with).
• The master blade is gigantic and very appealing (unusual).
• They are different (in a good way) from the “standard” style toenail. 
• They have the highest demand level. 
• They represent some of the oldest known cutlery companies, namely Platts & W R Case, two pillars of American Cutlery firms.

I’ll see what I can run down to learn if it is a Platts or W R Case stamping and its handle (I’m sure it would be in NM condition). I got a lead about the name of the collector who left the show with it. I understand he bought it. Hang with me and I’ll get back with y’all.