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KNIFE WORLD * WHUT IZZIT NUMBER 433
JANUARY 2014
WHUT IZZIT
by Bernard Levine
www.knife-expert.com
I like pocketknives with coined metal handles. Not so much as knives, because as knives they
all pretty much look alike. Rather I like their handles, for their kinship with coins and medals,
and for the endless fascinating stories and history they reveal.
A sub-set of coined knives is plain metal knives with three-dimensional coined shields. My
“silly quest” for these knives recently turned up a pair of lodge knives, both sold by the same
distributor in Kanas City, Missouri. One is Masonic, with compass and square. The other is
Shriners (an appendant body to Freemasonry), with pharaoh and scimitar.
PICTURE _
The firm that imported and sold them was the Cutino Company on Wyandotte Street in K.C.
Goins’ Encyclopedia, page 73, offers a brief history of this firm. It began circa 1914 as Edmund
D. Cutino’s “Cutino Sundry Company.” At the beginning of 1922, Cutino bought out the stock
of the Papes-Thiebes Cutlery Co. of St. Louis, and wend full-bore into cutlery merchandising. He
changed the name of his own firm to The Cutino Company. It operated as such until 1935.
At first glance these knives seem like nothing special, but close inspection of the ends of the
handles reveals a curious feature I’d never observed before. The surface of the metal is all over
dimpled, as if it were hand hammered, and near each end are three rectangular punches. To the
naked eye these look like silver hallmarks. Under magnification they can be seen to be blank.
PICTURE_
That type of decoration rang a bell. It is one of the characteristic design features of the Arts and
Crafts movement -- which Wikipedia defines thus:
“Arts and Crafts was an international design movement that flourished between 1860 and
1910, especially in the second half of that period, continuing its influence until the 1930s. It was
led by the artist and writer William Morris (1834–1896) during the 1860s, and was inspired by
the writings of John Ruskin (1819–1900) and Augustus Pugin (1812–1852). It developed first
and most fully in the British Isles, but spread to the rest of Europe and North America. It was
largely a reaction against the impoverished state of the decorative arts at the time and the
conditions in which they were produced. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple
forms and often applied medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration... In the United States,
the terms American Craftsman or Craftsman style are often used to denote the style of
architecture, interior design, and decorative arts that prevailed between the dominant eras of Art
Nouveau and Art Deco, or approximately the period from 1910 to 1925.”
One of those “medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration” was hand-hammered
metalwork, both copper and silver. These two knives are decorated in that style. But they are not
really hand-hammered. They are machine-made, coined, to simulate that look. And they are not
solid silver, like authentic Craftsman jewelry, merely silverplate.
KNIFE WORLD * WHUT IZZIT NUMBER 433
JANUARY 2014
By themselves, these two lodge knives would not have held my interest long. But soon after
seeing them, I saw another knife with similar handle ends -- only this one has full coined designs
in the middle, that tell an interesting story out of Texas.
The latter knife is tang stamped W. H./ MORLEY/ & SONS/ GERMANY, on the obverse of
both blades, with a four-leaf clover logo on the reverse. Both Morley and Clover were
trademarks of Adolph Kastor and Brothers of New York City, one of the leading cutlery
merchants in the USA. It owned a factory in Solingen-Ohligs (Germania Cutlery Works) and
another in upstate New York (Camillus).
PICTURE _
But this particular knife was made to advertise a famous retail store in Dallas, Texas, the
seven-story Linz Brothers jewelry company. The back handle boldly spells out LINZ BROS./
JEWELERS/ ESTABLISHED 1877. The front hand shows in bold relief the LINZ BUILDING in
DALLAS.
PICTURE _
VERTICAL PLEASE
Online I found a brief history of this family-owned firm. “Linz Brothers, a jewelry firm, grew
from the efforts of five brothers. Joseph and Elias Linz of St. Louis opened the firm of Joseph
Linz and Brother in Denison, Texas, in October 1877. Joseph had followed the railroad to
Denison in the 1870s, when he worked as a watchmaker and repaired watches for the conductors
on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. Simon, the second oldest Linz brother, joined the
Denison store, and two years later they moved to Sherman, Texas. In 1882 Ben Linz joined the
firm.
“When Elias died in 1883, his interest in the partnership was taken by Simon. In 1884 Albert
Linz joined the firm and in 1890 became a partner. Ben became a partner in 1897.
“In 1891 the firm moved to Dallas, taking quarters in the old Thomas Building in the 1300
block of Main Street. Then in 1895 it moved to the Cockrell Building, and in 1899 to the
seven-story Linz Building.
“Joseph and Simon directed operations in the retail unit, Ben managed the wholesale
department, and Albert pioneered a traveling sales division that did quite well during the Great
Depression.
“Joseph Linz retired in 1907, and the firm's name was changed to Linz Brothers.”
The “Linz Building” of 1899 is shown on the knife. It was the first skyscraper built in Dallas
(skies were lower then), and its grand opening on October @@ was the occasion for a big
celebration.
PICTURE _
KIM: PLEASE RUN THIS PIC 1-1/2 OR 2 COL’S WIDE, WHEREVER IT LOOKS BEST
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KNIFE WORLD * WHUT IZZIT NUMBER 433
JANUARY 2014
As always I am happy to be corrected when I am wrong. Otherwise I would never learn
anything. If you catch me in an error, please do me the favor of letting me know. Just be sure of
your facts before you do.
Please send me an email to
[email protected]
or mail paper correspondence to Whut Izzit, c/o Knife World, Box 3395, Knoxville TN 37927.
Be sure to enclose either an email address, or a long self-addressed stamped envelope with your
letter, and also a flatbed scan, photocopy, or photograph (taken on plain LIGHT GRAY or
WHITE background please) of your knife. Do not write directly on the picture. Indicate the
knife’s handle material and its length (length CLOSED if it is a folder). Make enlarged images of
all markings and indicate where they appear. Because of the large backlog, it usually takes me at
least six months to answer a letter to the column.
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KIM: I CAN EMAIL YOU SOME PICTURES and TEXT IF YOU NEED TO FILL MORE
SPACE. LET ME KNOW HOW MUCH SPACE IS LEFT TO FILL.
LINZ DALLAS JEWELRY
‘GUARDIAN SERVICE’ DIMPLES > CATT GUARDIAN SERVICE BOX K SET
TEXAS LONGHORN KNIFE
OTHER DIMPLE KNIFE WITH PHONY HALLMARKS