Paid .50 for a wood handle putty knife, as I cleaned it, it seems to have what looks like a pewter inlay ? (I have been reading ScottGs' posts on the subject)
Blade is marked: BEAVER FALLS *JT.Co   and I am not that sure of the T. Tried several searchs for that name and could not come up with a manufacturer. Anybody know this company ?  Thanks

Throwing in a pic of a Cman =V= 1/4' drive set I picked up also.

Brian L.

Fancy because it is not a putty knife, it is a kitchen utensil.

Beavers Falls CUTlery company :)


(Probably german silver (white brass) rather than pewter, unless it is really soft)

I will seek reimbursement from the General Household funds as this does not fall under the Tool budget anymore...


Thanks Rusty !!


Brian L.

Square end putty knives are common - the inlay looks like the bolsters are attached to the blade, with the third rivet holding them in place.... Cheap chef's knives have the bolster planted on the blade, on expensive ones it is integral and made when the balde is being forged....

I've got another theory.  Look at the bolster -- it hasn't been really finished, as it is, in my experience, with old cutlery.  What it does look like is a technique for making knife handles illustrated in one of Hunt's Boy Scout project books -- same pattern as I recall, though I can't find my copy of the book just now.  The circular portion of the bolster is actually the third rivet holding the scales in place.  So I 'spect somebody made himself a fancy putty knife using Hunt's directions.

Adding a side shot of the bolster, as it is not even.

Interesting stuff !!  Thanks

Brian L.

This is absolutely cast pewter. Cast around the wood and the metal too.
Its a high class putty knife, I have a few of them similar.
 
Pewter is considerably stronger than lead. Its closer to soft aluminum in its consistency.

Pewter is pushing $16 a pound! And I need some badly.
There is a lot of aluminum cast to imitate pewter out there,  but there is also a lot of old pewter still around. Busted tea pots and dented sugar bowls, candlesticks cracked in the middle etc.
  If anyone has a stash please let me know?
yours Scott

 

The local charity store here usually has a boatload of it, it goes cheap because it turns dark and ugly after a while and no one wants it. (Somehow they seem to know which is the silver stuff and price it accordingly tho ;P)

>Pewter is pushing $16 a pound!
I think tin went up or something, perhaps I should go shopping again ;P

I was buying ugly imported brass 'art' for a while when I could buy it for half the scrap price, a short trip across town would double my money, I think they finally figured it out, because the price went up...

Quote from: rusty on May 29, 2012, 08:30:33 PM
, it goes cheap because it turns dark and ugly after a while and no one wants it.

     Man you got that right!
Every metal but gold and platinum turns dark. And even those fade with neglect.

Until, same as any metal, you finally break down and polish the stuff!

Quote from: rusty on May 29, 2012, 08:30:33 PM
(Somehow they seem to know which is the silver stuff and price it accordingly tho ;P)

Silver plate might be worth 77 cents a ton. But solid sterling?  I imagine almost anyone would keep track of the sterling.

Quote from: rusty on May 29, 2012, 08:30:33 PM
>Pewter is pushing $16 a pound!
was buying ugly imported brass 'art' for a while when I could buy it for half the scrap price, a short trip across town would double my money, I think they finally figured it out, because the price went up...

Oh just rub it in!!
I'd have been after it for this market cycle myself if I had any chance. Miles from nowhere, in the deep dark woods, is where I dwell.

  Spot pewter, scrap price, is in the neighborhood of 9 a pound I think.
  How would a guy look with a scale and a calculator in the Salvation Army?

  yours Scott

I saw where somebody was using old wheel weights for a substitute for pewter in applications like this.  He said it worked decently.  You might be more likely, in the deep dark woods, far from the maddening crowd, to find these than most of us.

Quote from: Branson on May 30, 2012, 07:52:01 AM
I saw where somebody was using old wheel weights for a substitute for pewter in applications like this.

No good.  But thanks for the thought.
I have plenty of lead. 50 pounds at least. (used for other jobs)
Have plenty of solder (50/50) even have babbit metal (only a little lead)
but the idea of pewter has always been pure tin, no lead at all.
   Lead will never take polish, is nasty to work and polish and it'll dull overnight even if you try.

  The blackened pewter you see in the swap meet was neglected for decades to get like that. All it takes is -slight care- to keep pewter soft and glowing.

  Lead free, or soft silver solder for plumbing, is actually pewter with a little flux in the middle. It seldom comes around as pound or better rolls though.
  yours Scott
   

I pulled this out of a drawer in our kitchen. My wife uses it all the time. Not the same pattern, but I'd have to go with kitchen tool.

Naaaa, not this time.

   Kitchen tools and flatware? YES, certainly!!   I have a number of forks and knives plus some professional butcher knives with pewter bolsters, and sometime end caps too.

  But also putty knives. I have a couple really old ones, and the standard Red Devil putty knives made for 50 or more years,  which always had pewter bolsters in the professional grade.
Red Devil was the last putty knife of quality made, and the last to use cast pewter bolsters.

In fact, in the end it became a guarded trade secret of theirs since everybody else forgot how to do it. But they were still doing it until the 1960's at least. I have bought these knives new off the hardware shelf. And if you ever paid the extra 4 bits for the better grade knife, you probably did too.


Here is a very old Ridgley with gutta percha handles and cast pewter. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-RIDGELY-WOOD-HANDLED-SCRAPER-or-PUTTY-KNIFE-nifty-/200768621408?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebebe0b60
   
Here are three old rosewood handled Red Devils with cast pewter.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Wood-Handle-Putty-Knives-/180894038502?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a1e1ff9e6

yours Scott

   

hmm, Just to throw something else in, if it was in fact made by the Beaver Falls Cutlery co, it predates 1886, when the company failed...

"Beaver Falls Cut. Co."  is a documented mark tho...

Quote from: scottg on May 29, 2012, 07:51:47 PM
Pewter is pushing $16 a pound! And I need some badly.

yours Scott

A bit more than 16, but available on line at:

http://www.rotometals.com/Pewter-Alloys-s/23.htm