Sword Blade dates? or Mysterious Gematria?

[kronckew]

i would caution against assigning any deep and hidden meaning just yet. remember occam's razor.

i am reminded of my barrel knife (posted in the eth. folding knives thread which has just been resurrected).

Originally Posted by kronckew

another ethnic folder i like is the barrel knife from sweden, they are each unique and the parts are not interchangeable.
this is sometimes referred to as an '1874' model as that was when it was 'patented' in the USA by a maker who had learned to make them in sweden, one of the swedish makers, john engstrum stamped his with the date he started making them, also 1874, this is NOT necessarily the mfg. date, he made them from 1874 thru 1918 and all were stamped 1874. they were made from 1864-1925 by the major mfg. mine is a p. holmberg, made between 1900-1920, 2.75 in. barrel.

the '1874' is thus a dubious 'patent' date in one case*, but a date the maker started making date in another, and a 'date' stamped onto many similar knives for almost 50 years.

sometimes numbers are just numbers. sometimes year markings have mundane explanations.

* - p.s. - i understand someone has recently 'patented' the wheel in australia as for some reason, no one had previously patented it there. all hail the inventor of the wheel, he's australian... but no relation to 1874.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by kronckew

i would caution against assigning any deep and hidden meaning just yet. remember occam's razor.

i am reminded of my barrel knife (posted in the eth. folding knives thread which has just been resurrected).



the '1874' is thus a dubious 'patent' date in one case*, but a date the maker started making date in another, and a 'date' stamped onto many similar knives for almost 50 years.

sometimes numbers are just numbers. sometimes year markings have mundane explanations.

* - p.s. - i understand someone has recently 'patented' the wheel in australia as for some reason, no one had previously patented it there. all hail the inventor of the wheel, he's australian... but no relation to 1874.

We crossed posts Kronckew, and that is a very well placed note on the use of year in the case of these patents and model year instances. Wouldn't it be interesting if these numbers were found on similar blades and were perhaps a pattern type? I do know that Solingen makers did appear to align certain inscriptions to the markets or clients receiving the blades in some apparant degree, suggesting type or patterning.
While this seems unlikely, it is certainly worthy of note. At this point, with the use of cabbalistic symbolism so firmly in place on blades in these times, as well as the concurrent use of gematria and ciphers, I am still drawn to the esoteric possibilities of these numbers.

All best regards,
Jim