C Whitehouse 14inch drawknife

[littlebiglane]

I have just picked up a very good condition (needs some honing) C Whitehouse Drawknife. Its a forged beast with a cutting edge of 14 inches so probably designed for the big stuff. Does anyone know much about this make and if they are any good? Someone also mentioned something about it being a canadian drawknife but I have no idea what they were talking about. Google brings up very little except a name of a company that used to be based in Cannock....

10 pence for scale

 

[launditch1]

Nice drawknife!
Whitehouse are a very good make, a good old company i reckon.

Drawknives that size where used by Coopers(barrelmakers)amongst others..

It probably has a carbon steel edge fire welded on.Is there a faint line along the back side of it?
Never heard of a canadian pattern though

 

[launditch1]

Cornelius whithouse Cannock edgetool works had a trademark of a hedgehog.They dont get much better imo.

 

[littlebiglane]

No trademark, just a C Whitehouse stamped on the steel by the left handle. You can see in the piccie. So it might be an early pre logo/trademark version? I can't tell if the edge has a fire welded bit on it to be honest. It might as there is a faint line but it looks cosmetic rather than structural and might have been made by the wooden edge guard that came with it as the edge of this lines up with the 'line'. I wonder how old it is....

I must admit it was a bit of a spur of the moment purchase (paid £25). I thought I have previously seen slightly smaller C Whitehouse ones selling for £40/50-ish. I was looking for one drawknife but I might need a smaller one for finer work now!

 

[Rychard]

the name rings no bells with me but will ask my mom later as allway lived in cannock shes in to local history will pass on if i find anything out

 

[QDanT]

I know they made hammers
from http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42756
post #38

I've also a couple of their Geology hammers cheers Danny

 

[Taffy63]

I agree with Launditch, a very good drawknife from an excellent maker.

 

[HillBill]

I have an axe made by cornelius whitehouse. Very good tools dating back 200 years and more.

 

[Sean Hellman]

Lovely drawknife, I have a few Whitehouse axes and they are fantastic. £25 for that drawknife is very reasonable and it looks in very good condition. Does it need much work on the sharpening side? The main problem here is pitting on the back or flat side which must be honed out if it is anywhere near the cutting edge.

 

[Rychard]

spocken to my mom well it is mothers day she said the forge in brigetown cannock closed around 1957 ish after a fire allthow ? witehouse bro at the end it was 2 sisters that ran it and no one to pass it on to as on line left ps good looking knife

 

[littlebiglane]

spocken to my mom well it is mothers day she said the forge in brigetown cannock closed around 1957 ish after a fire allthow ? witehouse bro at the end it was 2 sisters that ran it and no one to pass it on to as on line left ps good looking knife

Cool. Thanks for the info guys

 

[bladerunner]

Cornelius Whitehouse use to work for Elwell till he split to manufacture his own tools, originally established in 1869, tools had the hedgehog, reportedly to remind the edge tool user (Slasher etc) of hidden beasts in the hedge.
A selection of the logos can be found here:

http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/tradelogos.htm
The tools are considered to be equal to Elwell etc. I use them all the time, they hold a great edge, not like the stuff you get today.
They were based in Cannock at Bridgetown. They made a whole range of tools from edge tools, slashers, sickles, hammers, Axes, Butchers tools, coopers etc, similar to what Elwell were producing, and shipped all over the world. A good few being shown here http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/my_collection.htm

As for your drawknife, it was common for them not to always have the hedgehog logo, but quite a few apear to have a double hedgehog logo. It was a good find, as you rightly point out normally fetch £40-50. Enjoy using it!

The catalogue is actually called "Hedgehog Tools"