As part of my interest in 1750's through 1780's material history and living history, I've gone through different iterations of the "rifleman's knife"/"scalping knife" and come to the conclusion that in my place of interest, the common Sheffield-made butcher knife was by far the most common knife on the frontier. imported by the thousands from England (the French had their own versions which is a separate discussion), they were traded to Indians and sold in stores and trading posts all over the colonies. These are the knives that Indians, market hunters, militia, and riflemen carried. You can see the same blade profile in mid-18th century paintings and marketed as "fish knives." They were traded in North American as "butchers" and eventually marketed to Indians as "Scalping knives." HA!

Below are two repros by Ken Hamilton, who specializes in 18th century French stuff but makes the best English scalpers anywhere. No two are alike just as they were in the 18th century. The touch marks are original, which were likely Sheffield-made knock-offs of London commercial makers (based on the fact that London cutlers mainly dealt in small production fine cutlery rather than mass-produced, cheaper stuff for the trade). The stone-ground finish is correct for the period, the exotic wood for the handles (woods imported from Africa and other places) in this case is rose wood and cocobolo on the other. The gap created by the thin tang is filled with "cutler's cement" which is pitch mixed with brick dust as it was in the period. This also creates supports the pins in holding everything together.

The hatchet in the picture is made by Kyle Willyard of Old Dominion forge and is based on one found in George Neumann's "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution."



Original which still has the diamond-shaped handle:

Another dug original blade, one of the myriad of these dug up all over 18th century Indian and military sites:

One more, for good measure:

Although scalping in name only, the knives were not really used in scalping, instead they were used to skin animals. It was not the English settlers´ custom of scalping their enemies´ heads when they first arrived on North American shores.

Nice.

Yeah, sorry to say but one can attend many re-enachtments and the standard is a blade with deer antler. A lot vendors and blogs present them. Sure they existed, but...the vast majority of blades were as you say mass produced. Then at the other end were the specially mounted and crafted top end items.

Thank you for the post.

Lovely stuff! I'm a big fan of early American knives--this period and up through the early butcher/Bowies. The simpler the better!

These are nice and pretty interesting. Here in WY one of the large re-enactor eras is Mountain Men, and the Green River style trapping knife seems to be a popular one among re-enactors although the Russell company may not have sent them out here so early. http://www.mman.us/mythgreenriver.htm

I have used a modern production knife with the deep belly for skinning elk and it works very well. http://www.crazycrow.com/green-river-knives

All of the fur trade in WY is a good 50 to 75 years later than when these knives were used, but the look of some of them is similar, and I think the Russell company and certain others would have been very influenced by these earlier "scalping" knives.

I don't do any re-enactment myself, but one of these days I would like to see the Green River Rendezvous which is a pretty big gathering. http://www.meetmeonthegreen.com/ The local blackpowder group is often in period dress. I don't know what they carry for knives.

Those look wonderful, and I'd love to buy one… but I can't seem to find his website googling.

Any help?

Cheers,
Hadrian

Mr. Williams, I wanted to thank you, but also ask if you could possibly re-send it. It doesn't appear to be in my inbox, unfortunately.

Best,
Hadrian

Wow, Jim, those are great! Thanks for sharing those.
I'll echo the others, I too love these early American knives. My family has become obsessed with the exploration and "taming" of the American West recently (spent a week at various Lewis and Clark sites here in the Pacific NW) and these are right up our alley. The finish on the blades and the geometry of the handles are lovely!
You mentioned in your opening post that the "touch marks are original" - meaning that Mr. Hamilton has replicated 18th C. marks, or that they are his own marks? Just curious.

Cheers,
Eric

Good stuff, Perry! You have the Flayderman book? Oy, what a feast!