knife with a story and a question

[tomh]

When I was a young boy growing up in NJ, one of my school friends dad was knife maker. The ones I remember were higher end folders with scrimshaw that he did. Lew Booth died years ago and I always remembered thinking it was cool that my friends dad made knives in the basement.

Fast forward 30 years to a gun show in North Idaho, I was walking around and happened to spot a little skinning knife and on it was stamped the name Lew Booth. I paid the man his asking price, and walked away happy that I found this little piece of history (to me).

Now for the question(s) for you knife makers. This knife has what I would describe as a severe hollow grind and a severe distal taper. Wondering how this will affect performance for its seemingly intended use of skinning. The belly seems good for it, but the knife is so thin due to the hollow grind, I think it might drag in meat. As in get sucked in.

 

 

I am very interested in they whys of knife design because I am learning to make knives, and this knife seems and excellent study in design, whether it is good or bad in design.

I think this knife is fairly old and maybe an early example of Lew Booth's work. I think it is a stainless steel, polished fairly highly, to where I can see the grain in the steel. It has a bakelite handle. One strange thing I can't figure out is at the end of the tang there is a 1/8" brass plug.

Any comments would be appreciated. I am planning on making a sheath for this little skinner and hunting with it this year.

[Lin Rhea]

I'm not a big fan of hollow ground blades. That being said, I can see why he did hollow grind it. The length X wide ratio would almost require it in order to reduce it from such a thick blade down to a cutting edge without having an overly steep angle.
   I dont think you will have any trouble skinning with this blade. Your strokes will be more of a slice instead of forcing the blade straight down.
  Do you have another picture of the back of the knife where the brass is?
                              Lin

[sticshooter]

Very nice. I like it.<><

[tippit]

I like both flat & hollow grind.  The hollow grind really takes a lot of metal away from the the blade, making it lighter and more flexible.  It may not be a strong as the flat grind but for skinning and especially processing meat they slice and fillet really well.  

I over hollow ground this blade just trying to see how thin I could get before quenching...too thin as I got a slight warp on quench.  I finished it just for kicks...but it out performs any of my knives for cutting up meat and filleting off the the tough sinew membrane around muscle.  The hollow grind tends to give nice slicing cuts.  As a matter of fact this is one of the knives the Head Guide of Solana Ranch wanted to trade for a stand with a Big Buck.  I'd better reproduce this one for next year    Doc

 

[tomh]

I will try to get a picture of the tang.

[tomh]

I apologize for the terrible picture Lin, but it is the best I could do with artificial light tonight.

 

Thanks for your comments and insights.

[Lin Rhea]

tomh,
      I cannot think of a reason for the brass on the butt of the knife, unless he was thinking his tang was a little too short to make the handle and soldered a piece of brass on to make up the difference.
   I'm sure it is not for balance, because the tang is already plenty heavy.
    Again, this should be a nice knife for skinning. I dont think you will experience drag while using, but would like to hear how it goes.
    The story behind the knife is what makes this one special. I'm glad you showed us.
                               Lin

[tomh]

Thanks for weighing in Lin. I think that maybe the brass is decorative or something like that.