Unmarked J Russell ‘California Carver’ Copy 9″ Offset Carving Knife Carbon Steel Nickel Stag 1870s-1920

Made by the J Russell Green River Works company at their Turner’s Falls Massachusetts factory from the 1870’s to approximately 1920. Marks are lost but it had the diamond etched markings as can be seen on other California carver listed at teh same time as this one. 

Blade has been sharpened in a little, but has been re-ground along faces to thin and bring back to original thickness, stag handle is tight and secure but shows lightening from washings, nickel ferrule buttcap is nice and secure, comes with fresh edge. 

This knife is done in the style of San Francisco made knives from the 1860s to turn of the century which became popular after the transcontinental railroad connected San Francisco to the East Coast in the 1870s. Exports of San Francisco made knives to the East coast and Europe impressed with their unique design and high quality and manufacturers there were quick to copy the ‘California Carver’ style. 

Large scale East Coast manufacturers like J Russell saw the popularity of the original San Francisco made knives especially from Will & Finck and Michael Price and before long pumped out cheaper imitations like this one. Imitations of the iconic offset carving knife with a hump on the spine and carving fork and sharpening steels with antennae like guards cropped up from makers as far away as Sheffield and Germany in the later 19th century as the copiers were copied themselves. 

In a curious turn of events as the Transcontinental railroad opened up the West Coast to imports from the east by train (rather than by boat around South America) the demand for locally made products (including cutlery) softened and San Francisco makers even began retailing Eastern copies of the ‘California Carver’.