Camping and Woodcraft, by Horace Kephart 1906 1st edition. PDF photo scan

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Camping and Woodcraft (to the PDF) is very interesting book. The Internet Archives has scanned editions (to the master page) published into the late 1930's. This one is the 1st edition, and is downloadable as a PDF or several other file systems such a EPub, which among others can be loaded into Apple Books. This book has the original description of the Kephart sheath knife on page 28. In later editions of the this book, starting in 1916 there was the illustration of a knife that bares no relationship to the description penned by Kephart in the 1906 edition, nor in the 1916 text. It apparently is the Marble Woodcraft.There is a controversy about this illustration, but only if you have not read the earlier editions. You can check this out yourself looking at the archived editions of the book. This scan is a very good one.

The Marble Woodcraft Stag is still in production from Argentina.

 

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Colclesser Brothers was founded in 1834 by Daniel Colclesser in Eldorado, Pennsylvania. His sons, Samuel and Adie Colclesser, took over the firm in 1878. Its industry was axes and edge tools and its headquarters remained in Eldorado, Pennsylvania. The factory closed in 1915.

I wonder if what we call in the archive business, 'the manuscript' of the Colclesser Brothers exists. If it is still around, chances are not good, than the number of Kephart sheath Knives made could be known.

 

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Finally in Camping and Woodcraft Horace mentions a special axe. Here it is from
Wolf Valley Forge

 

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Colclesser Brothers was founded in 1834 by Daniel Colclesser in Eldorado, Pennsylvania. His sons, Samuel and Adie Colclesser, took over the firm in 1878. Its industry was axes and edge tools and its headquarters remained in Eldorado, Pennsylvania. The factory closed in 1915.

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I wonder if what we call in the archive business, 'the manuscript' of the Colclesser Brothers exists. If it is still around, chances are not good, than the number of Kephart sheath Knives made could be known.

Over dinner last weekend, I asked Mark Zalesky and Ethan Becker both how many knives they thought were made? Neither really had an answer but currently only 3 are known to still exist. Given the company ran magazine ads for the knife I'm assuming there were some number sold but my view is it was still a fairly small run in the cutlery business.

 

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In my reading it sounds like the design was well know and any blacksmith shop that made knives could make you one. Even Horace said in Camping and Woodcraft that a local blacksmith made his. In reading around the area the Colclesser Brothers were more known for their axes, and pickaxes than knives. A practice at the time was to purchase worn out butcher knives and grind them into knives for hunters and outdoorsmen. Ontario Knife Company noticed their used butcher knives were being reground into the Kephart, or the John Plute's Alaskan knife. So OKC came out with their version of the their Kephart knife, which they make to this day. The study continues.

 

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Reading the Forest and Stream weekly magazine in which Nessmuk (George W. Sears December 2, 1821 – May 1, 1890) was a correspondent. This is what I love about research like this how it branches out. I can see why Horace Kephart was such a fan of Nessmuk, the father of light weight camping. I can see Horace's inspiration for camp tools. For Nessmuk it was a folding Moose knife, 18oz "double barrel" Cruising axe, and a general purpose sheath knife which was also offered by The Colclessor Brothers as the " Colclessor all around Sheath Knife" This knife design was emulated by Marble (the Woodcraft), among others and became the official sheath knife of the Boy Scouts of America.

Have added George W. Sears "Woodcraft and Camping"(1884) to my Kindle library.