Home >> Collecting >> Other Collecting

Barlow Colonial Knife History

Although it was probably originally created in England, the Barlow knife has a reputation for being as American as apple pie. Both Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln made mention of the Barlow knife, and George Washington was known to have carried one. As famous as the Barlow knife is, its history is lost in speculation, and a large number of stories exist to explain the origins of the famous knife, four of which involve people with the surname Barlow.

John Barlow
- John Barlow of Ridgefield, Connecticut, is one of the possible inventors of the Barlow knife. Barlow was the owner of a blacksmith shop located on Barlow Mountain in Connecticut and made a living shoeing horses and making wrought iron appliances, farm implements and cutlery. Hand-wrought andirons made by Barlow are famous in Ridgefield, and locals claim that John Barlow was a gunsmith during the Revolutionary War, although no weapons with his name on them have ever been found. According to local tradition, Barlow knives were invented by John Barlow, but there is little proof to that effect.
William Barlow
- The second contender for the title of "inventor of the Barlow knife" is William Barlow of Sheffield, England. His son, William Howard Barlow, was expected to take over the family business but ran away from home at the age of 14 instead. William Howard Barlow signed on with a merchant ship and headed off to the West Indies. Later, he traveled to New Orleans as part of the British Navy. After returning to England he was involved in the battle of Waterloo. Following Waterloo, he returned home with a changed mind and learned the trade of pocketknife making and took over the family business. In 1850, he moved to Naugatuck, Connecticut, bringing the family business with him.
Thomas Barlow
- The most mysterious of the possible inventors of the Barlow knife, Thomas Barlow was born in England in 1813 and moved to America fourteen years later. He originally lived in Philadelphia; it is unknown when he supposedly started the business of making Barlow knives. In 1854 he moved to Tama County, Iowa, to start a farm, and before he left he sold his knife manufacturing business to a saw manufacturing company named Disston.
Obadiah Barlow
- The most probable inventor of the Barlow knife was an Englishman named Obadiah Barlow. Barlow lived in Sheffield, England, a place that at the time was known for its high-quality cutlery. It is thought that he first began manufacturing the knife around 1670. Obadiah's grandson, John Barlow, learned the family business in 1745 and began exporting the famous knives to the United States at a low cost.
Popular Culture
- During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Barlow knife was the standard pocketknife in most of the United States. It was so widely known that for most the word Barlow was synonymous with pocketknife. Mark Twain referenced Barlow knives in both "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Henry Llewellyn Williams, in "The Lincoln Story Book," passed on a story by Abraham Lincoln in which the former president was given a Barlow by stranger because of the president's homeliness.

Other Collecting