Information Sought on R. C. KRUSCHKE
I bought this folding hunter at the OKCA December 2002 show.
The length closed is 4-7/8 inches.
The handles seem to be "buffalo horn" celluloid.
Steel bolsters, liners, and pins.
Brass lock lever and head-end spacer.
Nickel silver buffalo with a hole in his forehead.
Similar to the two-blade Nessmuk trappers made by Utica for HS&B, and to the four-blade Kit Carson scout knives they made for Western States.
R. C. KRUSCHKE is on the front tang.
DULUTH, MINN. U.S.A. is on the reverse tang.
I would like to find out any information about Kruschke.
Also, if anyone has or has seen other examples of this one-blade lockback? If so what brand or brands, and what handle materials?
Ad courtesy Guy Manwaring (dated 1914).
"THE NORTH WESTERN"
R.C. KRUSCHKE/ PATENT/ DULUTH, MINN./ MADE IN GERMANY
Knife courtesy Northwest Knives.
Rudolph C. Kruschke, Duluth, Minn. - U.S. Patent 462,141 - October 27, 1891
Ad courtesy Guy Manwaring (not dated).
Fred Cox found Rudolph C. Kruschke's 1902 "Brilliant Search Light" patent.
He also found that Rudolph C. Kruschke died May 11, 1918. Did his business outlive him? I do not know, but probably not. The man put in charge of making Remington pocketknives in 1919, Carl Tillmans, was working at Utica Cutlery Co. circa 1915-1917 -- evidently the time period when this Kruschke knife was made there. So it seems that Utica was making large Buffalo trappers, lockbacks, and scout patterns 5 to 7 years before Remington did, and Tillmans was behind these knives at both factories.
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