Jack Schmidling wrote:
"Peter W.. Rowe,"


Well, that's the 64 dollar question, Jack. The trouble is, so far as I

know, such a

marking has no standard meaning as part of a hallmark....


Ah... so. I googled for Rockford and found lots of stuff for sale and many
of them had this mark. It seemed reasonable to assume that it was a
standard and so I posed the question.


I'd suggest not spending more time on that mark, but rather spend it

trying to figure

out what you've actually got.....


I am pretty sure I know what I got as the magnet tells (enough) all. It was
the mark that I wanted to understand.

The strange answers I received are now explained by yours. Sometimes, "I
don't know" is a really useful answer, especially coming from an expert.

I am adding it to my project list to make new handles for them.

js


Jack, your last sentence, your going to make some new handles.
Thinking ahead, that will be the easy bit for you as I guess you might
be casting them out of silver. Very nice too.
.. However have you thought about the real problem? that is of joining
the handles to the blades?
You will need to be quite sure how the existing handles are affixed to
the blades.
This may be the traditional way of using a blade extension called a tang
that goes up inside a hollow in the handle and the gap between the two
is filled with some kind of setting substance.
Or there might not be a tang and the handle is silver soldered to the
blade via a butt joint.
now if it were me id try and get an xray image just to see whats
inside of the handle area so what ever you do is not destructive.
If you cant get an x ray, then this is where your jewellers saw will
come in.
Get some aluminium or lead soft sheet and make up some vice jaw
covers. Clamp your knife blade inbetween,
then using your jewellers saw cut though where the handle is joined to
the blade all around the knife no more than 1/16th in deep. this will
seperate the handle in such a way as to enable you to put it back if
theres no way you can fix your new handles..
Once you see how the handle is fixed to the blade youll be able to
invent a fixing method.
If youve a tang then youll need to drill the new handle to accomodate
this.
whenever blades are joined to handles in the cutlery trade where ther
blade is steel and the handle is a non ferrous metasl they arwe usually
brazed together if theres no tang. If the handle is say bone or some
other organic material then a tang is used either right through or
partly through.
If the handle is silver then they are usually made in 2 halfs being
stamped from sheet between dies then silver brazed together. then the
hollow handle is filled with a resinous pitch and the tang pushedinto
this. Once set it holds well. however as many people have found out
putting these handles into boiling water like in a dish washer the
handles come off!.
Ive had many to repair over the years.
If it were me and I wanted to know how they were made as well as by
whom, you say that the co could be just 30 miles away. how about calling
them to check? if they did make them they might just have the records
and tell you how the handles were put on as well as the info on the 12
DWTS..
I had to make some replica hub caps for a 1930 plymouth some years ago
the makers name was inside an original I had as the pattern. I looked
them up on the net and they were still in business! in your country.
they were a great help tho the original dies were scrapped some years ago.