# Foster Brothers knife, help Identifying pattern and vintage



## ellensjoshua (Feb 24, 2016)

I just acquired this large Foster Brothers knife. looking for help identifying the original design/pattern as well as the stamp and establish a rough date on it. i have not found any similar pieces or any knives with identical stamps anywhere online. thanks for helping.


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## KitchenCommander (Mar 4, 2016)

That thing is pretty cool. Probably some sort of butchers knife I would guess. No clue on age, but it looks like a good knife. where did you get it?


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 4, 2016)

looks kind of like a sugar beet harvesting knife. I'm thinking some kind of harvesting knife anyway. Cabbage, rhubarb, sugar beets etc.


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## ellensjoshua (Mar 4, 2016)

Thanks for chiming in you guys! I got it off ebay for cheap, from a seller in Illinois. No info was listed. My thoughts are that it is some sort of butcher knife or slicer, but i don't know much about these so anyone's guess is as good as mine.

it is in pretty decent shape with a nice patina and minimal pitting. i'm going to do a light cleaning on it, and true up the edge and sharpen, but other than that leave it pretty much as is. I have some nice walnut burl i will be putting on it for scales. i'll post some photos after i'm done


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## sachem allison (Mar 5, 2016)

produce knife for cutting things like cabbage and vegetables


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## daveb (Mar 5, 2016)

You just got your answer. Son is our resident expert on knives such as this. Not a bad cook either...:cool2:


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## PolishAvenger (Mar 5, 2016)

I'm gonna respectfully disagree. I think the stock looks too thick for use in cultivation. I think it's a butcher's implement.
Here's a more modern Foster Bros. of this pattern with "Gloekler" on the handle. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ant...-Skinner-Splitter-Knife-Cleaver-/121911714956
Bernard Gloekler Co. was well known for selling butcher's equipment.
-Mark


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## brainsausage (Mar 6, 2016)

PolishAvenger said:


> I'm gonna respectfully disagree. I think the stock looks too thick for use in cultivation. I think it's a butcher's implement.
> Here's a more modern Foster Bros. of this pattern with "Gloekler" on the handle. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ant...-Skinner-Splitter-Knife-Cleaver-/121911714956
> Bernard Gloekler Co. was well known for selling butcher's equipment.
> -Mark



I dunno, the seller in that listing states in the description that they don't actually know what it's for...


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## PolishAvenger (Mar 6, 2016)

I have yet to see a Foster Bros. marked beet knife, cane knife, or any other harvesting blade.
This site was put together by a guy whose relatives worked for Foster Bros. http://www.sotherden.net/fosterbrothersindex.htm Not a mention of agricultural knives whatsoever. There are a few pics of the pattern in question, so I popped off an email to him to ask the pattern name or number....hopefully he's still alive and email works.
-Mark


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## sachem allison (Mar 7, 2016)

PolishAvenger said:


> I have yet to see a Foster Bros. marked beet knife, cane knife, or any other harvesting blade.
> This site was put together by a guy whose relatives worked for Foster Bros. http://www.sotherden.net/fosterbrothersindex.htm Not a mention of agricultural knives whatsoever. There are a few pics of the pattern in question, so I popped off an email to him to ask the pattern name or number....hopefully he's still alive and email works.
> -Mark


I have no problem s with that, I'm always up for learning new things. Many makers had the same pattern but, marketed them for different purposes. When I worked on the farm as kid, this pattern of knife we used for cabbages and beets and such and it was think and heavy. When I got older I worked in a grocery store in the produce Dept and we used the same patterned knife only made of thinner stock with a white handle . it may have been a Dexter. Any way it could very well be used for something else such as butchering but we used it in the field.


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 7, 2016)

I'm with sachem on that. Many years ago I lived in the Puyallup valley when it was still truck farms you could go into the local Ag supply store and see one box of knives marked "cabbage knives" and a box next to it of a knife that looked exactly the same marked "rhubarb knives." And I'm betting the cabbage farmers never bought rhubarb knives to harvest their crops.


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## PolishAvenger (Mar 7, 2016)

I dig that completely, guys, but because I've used my Spyderco to cut steak, that doesn't make it a steak knife. The OP says "looking for help identifying the original design/pattern", and while my 1924 Marshall Wells catalog has a similar pattern listed as a cheese knife, and Dexter still sells this pattern as a cheese knife, I'd like to be able to say precisely what use Foster Bros INTENDED this knife.
-Mark


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 7, 2016)

Maybe I'm wrong but your photos it looks like that knife has a very thick spine? Cheese knives tend to be fairly thin. I'm guessing what ever it was originally intended for it involved chopping on something.


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 7, 2016)

Maybe you have already found it but there is a collector website devoted to Foster Brothers that shows several knives of this style but it really doesn't give any information on them.


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## andrew44 (Mar 19, 2016)

Cheese knife size 10 & 12" blades options. I see them pictured in my 1905 hardware catalog. I assume they were sold to general stores to cut hunks off of cheese wheels


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