All About Pocket Knives

How about a thread for all the Camillus knives that don't say Camillus on the tang. Most everybody knows that Camillus had other brands, most notably Camco, and that Camillus made knives for almost everyone under the sun, so let's take a look at them. I'll start off with the two "Syracuse" stamps, Federal Knife Company and Clover Brand. I conjecture that Camillus had a plant in Syracuse until the early 1920s and that these two brands were made there. I base this on advertising I have seen for Camillus from 1920 that lists the two locations. By 1922 the Syracuse location had been dropped from the advertising. Yes, I have seen the listings for Clover Brand as made in the 1940s, but the knives look older to me. So unless someone can suggest differently, I think Federal and Clover Brand were made in a plant in Syracuse until around 1921. Then the Syracuse plant was closed, and all manufacture was concentrated in Camillus. At that time, Camillus dropped the Federal and Clover Brand names. Now is the time for a real historian to step in and set me straight. In the meantime, here are photographs:

Here are the Kastor brands:
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/knifewor ... orlist.pdf

That ought to keep us busy for a while, T.J. Then there are all the contract knives made for Case, Kabar, Sears, etc. The listings for Clover Brand and Federal kind of blow my theory away, but I'd still like to know just what kind of facility they had in Syracuse back in the early 1920s. Maybe someone will know.

I just put that up as a reference in case you come up with a stamp and are not sure if it is Camillus family or not. The link may be a little misleading/confusing since it concerns all the Kastor brands including Camillus.

High Carbon Steel was a Camillus brand for sale through the big department stores, Sears and Montgomery & Ward - of the day - 1928 through 1940.

Nice ones Trail.
Heres another High Carbon.
Mark

Your High Carbon Steel shows the quality that Camillus put into some of their subsidiary brands, Mark. Kind of an unusual pattern, too - I'm guessing it is a four bladed senator, from my reading of Levine.

Here is another Camillus brand, Camp Buddy. Mine looks like it got run over by a heavy tracked vehicle, but I seem to remember Dale stating that every one he had ever seen was a rust bucket. Mine does have a readable shield and stamp, even though it is missing a bail and a blade.

Found this yesterday.

Here's a Syracuse Knife Company I'll get a couple more pic's of tang stamps when my battery charges also have one with a spear blade and bottle opener-I had know idea they were that old the link Dale posted says they'd be pre WWII

A couple more pic's the tang stamp on the one with the cap opener has alight stamp the one with clip and pen blades has a stamp on each blade both are nice old knives though with half stops-the one with clip blade has some good hard snapping springs on it

Here is one of Kastor's German made knives.
I like the bone on it, the fact it is an easy opener & the blade etch.
It all works for me.

I've wanted a Kent for a long time (Camillus made house brand for F.W. Woolworth), but a number of factors kept me from buying one. First, I'm cheap, and decent Kents are starting to go up in price. Second, many Kents are cell handled and already showing some signs of outgassing. So I kept my eye open and finally turned up a synthetic handled one with a fair amount of black rust but not so much I didn't think it would clean up nicely. Evidently nobody else wanted to take on the cleanup so I got it cheap. It needs some more work but looks promising.

That is a nice one.
It seems the Kent knives are usually worn out when I find them.
I think they were inexpensive and the people who bought them used and abused them.

Dale - Do you think the secondary blade on your A.W.W. was originally a coping blade or is that a pen blade with a broken tip that's been re-profiled? Just from the picture, it looks like the latter to me.

As far as other brands this Buck IS a Camillus made in 1974 ::nod::303Cadet

jerryd6818 wrote:Dale - Do you think the secondary blade on your A.W.W. was originally a coping blade or is that a pen blade with a broken tip that's been re-profiled? Just from the picture, it looks like the latter to me.

If it was a pen blade the tip would have been in the way of opening the main blade using the easy open notch. I suspect it was made as a coping blade.

Hey Dale, I can see why you like that little Wadsworth EO. Beautiful handles indeed!

Hi everyone
I'm very glad to see the Kastor list from Knife World being used, as there was a ton of work put into that compilation. A lot of long nights, but a lot of fun too. Its amazing to see how many brands and patterns were manufactured by one company, and how many are still out there. Looks like I'll need to start posting a bit more often, especially if I can offer some help or information!

bwknife

bwknife, you made that list? That's a fine work of scholarship that is going a long way to preserve our knife history and heritage. Welcome to AAPK, I hope you will post here frequently. As you can see, we have a lot of enthusiastic Camillus fans here with some beautiful knives.

bwknife, Welcome to AAPK!
I did the Schrade Research listed here on AAPK.
I do have an idea of how much work you put in on that list you did, it is impressive!

Welcome aboard!

Dale

bwknife - Welcome aboard and thank you very much for that list and all the hard work you did in putting it together. You have no idea how many brain cells it's saved (not that there were all that many to start with).

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words. I do need to do a small update to that list soon, as well as revise a couple of dates. It has been very cool however to see some of my educated guesses prove true in a few instances. Let me tell you, its hard to keep all of that info in my brain, so that list goes with me to every knife show now. I'm glad y'all have been able to use it. If you happen to see something off or questionable, just let me know. Even more reason to do get that update done!

LIPIC U.S.A. Tom Williams say: "We manufactured knives for the LIPIC Pen Co. If my memory is correct they were a Camillus customer in the 1950's and 1960's."

I've shown this before in other threads. It is not nearly as pretty as the bone on Dale's but I kinda like the french ivory of this A.W. Wadsworth & Son sleeveboard pen knife, and its slim profile enables it to ride in the pocket so nicely!

Ok,hear is 1 that was made by Camillus for Sears Roebuck & Co 1938 to 1942.Just a sweet little knife.
Got the rough black handles and 3 blades.Easy open cigar shape and works perfect.
This knife is up for trade.