William Parker English trade knife
Nov 7, 2022 11:13:33 GMT -7
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Keith, brokennock, and 1 more like this
Post by paranger on Nov 7, 2022 11:13:33 GMT -7
This 7" English "scalper" is a bench copy of a blade in the Grand Portage museum handled in the diamond pattern out of European beech.
It has the half-width tang characteristic of mid-century English blades, and the sword-over-V-over-I cutler's mark of Hallamshire master cutler William Parker.
The slight downward bend to the tang makes this knife somewhat unusual among English trade blades of the period, and may have been an effort to mimic French boucheron geometry for marketing purposes, given the long established French trade relationship among the Great Lakes tribes. For this reason, I would tend to date this knife to the 1760s, when English trade began to supplant French in the old northwest.
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It has the half-width tang characteristic of mid-century English blades, and the sword-over-V-over-I cutler's mark of Hallamshire master cutler William Parker.
The slight downward bend to the tang makes this knife somewhat unusual among English trade blades of the period, and may have been an effort to mimic French boucheron geometry for marketing purposes, given the long established French trade relationship among the Great Lakes tribes. For this reason, I would tend to date this knife to the 1760s, when English trade began to supplant French in the old northwest.
private image upload