Knives with Marline Spike.
Year: 1885

page_text: Knives with Marline Spike.
I, REUBEN CLARKE, of Boston Works, Eyre Lane & Howard Street Sheffield
in the County of York Cutlery Manufacturer and Merchant do hereby declare
the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND CON-
STRUCTION OF CLASP KNIVES WITH MARLINE SPIKE to be as follows. :—
By my invention the head of the knife is very much strengthened. The Form
of my invention is the placing of a stud or standard of brass or other metal
between the inside of the scales of the knife with the pin which supports the
shackle passing completely through the shackle, bolsters and stud, thereby
materially supporting and strengthening the knife, the stud preventing the
contraction of the scales of the knife.

page_text: Improvements in the Manufacture and Construction of Clasp
Knives with Marline Spike.
I, REUBEN CLARKE, of Sheffield in the County of York, Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (and accompanying drawing, (that is to say):―
My invention relates to clasp knives commonly used by sailors and others in
which a knife blade is used upon one side of the handle upon which it is pivotted
and opens and shuts by a spring in the usual way; whilst upon the other side of
the handle a marline spike is arranged turning upon a pivot upon the opposite end
of the handle and held in an open or closed position by the same spring which
operates upon the blade, a wire shackle being pivotted across the end of the handle
to receive a lanyard or line by which the instrument can be suspended.
In such instruments as ordinarily made composed of a knife blade and a marline
spike carried in the same handle a certain weakness has existed from the fact that
the end of the handle which receives the point of the blade upon one side receives
also the shank or heel of the marline spike upon the opposite side, and the parts or
scales of the handle upon each side of the point of the knife are liable to collapse
or close together, as they are not held firmly and strongly together as at the other
end where the heel of the blade is fitted and occupies the whole space between
them, as the point of the marline spike is only required to close against the back of
the knife, and not between the sides or scales.
By my present invention the head of the knife, or the part where the point of
the knife blade lies, is very much strengthened.
I
I take a sufficiently strong stud or standard of brass or other suitable metal and
arrange it so as to form a strengthening distance piece between the inner sides
of the scales at the end of the handle just outside and below the point of the
knife blade when the latter is closed. A transverse hole is made through the stud
and through the sides or scales of the handle, through which a wire rivet is passed
and its ends closed up so as to hold the whole firmly together, and this rivet may
also preferably form the centre upon which the ends or bolsters of the shackle may
be pivotted upon an entirely separate pin passing through the sides, and quite
independent of the distance stud and its rivet.
The accompanying drawing is in illustration of my invention. Figure 1 shewing
the clasp knife with the blade closed and the marline-spike open, and figure 2
shewing the blade partly open and the marline spike closed.
a is the
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in both figures.
knife blade, and 6 the marline spike, c being the back spring by which both are
beld. The marline spike 6 turns upon a pivot d, which not being central leaves the
sides of the handle liable to collapse or come together at e.

page_text: The shackle turns upon a pivot g passing through the ends of the handle, and
through a central stud or standard h serving as a distance-piece by which
the unsupported parts of the handle are firmly and securely held together, as
described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
In a clasp knife with marline spike, the distance piece / held between the
unsupported parts of the sides or scales, of the handle near the point of the knife
blade by a transverse rivet which may also serve as a pivot for the shackle f
substantially as and for the purpose described and shewn.