Mystery knife, any ideas?

Vespa Bob

Vespa Bob

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This knife was kept in my father's drawer in our house since my earliest memories and after my father passed on, I ended up having it. It lay for many years in my drawer and occasionally I would pick it up and wonder what purpose it served. It's far too sturdy for an envelope opener, but not extremely sharp for much else. I've had a go at sharpening it, thinking it might work for neck carving, but my sharpening skills don't seem to be up to the task. The length of the instrument is 8" with a 3 5/8" blade. It's pretty solid and hefty and well made with what looks like an ebony handle, but no name or mark as to it's origin. For what it's worth, my father was a sign painter, but I don't see how the knife connects to his work. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you knowledgeable folk on the off chance that you may shed some light on my mystery knife. It's probably 80 or 90 years old.

Bob
 

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I googled "old scalpel" and brought up some images. There were a few that are pretty close to a dead ringer for your knife. Any docs in your family tree?
 
Vespa Bob said:
This knife was kept in my father's drawer in our house since my earliest memories and after my father passed on, I ended up having it. It lay for many years in my drawer and occasionally I would pick it up and wonder what purpose it served. It's far too sturdy for an envelope opener, but not extremely sharp for much else. I've had a go at sharpening it, thinking it might work for neck carving, but my sharpening skills don't seem to be up to the task. The length of the instrument is 8" with a 3 5/8" blade. It's pretty solid and hefty and well made with what looks like an ebony handle, but no name or mark as to it's origin. For what it's worth, my father was a sign painter, but I don't see how the knife connects to his work. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you knowledgeable folk on the off chance that you may shed some light on my mystery knife. It's probably 80 or 90 years old.

Bob
Click to expand...

Do you have any family members from Whitechapel, London?
 
johnson430 said:
Do you have any family members from Whitechapel, London?
Click to expand...

I've heard that you can really rip through a song on the uke but, in this instance, you don't know jack. ;)
 
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letter opener

or some sort of paint scraper
 
As I applaud your mastery of obscure urban geography!
 
Before I looked at the other responses, I took one look at the 2nd photograph, put my hand out to the side, and said "Scalpel."

That is a very distinctive blade shape, MacHeath.


-Kurt​
 
My first reaction was also scalpel.
 
It looks exactly like a scalpel. The ones I've come across have far shorter blades but certainly there are some non-surface flesh cutting tasks that need a longer blade.
The one similar knife in my collection never seems to oxidize, so I've always assumed that it is a stainless-like alloy.

Seeing that you live 10 - 20 miles from me, I can offer to sharpen it for you. Drop me a PM.
Cheers,
Russ
 
Interesting thread, because I almost said trout knife when I first saw it, but everyone else was saying scalpel and I didn't want to be the one who said it was a trout knife. I was going to say that because my dad also had a knife very similar to it and he used it to clean trout. I have it now too. But he always called it his trout knife so of course I thought that it was a trout knife. But now I'm wondering if it too is a scalpel and he was just using it to clean trout. So I'm going to have to check it out and see.
 
Man, are you guys sharp! And, no, I don't have relatives from Whitechapel, named Deering or otherwise! Seriously, though, I don't know why I didn't recognize the knife as being a scalpel, other than it seemed too large and not particularly sharp. Now I really wonder how my father came by it.:confused: Thanks for the clarification, I knew I could count on you all. Thanks also to you, pointpergame for your kind offer, a pm is on it's way!

Bob
 
Sure looks thicker than the antique scalpel on the previous page that it closely resembles. Certainly wouldn't serve as a scalpel now. Wonder if it was a letter opener used as a gift from a scalpel manufacturer. For a long time, Sheffield Steel was in it's own class and was the fashizzle for many, many years.
 
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Well I'd hate to add anything practical to this thread, yet a sign painter would most definitely use a knife to cut masking films all the time. Now whether this is a specialist "art" knife or just a knife that was repurposed is beyond my knowledge. I certainly used scalpel type knifes all the time for art work.

Anthony
 
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