I haven't heard from you in a long time. I wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Jim, Hope the day is everything you hoped for

Happy Birthday, Jim !!!!

have a great birthday....

Hey Jim, Thanks. I think I saw your post some where that led me to this site.

Thanks Jim,  I think it was your post about the NCCA show last month that led me to this site.  I displayed the family heirlooms 30 years ago in Windsor. Might do it again next year.

Funny coincidence ! The story is quite the same : the plastic handles had been deteriorated, with stress cracks at front pins. I purchased the knife from the guy who had re-handled it (says it’s cocobolo, I think
that’s exact).

Hi, Jim! You have a pretty gallery of marlin spike knives! How do you like this one ? It’s a nicely rehandled Case.

Two interesting links :

 http://http://couteaux-courty.com/index.php.en

http://http://www.fontenille-pataud.com/indexuk.php

Keep the edge!

J-F

Hi Jim,

 I was a little like you in that I started my collection with what I thought might be a narrow slice of the knife world with hawkbill / pruners. I was completely overwhelmed by the number of manufactures and varieties both new and vintage.  I try now to collect only new production Case hawkbills, and occasionally nibble around in older vintage makers. Along the way I got hooked on cotton samplers.  There are basically two folding knife and one fixed blade designs for samplers.  I have working on the folders only, and I focused on Schatt & Morgan and other Queen Cutlery varieties.  Still makes a fairly large field to collect in. 

As to cotton samplers, my understanding is that once cotton is ginned ( seeds removed) and compressed into wrapped bales for shipment, there is a need to cut a plug from the bale to check on quality - hence the knife.  I think the job was  largely automated in the 20th century.  All the best, Bill

Job Description:  Cotton Sampler - Sampler Removes samples of cotton from bales for classification purposes: Cuts bale band and burlap covering, using shears and knife. Opens outside layers of cotton, and pulls or cuts samples from interior of each side of bale. Tears stub from bale identification tag, places stub in sample, and wraps samples in paper. May also transfer bales of cotton to platform scales, using handtruck.