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Richards knife


Adrian Cook

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Hi I have quite a lot of other richards Sheffield  knives.but this is the first time I have ever seen one like this one.don't really know how old it is.but it's really well made for a Richards knife.love it

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The Richards knife factory was a large building that could be seen from The Moor. Nearly every paper shop you went into had a card on which a large selection of pen knifes for sale were mounted. I was told the owners were of German origin and their actual name was Rickards but  traded as to sound more English. They certainly employed a lot of Sheffield girls in those days. Now for the naughty bit:- There was a report in one of the Sheffield papers about "a young man being taken to hospital with a ring spanner around an embarrassing part of his body". Where I was an apprentice the older men said "It's the buffer girls again with their initiation rite"

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22 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

Hi I have quite a lot of other richards Sheffield  knives.but this is the first time I have ever seen one like this one.don't really know how old it is.but it's really well made for a Richards knife.love it

tapatalk_jpeg_1465410772793.jpg

It looks very much like a Pruning Knife.

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Yes .i think it is .sorry for the very late reply.i have just recently brought 2 more Richard knives which are only 50-60.mm in length.both are of the same design but I believe the s/s version is newer than the other.single blade and what appears to be a pen . The false M.O.P. knife has a pen in it if that's what it is.the S/S version unscrews whilst the M.O.P.one doesn't. So.my question is what  is it supposed  to be pen or scribe.?.thanks for looking.

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On 13/04/2017 at 19:43, Adrian Cook said:

So.my question is what  is it supposed  to be pen or scribe.?

Hello  Adrian , did you ever find any information about the pen things ?  Also have you any Richards knives with their display cards / packaging ?  There is one on Ebay at the moment, only a smokers knife but starting at 40.00 because it is described as new and has it's display card. Looking closely it looks like the knife has some scratches.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323811533259?ul_noapp=true

 

richards_smokers_knife.jpg

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1 hour ago, boginspro said:

Hello  Adrian , did you ever find any information about the pen things ?  Also have you any Richards knives with their display cards / packaging ?  There is one on Ebay at the moment, only a smokers knife but starting at 40.00 because it is described as new and has it's display card. Looking closely it looks like the knife has some scratches.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323811533259?ul_noapp=true

 

richards_smokers_knife.jpg

No boginspro, still can't find out what they were used as, I haven't any knives with display cards I will have a look at eBay but as you say there are scratches on this knife as if it has been used,I do have one like this and a William Rodgers one also,Good to hear from you ,Adrian

 

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1 hour ago, Adrian Cook said:

No boginspro, still can't find out what they were used as, I haven't any knives with display cards I will have a look at eBay but as you say there are scratches on this knife as if it has been used,I do have one like this and a William Rodgers one also,Good to hear from you ,Adrian

 

Well I did come across this advertisement today of an American knife with the description " VINTAGE IMPERIAL POCKET KNIFE WITH INK PEN & BLADE "

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-imperial-pocket-knife-ink-pen-473939320

vintage-imperial-pocket-knife-ink-pen.jpg

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Thats brilliant boginspro, so I wonder if imperial copied Richards or if it was the other way round,but all the same thankyou so much for stumbling onto this ,and solving another mystery.adrian.

 

L

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4 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

I wonder if imperial copied Richards or if it was the other way round,

Yes it would be interesting to know who first made one of these, of course it could have been someone different entirely, we may find out one day.

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Hi boginspro,about my two (pen)knives ,the one that unscrews to take a birow ink pen is the S/S one but the other faux m.o.p one doesn't unscrew but the pen end looks solid steel,Was wondering if anyone knows if it could have been used to write brail for blind people or would that be totally out of the question.?

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2 hours ago, Adrian Cook said:

could have been used to write brail for blind people or would that be totally out of the question.?

That's something I never would have though of Adrian  ,  it certainly looks like it would do the job of stylus with a thin braille slate.  

I thought of a tracing stylus, if that is the correct term, for tracing patterns using carbon paper, but for both purposes it would be a bit cumbersome to use and there would only be a very small market for one on a knife. But Richards seem to have been a very forward thinking company who were always looking for new ideas / marketing techniques.

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