Pocket-knife patterns
The classic American frames, illustrated — one labeled plate per pattern, with what each was for
A pocket knife’s pattern is the shape of its frame — the handle silhouette the blades fold into — plus the blade set it carries. The makers took the idea seriously: in Schrade’s own 1926 numbering key, the middle figures of every model number “indicate the pattern or style of knife.”SCH26 But unlike the axe trade, nobody ever standardized the names. A period catalog page mostly reads “pocket knife, two blades, 3½ inch, stag” — a few shapes (the barlow, the congress, the easy opener, the pruning knife) carried their names in print, and the rest went by number until 20th-century collectors, following Levine, gave the frames the names everyone now uses.LEV This page keeps that distinction honest: names verified on a period page are tagged ✓ named in period print, later coinages ~ collectors’ name, and plain trade descriptions carry no tag.
Wherever one exists, the picture is a genuine period catalog cut, reproduced from the public-domain pages this site already sources — chiefly the 1927 Albany Hardware & Iron Remington section and the 1910 Hibbard–Spencer–Bartlett New York Knife pages — each credited beneath the image.ALB27HSB10 For the handful of frames no public-domain cut has surfaced for yet (they are marked), an original line drawing stands in, checked against period cuts and real examples. Prices quoted are the catalogs’ own, per dozen, wholesale.SMKK17SCH26
The jack family
All blades hinged at one end, one or two to a spring — the workingman’s knife, sold by the barrel. The catalogs mostly said just “pocket knife, two blades, 3½ inch, stag” and let a number carry the frame; the frame shapes below are what those numbers meant.
Remington R21 redwood work jack — Albany Hardware & Iron Co. catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
The plain straight frame that anchored every line. In the 1910 jobber pages a one-blade New York Knife work jack wholesaled at $2.00 a dozen — seventeen cents a knife.HSB10 Spear or clip master, pen behind it, and not an ounce of styling.
New York Knife Co. Nos. 1101N & 2101N iron-handled barlows — Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett catalog, 1910 [HSB10] · public domain
An 18th-century Sheffield pattern America made its own: one heavy bolster a third the length of the handle, bone scales, usually no shield — cheap to build, hard to break. Every maker in this guide kept one, from Cattaraugus’s 2159 to Ka-Bar’s “Big Daddy” to the New York Knife–made Barlows Diamond Edge jobbed; Camillus was still pricing a “Standard Barlow” grid decades on.BING50LEV
Remington R173 stag teardrop jack — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Narrow at the bolster, swelling to a teardrop at the butt so the hand has something to pull against. The everyday jack of the 1900s catalogs — Schatt & Morgan’s 1907 page is a row of them, $6.00 a dozen in jigged bone.SM
Remington R213 easy-opener jack — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
A crescent bitten out of one scale so a gloved or work-stiff thumb can start the blade without a nail nick. In the makers’ own print: Schatt & Morgan’s No. 1106 EO, New York Knife’s No. 266, and Schrade’s numbering key, which spells out its “Easy Opener Pattern” by name.SCH26SMHSB10
Remington R552 equal-end jack — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
The “cigar”: straight sides, both ends rounded alike, a cap bolster answering the front one. The dressed-up town cousin of the work jack — Remington’s black-handled R552 on the 1927 Albany page is the type.ALB27
Remington R1071 redwood serpentine jack — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
The frame takes a lazy S — dropping at the bolster, rising at the butt — so the handle meets the hand instead of fighting it. Learn this one: it is the chassis under half the named patterns that follow.LEV
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
Widest amidships, tapering to both bolsters — the “balloon.” Case’s big swell-center frames earned the collectors’ nickname “coke bottle”; grown to five inches it becomes the folding hunter at the end of this page.LEVCNUM
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
The back breaks at a hard little hump behind the bolster — the wrist of a rifle stock in miniature. A showpiece frame the gun-maker cutlers were fond of; collectors still speak of Winchester’s gunstock jacks.LEV
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
A serpentine jack shrunk to vest-pocket size — under three inches closed — with a full pair of blades. Small enough to forget, sharp enough to matter; the name is the collecting world’s affection.LEVCNUM
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
A serpentine jack whose front bolster drops deep and hooks under the joint, shielding the closed edge and the pocket lining. Collectors saw a pit viper’s blunt head and the name stuck.LEVCNUM
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
A rope-and-box knife built like a pocket axe: a slab frame near an inch and a half wide, a spear master broad as a razor. The trade said sunfish; the back forty said “elephant’s toenail.” A 1920 Case Tested green-bone 6250 is a documented showpiece, and Cattaraugus sold its 22929 as a “pocket axe.”LEVCNUM
The pen family
Two springs back to back, a blade at each end. Slimmer, rounder, dressier — pearl and polished bone, German-silver trim — the knives of the vest pocket and the writing desk, named for the quill pens they were first ground to trim.
Remington R6494 pearl senator pen — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
The standard gentleman’s pen knife: slim oval frame, spear master forward, pen aft. The premium end of every line — Keen Kutter’s 1917 pearl pens ran $33–38 a dozen against a dollar-a-dozen work jack.KK17
Remington R6534 pearl sleeveboard, three blades — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Wide at the master end, tapering like the little ironing board a tailor slides into a sleeve. Straight from the makers’ print: Schrade’s 1926 numbering key names its “Sleeveboard Pattern” outright.SCH26
New York Knife Co. No. 4415N four-blade — Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett catalog, 1910 [HSB10] · public domain
The bowed frame of the old South — back convex, front hollow, four blades riding the curve, sheepfoot in charge. In period print with the name attached: Shapleigh’s house paper priced a four-blade sterling Diamond Edge “Congress” at $50 a dozen in 1910, and Robeson, New York Knife, and Schatt & Morgan all built congresses.GIM10CNUM
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
Turn a little hull upside down: a deep rounded belly, ends rising like stem and stern. Every maker built this two-spring equal-end — Camillus and Union/Ka-Bar both carried it as a standard — but none thought to christen it; the boat is the collectors’ image.LEV
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
Long, slim, and square-ended: the flat butt crushed pills and tamped cotton, the long spear opened powders on rounds. A named trade class from the start — Case’s 1905 trademark filing covers blades for “physicians and surgeons knives.”CTM
Stock & farm knives
Three blades and two springs on a stout frame — the patterns that worked. A farm pocket knife castrated stock, mended harness, and still had to cut twine at noon; the blade set, not the handle, is the story here.
Remington R3203 three-blade — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
The original farm three-blade, on a stout equal-end frame: spear to work, spey to castrate, punch to mend harness. Schatt & Morgan sold “cattle knives” by that name through its 1900s catalogs, and Keen Kutter’s pearl ones ran to $37 a dozen.SMKK17
Remington R4223 three-blade serpentine stock knife — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Move the cattle knife onto a serpentine frame and you have the “stockman,” the best-selling multi-blade ever made: clip to point, sheepfoot to trim, spey to cut. Keen Kutter’s three-blade stag stock knife priced at $20 a dozen in 1917; Case gave the frame its pattern number 47.KK17CNUM
Remington R3505 Pyremite three-blade — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Defined by what you can’t see: the master rides both halves of a split back spring, the two small blades one half each — a heavy controlled cut forward, fine points aft. The premium three-blade of the trade: New York Knife’s pearl 3157N brought $20.30 a dozen in 1910.HSB10CNUM
Remington RS3333 “Official Boy Scout knife” — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Kitchen drawer on a bail: spear blade, can opener, cap-lifter screwdriver, punch. New York Knife Co. built the first official Boy Scouts of America knife in 1911 and was sole maker for a decade; every camp and every maker copied it.BSA
Sportsmen & the trades
And the shapes that answered one job. Skinning a trapline, boxing an orchard tree, stripping wire — each got a frame, and these are the patterns collectors chase hardest.
Remington R1123 “Hunter’s and trapper’s” knife — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Two working blades the same length on one slim frame — clip for the kill, broad spey for the pelt. Remington’s 1927 jobber page sells the R1123 as a “hunter’s and trapper’s” knife under a “Fisherman’s, Hunter’s, Trapper’s and Boy Scout’s” banner; Case’s pattern 54 made the frame famous.ALB27CNUM
Original line drawing for this guide (no public-domain catalog cut of this frame located yet)
Twin slender clip blades, one at each end: skin with the first until it dulls, turn the knife, keep skinning. A trapline economy the collecting world named for its favorite catch.LEV
Remington R1613 “Fisherman’s knife” — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
A long sliver of a knife, both ends drawn to a point, one slim clip blade. The catalogs sold it as the “fish knife” — Camillus’s factory pattern #5369 went out under four different sales numbers — and the South renamed it.LEV
Remington R1306 stag “Hunter’s knife” — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
The swell-center jack grown to holster size: 5¼ inches closed, a saber clip near four, sometimes a swing guard. Every maker kept a flagship here — Winchester’s #1920, Case’s coke-bottle 6265, Cattaraugus’s King of the Woods, Ka-Bar’s dog’s-head.CNUMLEV
Remington R708 “Pruning knife” — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
One hooked hawkbill blade that gathers the shoot and pulls the cut closed instead of pushing through it. Sold as the “pruning knife” in period print — Remington’s cocobolo R708 at $12 a dozen on the 1927 Albany page.ALB27
Remington R4548 “Electrician’s and radio knife” — Albany catalog, 1927 [ALB27] · public domain
Spear blade for stripping, locking screwdriver-scraper for the terminal screws. Speced for the Signal Corps about 1919 as the TL-29 and made by the million — Cattaraugus and Camillus were major makers, and Remington’s 1927 page prices an “Electrician’s and radio knife” at $24 a dozen.ALB27TL29
Sources
- primary · jobber catalog · public domain. Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. catalog (Chicago, 1910), New York Knife Co. pages 1631–1636 — one- and two-blade work jacks, whittlers, and pen knives, priced per dozen; page images reproduced on the New York Knife entry. Corroborated by the 1910 Biddle Hardware catalog (No. 200 “U.S.A. Office Knife”). ✓ HSB10
- primary · maker catalogs · public domain. Schatt & Morgan Cutlery Co. catalogs (Titusville, Pa., 1903–1908) — teardrop jacks incl. the No. 1106 EO easy-opener, punch-blade jacks, cattle knives, priced per dozen; page images on the Schatt & Morgan entry. ✓ SM
- primary · jobber catalog · public domain. E.C. Simmons Keen Kutter cutlery pages, 1917 catalog (pp. 2315–2319) — blade nomenclature in print (spear point, clip point, spey, sheep foot, pen, file), pearl whittlers and cattle knives, the three-blade stag stock knife; image-verified prices on the Keen Kutter entry. ✓ KK17
- primary · maker catalog. Schrade Cutlery Co. Catalog E (Walden, N.Y., 1926), p. 8, “Key to Numbering System” — the second and third figures of a model number “indicate the pattern or style of knife,” with the Easy Opener and Sleeveboard patterns named; page image on the Schrade entry. ✓ SCH26
- primary · jobber catalog · public domain. Albany Hardware & Iron Co. catalog (1927), “Remington Pocket Knives,” pp. 360–372 — the R708 “Pruning knife” (hawkbill) and R4548 “Electrician’s and radio knife” with “screw driver blade,” priced; page image on the Remington entry. ✓ ALB27
- primary · trade paper · public domain. The Gimlet (Shapleigh Hardware Co., St. Louis), Nov. 1910, p. 587 — No. 4S194½SS four-blade sterling Congress, $50.00/doz; the pattern name in period print. Read for the Diamond Edge entry. ✓ GIM10
- primary · U.S. trademark record. USPTO TSDR, “TESTED XX,” Reg. No. 64,130 (filed 1905) — goods include blades for “…HUNTING, FARRIER, PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS KNIVES…” — the doctor’s knife as a named trade class. Read directly for the Case entry. record → ✓ CTM
- primary · jobber catalog (post-war page). The W. Bingham Co. catalog (Cleveland, 1950), p. 897 — Camillus No. 10 “Standard Barlow” at $18.00/doz: the pattern name in a printed price grid. (The pattern itself is 18th-century Sheffield; this is the name’s printed receipt in this project’s files.) Read for the Camillus entry. ✓ BING50
- corroborated · marker & museum. Pomeroy Foundation historic marker, Walden, N.Y. (“FIRST BOY SCOUT OF AMERICA KNIFE”) with a surviving example at the Smithsonian NMAH — New York Knife Co.’s 1911 first official BSA knife, sole authorized maker until 1922–23. ~ BSA
- corroborated · military spec. The TL-29 electrician’s knife, U.S. Army Signal Corps designation speced c. May 1919 — documented across the Camillus, Cattaraugus, and Ka-Bar entries. ~ TL29
- corroborated · collector reference. Bernard Levine, Levine’s Guide to Knives and Their Values — the standard taxonomy of American frame patterns (jack vs. pen, the serpentine and equal-end families) and the source of record for collector-era names (copperhead, peanut, muskrat, canoe, trapper, Texas toothpick, gunstock) used where the period catalogs said only “jack” or “pen.” ~ LEV
- corroborated · collector consensus. The Case pattern-number system (worked examples on the Case entry): 05 Barlow, 54 Trapper, 47 Stockman, 6250 Sunfish, 6265 Folding Hunter, 6488 Congress, 6308 Whittler. A collector reconstruction — remember that no pattern number was stamped on a Case tang until 1949. ~ CNUM
See the patterns in the makers’ own catalog pages: Case · Remington · Winchester · New York Knife · Cattaraugus · Ka-Bar · Camillus · Schrade · Robeson · Keen Kutter · Diamond Edge · Queen · Schatt & Morgan