MINT! Parker "Fort McCoy" Stag Handle Jackknife, CASED, No Reserve

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

This is an original Parker "Fort McCoy" knife with a stag handle; it is a near-exact reproduction of a folding Bowie from the 1840's. The knife measures 6-1/8" closed, with a 4-7/8" master clip point blade that is deep-struck on the left tang with the Parker flying eagle trademark and: "Parker Cut. Co./ HAND MADE". The right side of the tang is marked: "Surgical Steel/ Made In Japan". As you know, Jim Parker went bankrupt in 1990, and this knife hasn't been made since. The master blade has a picture of Fort McCoy etched on the left side, together with the knife's engraved serial number (# 595). The pen blade measures 2-5/8" and has a flying eagle etched on the left hand side. The handle is genuine stag, with a beautiful color and grain; the left side has a large rectangular shield. The bolsters are nickel silver; the pommel bolsters each have a high relief figure of a pelican feeding two chicks in the nest. Seven stars float above the nest. The case is 6" x 12" x 1-1/4" thick, made of hardwood, and it has two loops on the back so that you can easily hang it on the wall. And the case has a magnet positioned behind the master blade, so it will hold the knife securely in its case when it's hanging vertically. The cover is Plexiglas, and it slides open. As you know, Fort McCoy is located in Central Florida, Northeast of Ocala, South of Gainesville. Here is Parker's description of the Fort McCoy Knife. This description is attached to the display case: Fort McCoy Knife War often serves up unanswered mysteries, and one mystery is represented by the Fort McCoy knife. The question is how a knife made in Sheffield, England for the Louisiana trade, found its way to a Florida skirmish of America's most tragic war. What we do know of the original knife leaves some clues to the story. The original folding bowie was manufactured by S.C. Wragg of Sheffield, England, in their famous Sheaf Island Works. Knives of the ante-bellum age often had special inscriptions or stampings that provoked regional interest. Our knife has the rare stamping of a bird feeding a nest of younger birds under seven stars. In Civil War Days, this meant Louisiana. The notorious Benjamin "Beast" Butler seized New Orleans early in 1862, but it is unlikely that a Yankee stationed in Florida should have been to New Orleans and wound up with a Louisiana knife in his pocket. There is a persistent local legend among Fort McCoy residents of two French Counts who first came to New Orleans and then later to Florida to aid the Confederates, and among their exploits aided in the escape of Lincoln's ex Vice-President through the forests there. [Ed Note: This is a confusing story, since the only Vice-President that Lincoln ever had was Andrew Johnson, who was in Washington and Confederate President Jefferson Davis' Vice-President was Alexander Stephens, who at the time, was at his home in Georgia, after meeting with Lincoln at Hampton Roads on February 3, 1865. (Stephens tried, unsuccessfully, to get Lincoln to agree to an armistice.) Perhaps the author of this story was confused and instead he meant Confederate Treasury Secretary Judah Benjamin, who did escape the Yankees through Florida. Benjamin sneaked out of Sarasota on a sailboat.] The Fort McCoy knife could have been lost in their flight, or even left behind in a scuffle with the pursuing Yankee soldiers. The knife may have been presented to one of the Counts in appreciation to their aid to the Southern cause by some Louisiana politician. Whether any or all of this is true is undocumented, as most oral legends seem to be. But somehow, the knife did find its way into a Fort McCoy soldier's battle kit, a kit that was to find much use as the Union army patrols from Fort McCoy, to tangle with the men of the 2nd Florida Cavalry, Fort McCoy having been an army fort since the Seminole wars. There were no pitched battles in the area, but the skirmishes between fleet cavalry units were just as deadly. The Yankee knife owner found out just how deadly in one close skirmish, where he found himself locked into a hand-to-hand str... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.