Featured Sterling and coin pocket knives...scrap or sell?

Hello! Picked these up yesterday...

The one with the blade marked 'coin' shows a lot of wear, and is inscribed "Mother', and 'Sept 5...1866'

The other with the grape pattern has a broken blade marked 'Sterling'

Sorry for the crummy pics...it's rainy and gloomy this morning.

Thanks!

 

No expert, but I would call them "fruit knives" rather than pocket knives. The sharp-pointed "picks" would be for removing pits from stone fruit. Plus silver doesn't get and keep a nice sharp edge for cutting that most pocket knife users would want.

 

I have seen hundreds of British ones including many Georgian examples but no US made examples. Not really surprising I suppose in England. but I have never even seen one on the internet.

 

Baker, nailed it. Folding fruit knives were very useful back when because of bad teeth. One needed to bite into apples, etc.. to eat and that was painful to most people because of bad teeth. Fruit knives allowed them to cut up the fruit to eat rather than biting into it. I think the French started using the sterling and coin silver knives back in the 1700s. Sterling was the metal of choice because citric acids pitted and severely damaged other metals. Also sterling is anti-microbacterial (sp???). The use of these knives quickly spread to England and to America. Following is a thread on a pocketknife forum about fruit knives.
https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=19395

A little article about folding fruit knives an eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/The-History-and-Use-of-Silver-Folding-Fruit-Knives-/10000000018498971/g.html

Google images of them:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ste...ChMIxNCW24L5xgIVRc6ACh0DiAKs&biw=1024&bih=649

--- Susan

 

sell, don't scrap.

 

I have 3 or 4 myself, which is part of the reason I recognized them. 1 does have non-silver marks from a Sheffield maker on the part of the blades that attaches to the interior and no marks on the "case." The others have no marks on the blades at all, but one has a very faint "sterling" worked into the decoration on one side.

 

The scrap value is trivial and I am sure the one with COIN on the blade is good enough to sell. Not for a great deal but way more than a few grams of scrap.

 

Folding fruit knives...never would have guessed! Thanks for the replies, and thanks for all the links, ladybranch.

I know zip about silver, but for the price (less than a tenner for both) I thought I would give them a go.

I'm happy the one with 'Mother' is complete...guessing someone had it engraved as a memorial...very poignant.

Is the one with the broken blade worth selling? Also, just noticed the numbers '501' on the other side of the broken blade.

 

Just saw your post on the selling the coin, af. Thanks!

 

Even the broken one would have a place in a reference collection, it's a shame it is not dated like the other.

 

I was immediately struck in that they appeared to, first, be made from butter knife handles and then I thought they could be a accessory to them. The info later is good to know! Not seen one ever, that I can recall anyway.

 

I gave a little gold one to my ex ...once upon a time.

 

Silver is supposed to have antimicrobial (I think that's what ladybranch was thinking about) properties (although to what extent is debated, I believe). Eating with silver utensils was partially about wealth, but also health. It created a safe, sterile environment, which the steel of the era would not (Carbon steel rusts very easily).

They're very interesting knives. I'd never realised that they made the blades out of silver as well. Learn something every day.

 

And in my opinion, there is a slight "taste" difference between silver and stainless steel (flatware) - one that I have always been aware of and I could USUALLY tell the difference while blindfolded. My grandmother could as well.

But while on chemotherapy the "taste" became very pronounced, to the point of the stainless causing nausea. Or at least ADDITIONAL nausea...........