Toggle sidebar

C Whitehouse 14inch drawknife

  • Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
littlebiglane

littlebiglane

Native
May 30, 2007
1,651
1
53
Nr Dartmoor, Devon
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 :eek: 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

drawknife.jpg
 
Last edited:
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:)
 
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!
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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
 
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"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Pattree
Mora Pro Chisel Knife (C) Review
Replies
5
Views
2K
Edged Tools
Pattree
Pattree
LukeR
My first knife
Replies
6
Views
2K
DIY and Traditional crafts
LukeR
LukeR
P
Not British made anymore!
Replies
87
Views
9K
Kit Chatter
moocher
M
Wayland
Photography in Sub Zero Conditions.
Replies
20
Views
4K
Sub Zero
Wayland
Wayland
A
Traditional building methods for garden shed/workshop
Replies
16
Views
3K
The Homestead
Tengu
Tengu

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE
Top Bottom