FINE & RARE ANTIQUE SHEFFIELD 1840s LOCK BACK FOLDING DIRK SELF DEFENSE WEAPON for Sale

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FINE & RARE ANTIQUE SHEFFIELD 1840s LOCK BACK FOLDING DIRK SELF DEFENSE WEAPON For Sale

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FINE & RARE ANTIQUE SHEFFIELD 1840s LOCK BACK FOLDING DIRK SELF DEFENSE WEAPON:
$4500.00

FINE & RARE ANTIQUE SHEFFIELD1840\'s LOCK BACK FOLDING DIRK SELF DEFENSE WEAPON FINE & RARE ANTIQUE SHEFFIELD1840\'s LOCK BACK FOLDING DIRK SELF DEFENSE WEAPON

FINE & RARE ANTIQUE SHEFFIELD LOCK BACK FOLDING DIRK

HEART SHAPED POMMEL~ FANCY CROSSGAURD SELF DEFENSE WEAPON

WITH SELECT BIAS CUT SCALES ~ CIRCA 1840’s

This is a rare Sheffield Folding Lock back Self Defense Weapon DirkKnife in fine condition with a 3 15/16” single edge dirk style blade withmedian ridge with select multi color cream color to dark brown bias cut hornscales, fancy cross guard and a desirable and rare Heart shaped pommel. Overall, 9\" long opened. Thehollow stamped German silver mounts are filled with lead and has brass liners. Thisfolding dirk weighs 3.6 ounces or 103 grams yet is a deadly self-defense weapon.The large cross guard has a pattern know to be used in the 1830’s and 1840’swith shaped and stylized quillon ends and a top embossing in a shell pattern, acommon theme in 1830’s mounts and an oval raised center panel to reinforce theMaster pin and embossed bottom ridge. The pommel is a rare and desirable Heartshape. All 4 mounts are in mint condition with light natural aging in the protectedareas. Although other examples probably exist, (see page 211 of the SheffieldExhibition Knife Book) the center folding dirk by R. Bunting & Sons(1841-50) with the same blade is the only other example I have seen with thisunusual Heart shaped pommel pattern with an interior leaf pattern above astylized bottom mount. Also note that the Sheffield dirk to its left isactually Maker marked by Pickslay (1828-1843) with the same distinctive earlystyle of round backspring release. The hilt has two 1/4\" thick bias cuthorn scales with slight inward bevelededges at the tops and bottoms are mint, with only one tiny edge nibble on theback non display side top edge scale and aged patina at the scale ends. Thescales are secured with 4 domed German silver pins. Nor all folders hadescutcheon plates. The front select multi-color tan to dark brown horn scalehas an unusual thin rectangle escutcheon pattern with rounded ends, along withthe early style overlaid center escutcheon plate secured by two tiny pins.After around the mid to late 1830’s, most escutcheon plates were inlaid using aparser tool (bow fiddle). Almost all men of this period carried self-defenseweapons, especially in the cities where there was no real law and order, and itwas every man for himself vs. muggers, thieves, and thugs.

All handmade Antique knives have their own characteristics andidiosyncrasies. There were a thousand+ Sheffield cutlers in the pre and postmid 1800 periods, with many short-lived cutlery firms that produced unknownMaker marked (and unmarked) knives that were not recorded in Sheffielddirectories. Thus, there are a wide variety of cutlery characteristics and craftsmanship foundon some knives from this period from the plethora of small cutlery firms withMaker marks that that are not recorded in Sheffield directories of the period. Brand(Maker marked) large Cutlery firms used Master Cuttler Fitters doing the samefinal assembly cutlery job for decades. It is interesting to note that duringthis tumultuous time in Sheffield cutlery, there were untold mergers,consolidations, and buyouts. Bankruptcies and resultant cutlery unemploymentwere commonplace. During this burgeoning time of American growth and cutleryneeds, new owners would inherit the old firm’s stock of blade blanks, mounts,scale materials. Entrepreneurial gentlemen would also purchase old cutlerystock and form a No Name, or short-lived cutlery firm and used less skilled(not Master) Cutlers that allowed the knives to be priced competitively thatwere usually sold in the secondary markets against the higher prices of establishedknown Makers marked knives. This dirk has a few common, small telltale apprenticeskill level hand assembly cosmetic idiosyncrasies of no consequence that aresometimes found on unrecorded Sheffield cutlery from this period. Although itdoesn’t show, the inside lead fillings of the hollow stamped German silvercross guard quillons show rough file marks in the lead filling and are notfinished and typically have brass cover plates. The original Sheffield blade’shot stamp is partially hidden by the oversize top shell protrusion of the cross guard, which is a common occurrence. Thehot stamp shows the correct Old English style letter C with a center + mark,and the correct Old English style letter X, with a another partial cross orletter T above center and I have been unable to identify this Trademark in myreference books. The original Master blade is the correct size, shape, pattern,and is fitted inside the hilt perfectly, with naturally occurring aging /spidering inside the nail nick, on the bottom of the ricasso between thequillons, inside the hilt at the end of the blade ricasso, the rounded bladepivot, and the end of the backspring, as well as half circle wear on both sidesof the blade ricasso from the liners from opening and closing the blade. The backspring is very strong and the original blade snaps open with a resounding loudclick in the locking position and is very tight with no movement front to backor side to side. When closing, the blade has a very strong snap as evidenced bythe tiny nicks in the inside lip of the curled around end of the backspringwhere the backspring act as a stop where the tip properly rests. Note there isno reason to hard snap any antique knife; especially one with a very strongbackspring as this can damage or break off the blade tip. The end result of anon-Master cutler assembler fitting the blade to the hilt to set, snap open andclose perfectly resulted in the ends of the blade ricasso and back spring beingslightly misaligned but is inside the crossguard and is of no consequence to aperiod knife buyer wouldn’t give a twit as the knife works perfectly. There is anuntouched natural aged patina on the backspring inside the hilt and also on thetop outside of the backspring between the quillons. Note the lower portions ofthe backspring has been lightly cleaned, with small spots of surface pitting remaining.The blade has its original edge and full tip. The front lower middle of theblade flat had a few hard to see scattered tiny random spots of naturally occurringshallow surface age marks and the blade has been very lightly cleaned to removethese tiny spots of old surface pitting that takes a century to create, and nowhas a smooth, even, pleasing shiny satin finish on both sides, with just a fewmicro minuscule spots remaining that are invisible to the naked eye, and evenhard to see with a 10x loupe. The blade is shiny with a satin finish, and onthe back side blade edge there are a few hard to see micro thin outlines that appearas faint shadows that appear to be remnants of the crocus of Iron polish. Theyare almost invisible to see with the naked eye, and I took dozens of images totry to capture these almost invisible features but can be seen in a couple ofimages that are many times larger than actual size to exaggerate the details. Inthe United States of the 1840\'s, almost 100% of Folding Lock back self-defenseweapons were imported from Sheffield and are many times rarer and moredesirable than their fixed blade counterparts. This fine, eye appealing 1840\'s earlySheffield Folding Dirk with a fancy cross guard and rare heart shaped pommelwould be the centerpiece of many early to mid-1800’s self-defense knifecollections and would make a handsome display piece in any knife, dirk, dagger,Folder, Bowie, edged weapon, Mexican American War, Civil War, gambling, OldWest, Western Americana, or Military Officer\'s accouterments collection, aswell as an excellent Investment.

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