New Member Cheshire - date of a William Rogers knife?

[rogsknife]

Hi All, I've been an outdoor person since my boy scout days and now at the other end of my life I still enjoy the wild countryside.

I've joined Bushcraft mainly to see if anyone can help me date an old knife which has been in the family many years. Doing family research I discovered shepherds in the family tree in the 1800s and wondered if it dated back that far.

I cannot find a facility to attach pics but it's a William Rodgers knife inscribed "I CUT MY WAY" with some sort of shape, perhaps an inverted cup, in between cut and my. Then "SHEFFIELD ENGLAND ". It's rusty with a bone handle which is not well secured using 'rivet' type pins and I have a scabbard type sheath for it which seems to be thick skin/dull leather.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Roger.

PS Thank you for your message Chris. I have now pasted a photo:

https://ibb.co/Q3LfmJMT

 

[C_Claycomb]

Hello and welcome,

I moved your post to the Edged tools area since you are more likely to get responses here than in the Intro area.

Not a lot to go on without a picture.

William Rodgers ('I Cut My Way')

<p>See <a href=

www.hawleysheffieldknives.com

The symbol looks like an ulu knife or a leather workers head knife.

If you have a smart phone or digital camera you can use https://imgbb.com/ to post an image to the forum using the BBCode link. No account needed, just go to the Start Uploading button top centre of their page, pick the image, then when it shows your image, go to bottom left and Copy the BBCode link for Full Image, then paste it to your post here.

Without photos its a tall order to get any info.

All the best

Chris

 

[Pattree]

This was the knife carried by a lot of scouts in the late fifties. My brother had one exactly like it.
They were also available with leather ring handles.
They came in at least three sizes. Yours looks to be the largest. I’m imagining a blade length of some 150mm.

Dunno about cheap - around £1/15 shillings as I remember.

Very useful knife from the days when no one worried about collectibility or steel types.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Hi @Pattree
My bad. Sorry. I posted a link to another forum thread with a William Rogers knife. It showed a picture. Roger hasn't shown a photo for us to say it looks like anything yet. I have removed the link I posted to avoid confusion.

 

[rogsknife]

Hi Pattree and thanks for your help Chris.

I attach photos of my knife below:

20260408 175544 hosted at ImgBB

Image 20260408 175544 hosted on ImgBB

ibb.co

20260408 175600 hosted at ImgBB

Image 20260408 175600 hosted on ImgBB

ibb.co

Regards,

Roger

 

[Longstrider]

Other than obviously being in desperate need of a good clean-up I'd say that you've got yourself a treasure there
William Rogers knives were everywhere in the 50's, 60's and early 70's
Nearly 50 years ago when I was a Scout we all had a William Rogers 'sheath knife' *
Depending on how rich you were it would either have a stacked leather handle and brass guard, or a 'stag' handle and brass guard. I think the 'stag' was actually jigged bone but we didn't know what at the time )

Yours is not of same ilk. It looks more like a version of a Trade Knife. I've dealt with a lot of knives over the years and have only seen one other Rogers like yours. The steel in them is nothing like the blades we can find for ourselves these days, but it's good honest carbon steel with a sensible heat treat. Your blade would take a good edge and perform well.

*Except one (There's always one ) who's father was not only rich but indulgent too. He had a Puma Bowie and we all envied him terribly. Mind you, he knew ******-all about sharpening the thing so most of us out-cut him at camp

 

[rogsknife]

Thanks for your reply and interesting comments about the knife Longstrider

Ha, yes, I had a Wlliam Rogers sheath knife as a boy scout in the 1960s and I still have it. It had a stag handle but only a 3 inch blade as my parents didn't like me carrying a knife

 

[matarius777]

Other than obviously being in desperate need of a good clean-up I'd say that you've got yourself a treasure there
William Rogers knives were everywhere in the 50's, 60's and early 70's
Nearly 50 years ago when I was a Scout we all had a William Rogers 'sheath knife' *
Depending on how rich you were it would either have a stacked leather handle and brass guard, or a 'stag' handle and brass guard. I think the 'stag' was actually jigged bone but we didn't know what at the time )

Yours is not of same ilk. It looks more like a version of a Trade Knife. I've dealt with a lot of knives over the years and have only seen one other Rogers like yours. The steel in them is nothing like the blades we can find for ourselves these days, but it's good honest carbon steel with a sensible heat treat. Your blade would take a good edge and perform well.

*Except one (There's always one ) who's father was not only rich but indulgent too. He had a Puma Bowie and we all envied him terribly. Mind you, he knew ******-all about sharpening the thing so most of us out-cut him at camp

All the gear, no idea!

 

[John Fenna]

It looks like a Royal Navy Officer Cadet knife to me - I had one (off a sailor) ages ago ... but that had a Rosewood handle, although the blade and sheath are identical...
As to date ... mine was 80's ...