WB/M STAINLESS knife blade

[DianaGaleM]

I have a knife with a mark on the blade I don't recognize:



The handle is silver, I presume silver plate, and has no stamps.

[silverly]

You trademark was registered in 1895 by R Wallace & Sons for utensils made of steel and tinned. It seems fair to expect that the mark extended to stainless goods also.

[DianaGaleM]

Thank you so much! I hadn't a clue.

[silverly]

You're welcome. By the way, it is a "W" on the bottom.

[DianaGaleM]

Ah, thank you. I didn't catch that. The reason the color looks kinda funny is that I had to rub pencil lead into the depressions to make the mark stand out enough to photograph.

[dognose]

A paragraph from a larger article that explains the 'WB' marking on the item:

Having foresight commensurate with his ambition, Robert Wallace, with his sons, Robert B. and William J., reserved the right to make, on their own account, forks, spoons and other flatware of any other metals than nickel silver. Mr. Wallace then began to make sterling table silver in addition to the nickel silver (which by the way he was now equipped to electroplate), and three or four years later he went to the other extreme and brought out a line of steel spoons and forks, commonly spoken of in the trade as “tin,” because they are plated with this material. This latter line was brought out by a separate company known as Wallace Brothers, and composed of his sons, Robert B., William J., Henry L., George M., and Frank A., and two sons-in-law, W. J. Leavenworth and D. E. Morris. (This company was later merged into R. Wallace & Sons Mfg. Co.) The bringing out of these two new lines illustrates well the ambition, the practicality, and the mechanical genius of the man. He wanted lines to sell to all classes of people; sterling to the wealthy, plate to the multitude, and “tin” for cheaper trade; and he was mechanically versatile enough to produce good products in all three of these classes of material.

Source: Printers' Ink Monthly - September 1920

The timeline of the above snippet is c.1875. I would assume that the term 'Stainless' referred to the tinning of the steel, rather than that of 'Stainless Steel', a later development. Perhaps the trade mark was in use years before it was officially registered.

Trev.

[silverly]

The timeline of the above snippet is c.1875. I would assume that the term 'Stainless' referred to the tinning of the steel, rather than that of 'Stainless Steel', a later development. Perhaps the trade mark was in use years before it was officially registered.

Wallace & Sons Company Corporation claimed the first use in commerce was 1895 for the WB/W mark when the it was registered in 1895. I see no reason to suspect that they would have chosen a later year than was correct.

However, rightly or not, I'm often leary of the dates manufacturer's use on their registrations. It could mean that it was at least by 1895?

[DianaGaleM]

I'm wishing I had taken an image of the whole knife, in case the handle could tell us something. Unfortunately, all my flatware (and a good deal more) is in storage while undergoing a major remodeling on my home. When everything is back to normal I'll get it out and photo the handle.

Thank you for how much you've done with just the mark.

[dognose]

Wallace Bros. - Wallingford, Conn. - 1898


Wallace Bros. - Wallingford, Conn. - 1898

Trev.