Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505150004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
``I know a good bit about knives,'' Edwards said, modestly.
He has knives dating to the early 1800s of all shapes, sizes and descriptions, from a tiny switchbladelike bleeder to bayonets.
Two cases of his knives numbering about 160 are on display in locked glass cases in the Pulaski Antique Center at 80 W. Main St. They are available for sale for from a little over a dollar to $500 for an 1820 sterling silver English quill knife used to sharpen the writing implements of its day.
He sells his knives and other collectibles - such as 1860s newspapers with articles and artwork from the Civil War, food bills for an army unit in that conflict,letters on slave auctions, the brass cylinder once used to hold messages or money concealed under clothing where it hang from a neck strap, and a photo of President Ulysses S. Grant - because he just likes to keep them a while and then let someone else enjoy them.
``Kind of the way I look at it,'' he said.
Edwards is familiar with all the brand names of the various knives, and which ones are the most collectible because of name, age and condition.
Some people collect numbered sets, he said. Others concentrate on commemorative knives issued in connection with some date or event, like the set he has from the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.
The bleeder is a Fleen, and dates to the 1860s when people still believed in opening a vein to bleed off illness. The tiny device still can be cocked so that the little blade that was held over the vein pops open at a touch. Edwards has its original case, but its condition is not quite as good as the bleeder itself.
Other brand names include Remington and Winchester, best known for making firearms.
Edwards can explain to a knife novice how lines in the bolster (the metal end of a pocket knife) can help pinpoint its age. The lines were later replaced by a ``C'' in a circle, the word ``Case'' with certain letters following it, or varying arrangements of dots, all of which represent a certain period of manufacturing.
The Barren Springs man said he has been interested in knives ``probably since I was 5 years old'' but only started collecting them seriously in recent years. ``I guess everybody I knew carried a pocketknife.''
Flint knives, he said, can get a purer edge even than steel. Although flint knives don't last as long because they are more brittle and break more easily, some surgeons prefer them to steel implements.
Edwards has knives with elaborate artwork on their blades, hunting knives, World War II bayonets, a ``melon tester,'' a Keen Cutter meat cleaver, a knife made of ivory, knives with paintings or photographs designed into their handles, a little silver pocketknife that may be an Aryan Youth knife from the Nazi era in Germany (``I haven't confirmed that''), a Jim Bridger Storyteller knife, a Sleeveboard Whittler, and one with what appears to be Arabic writing on the blade that even he can't identify.
One of the few he will not offer for sale came from Edwards & Son importers of London. ``Because my name's Edwards, I want to keep that one.''
by CNB