Recently found this in a book,
Blade's Guide to Knives and Their Values (2010):"
Colclesser Bros.In 1926, William Monypeny Newsom wrote at length
about bowie and hunting knives in his book, The Whitetail
Deer. Newsom lamented the closing of the butcher knife
manufacturer that had made his favorite outdoor knives,
Colclesser Bros. Cutlery Co. of Eldorado, Blair County,
Pennsylvania. Colclesser also had made small doublebitted
camp-axe heads designed by ?Nessmuk??a.k.a.
writer George Washington Sears. Nessmuk?s original axe
had been custom made to his design in the 1860s by a
surgical instrument maker named Bushnell in Rochester,
New York.
In the 1890s, another noted sporting writer, Horace
Kephart, sent a sketch (see accompanying line drawing,
courtesy Willis Hobart) of his 5-inch-bladed, dream hunting
knife to Colclesser Bros., and Colclesser obliged by
making up a prototype. Kephart?s sketch was reproduced
in Hunting & Fishing magazine, July 22, 1897. Colclesser
responded to the publicity with a campaign of small ads
in the magazine, such as the following:
HUNTER?S AXES. - ?Nessmuk? and others, weight 8 to 20
ozs.; the Kephart knife; knives made to order, hand made,
excellently tempered; belts, sheaths, etc., furnished.
To this day, we have never seen a Colclesser-marked
knife or axe."
