Throughout history, our development has been categorized into ages: the stone age, the bronze age, and the iron age. Colonial times in America can be given its own category, the wooden age. Much of the domestic and farm articles that were necessary on a colonial farm were not made of metal, but of wood. North America was rich in forests of varied kinds of wood, pliable, stiff, durable, weighty, and strong – suitable for many uses. Ploughs were of wood, and harrows; cart-wheels were often wholly of wood, though at times iron plates called strakes held the felloes[1] together, fastened by long clinch-pins. The dish-turner and cooper were artisans of importance to those of the 18th and early 19th centuries producing many useful items with little or no use of metal: piggins[2], noggins[3], runlets[4], keelers[5], firkins[6], buckets, barrels[7], hogshead[8], churns, dye-tubs, cowls[9], powdering tubs, including units of weights and measures such as pottle[10], wey[11], butts[12], anker[13], pipe[14], tierce[15], and puncheon[16]. [17]
Much of a colonial family’s existence depended on wooden and leather products including preparing domestic and hunted animals. Knives that were easily pocketed and readily handy proved to be an indispensable item. Not only in carving and re-shaping some of the necessary kitchen and storage utensils, but for quick repair and gutting game. During times of leisure or at the end of a long day of work, the pocketknife was perfect for whittling, becoming a favorite pastime. Young boys throughout the colonies carried pocket knives or jack-knifes which they took long into adulthood. The majority of these knives was the Barlow knife; simply made, mass produced, with a handle not only of horn or ivory, but sturdy wood. They had one other quality that made them widespread – they were cheap. Not cheaply in construction, quite the contrary, they were incredibly efficient and inexpensive; so much so that every merchant, farmer, field hand, and laborer could afford one. Mass produced from the early 1700’s, by the 19th century the word ‘Barlow’ was synonymous with folding knife[18]; like present day Xerox is used when referring to making a photo copy. By the 19th century, Barlow was recognized as a style of knife instead of a particular brand or company, with many individual and corporate makers in Europe and America.
The Romans fashioned the first folding or pocket knives. The craftsmanship was handed down over the centuries producing high quality knives owned mainly by those of wealth. The handles were almost always of bone or ivory. By 17th century England and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, pocketknives could be mass produced. The first recorded mass production of folding knives, agreed to by most authorities, is attributed to Obadiah Barlow, Sheffield, England, around 1670. John Barlow, Obadiah’s grandson, joined the business around 1745 and was chiefly responsible for the exportation of the Barlow brand knives to America. Soon, the Barlow knives were found throughout the colonies including among many of our founding fathers; George Washington carried a Barlow as did Mark Twain mention the Barlow in his Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn novels.
Another source of the Barlow knife design stated that it was fashioned in the mid-1700’s by Luke Furnace of Stannington, a small village outside of Sheffield, England. Furnace’s name appears in the Sheffield directories from 1774-1787. He put the mark “1760” on all his Barlow style pocketknives. Members of the Barlow family resided in Sheffield during this time and the Barlow Brothers was listed as a cutler; an 1823 director of Sheffield’s cutlers lists Samuel Barlow on Neepsend St.
The Barlow style of folding knife originally had one blade and later two, but never more than two. They all had comfortable tear drop shaped handles, long bolsters, and a clip point blade[19] or blades attached at the small end of the handle. The first American to mass manufacture Barlow style knives was John Russell during the later part of the 19th century. The John Russell Company, now the Russell Harrington Cutlery Company of Southbridge, Mass, first produced Barlow knives at their Greenfield, Massachusetts factory in 1875. They were called the Russell Barlow knife and instead of the word Barlow on the bolster, they were stamped with Russell’s mark, an R dissected by an arrow.
The Barlow design and purpose was simple; a sturdy folding knife using less expensive materials. Interchangeable parts and batch production of the Industrial Revolution brought the material and labor costs down to a level that the average person could afford. Designers of the first Barlow style knives made the following changes to the handmade pocketknives of previous generations.
The length of the bolster. A bolster covers the first one quarter length of the knife, surrounding the pivot and makig the pivot section stronger; in a sense bolstering it, hence its name. This compensated for the use of lesser materials and lesser tolerance. The handle was rounded allowing the knife to be easily carried. The simple tear drop bottom of the Barlow knife slipped easily into a pocket. It’s smooth design sat nicely in the pocket, forgotten until needed. The number of and arrangement of blades made the knife less costly to produce. Instead of three or more blades, the Barlow knife had one or two at most, a large primary blade and a smaller pen blade (added some years later). Less metal meant less cost. Instead of a blade at each end of the knife, like current Congress, Canoe, or Muskrat designs, the Barlow was constructed with both blades on the same sturdy pivot at the small end of the handle. A high carbon steel was used, lessening the need for re-sharpening.
There were other feathers that lowered the manufacturing costs. More often the handles were made of wood instead of bone or horn. The wood was thicker adding even more strength and durability to the bolster. The clip point, and later spear point[20] blades required less grinding than other styles like the spey blade[21]. This streamlined system of production allowed the knives to be sold at a cost that was profitable even when shipped in large quantities to America.
Over the years, the Barlow has been mass produced to a degree other traditional knives were not. Many became logo knives – cheap, throw away knives for under five dollars. However, quality Barlow knives remain available through Case, Bear & Son, Boker, Robeson, & Rough Rider. A cross section of Barlow knives can be found on www.barlowknives.com. The Russell Barlow knives were discontinued around 2009, but can still be found for sale. Officially, The Barlow Company was started about 1930 in the United States. In 2003 Barlow halted their lifetime guarantee. In 2005, the company was purchased by Norwood. Norwood kept the Barlow line in tact, but changed the Barlow logo to Norwood and sold the knife through Advantage-Advertising (www.logo-knives.com). Further recommended makes of Barlow knives: Great Eastern Cutlery for the two blade Barlow, Canal Street Cutlery, a brand created by Schrade employees, making an excellent Barlow using steel by Latrobe equivalent to 154CM – a classic and new style steel. Also the AG Russell’s single blade version which is affordable and beautifully finished.
If You’d Like to Read More on the History of Pocket Knives, Check out these Books on Amazon. Click on the Underlined Title
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SOURCES
Cummings, Abbott Lowell. Rural Household Inventories, Establishing the Names, Uses, & Furnishings of Rooms in the Colonial New England Rooms, 1675-1775. 1964: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, Mass.
Earle, Alice Morse. Home Life in Colonial Days. 1974: The Berkshire Traveller Press, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Hartley, Dorothy. Lost Country Life. 1979: Pantheon Books, New York, NY.
Hayden-Wright, David. The Heritage of English Knives. 2007: Schiffler Publishing, Atglen, PA.
Hume, Ivor Noel. Here Lies Virginia, An Archaeologists View of Colonial Life and History. 1963: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York, NY.
Johnson, Laurence A. The Chronicle of Early American Industries Association, Inc. “The Barlow Knife.” June 1959.
Merriam, Robert L. The History of the John Russell Cutlery Company, 1833-1836. 1976: Bette Press, Hadley, Mass.
Price, C. Houston & Zalesky, Mark D. Official Guide to Collector Knives. 2008: Random House, New York, NY.
Volo, Dorothy Denneen & Volo, James M. Daily Life on the Old Colonial Farmer. 2002: Greenwood Publ. Group, Westport, Conn.
Internet
The First Mass Produced EDC Knife: A Short History of the Barlow.
An Introduction to Blade Styles. Bladeops: https://www.bladeops.com/Articles.asp?ID=278
Footnotes
[1] Felloes – the outer end of a wheel to which the spokes are fixed.
[2] Piggin – small wooden pail with one stave extended upward as a handle.
[3] Noggin – pitcher or container of hollowed out wood to hold water, milk, or any liquid.
[4] Runlet – wooden container of approximately 18 gallons.
[5] Keeler – vessel for heated liquids to stand and cool.
[6] Firkin – wooden container, upwards of nine gallons usually storing butter
[7] Barrel – container of 32 gallons
[8] Hogshead – container of 54 gallons.
[9] Cowl – tub used for water or heavy loads; usually attached to a cowl staff with one person on each end.
[10] Pottle – measure of liquid equal to a half gallon.
[11] Wey – various units of weights, especially for cheese, wool, and salt.
[12] Butts – very large wooden container upwards of 108 – 120 gallons; often used for aging spirits.
[13] Anker – Dutch & German measurement used especially for spirits, 9 to 10.5 gallons.
[14] Pipe – Similar to the Butt of 120 gallons.
[15] Tierce – One third of a Pipe or 42 gallons.
[16] Puncheon – Wooden Cask of 80 gallons.
[17] Earle pg. 305
[18] Interesting, by the 20th century, people stopped referring to folding knife as a Barlow – reverting back to pocket knife or jack-knife.
[19] Clip Point Blade – one of the three most common knife blade shapes (the others are the drop point and spear point). Clip point blades have the appearance of having the forward third of the blade “clipped” off. The clip itself can be straight or concave. See bladeops for informative description of the many blade styles: https://www.bladeops.com/Articles.asp?ID=278
[20] Spear-point blade is a symmetrically pointed blade with a point that is in line with the center of the blade’s long axis.
[21] Sprey blade – upward curve at the end of the cutting edge, mainly perpendicular to the axis of the blade. The curve joins with a sharp downward angle that proceeds from the spine to a muted tip that lacks any real piercing capacity, popular for skinning and dressing meat.