Camillus Page

The Camillus Cutlery Company was one of the oldest knife manufacturers in the United States with roots dating back to 1876. The company manufactured Camillus branded knives and was a prolific contractor for other knife brands up until its last days in 2007 when the company filed for bankruptcy.
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smokepole
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Camillus Page

Post by smokepole »

I have been reading up quite a bit on the Camillus knives and it is a HUGE topic, but there seems to be quite a bit of information available, even dedicated websites - http://www.collectors-of-camillus.us/ - which I am sure all of you know about. My question is this, why do we not have a Camillus "page/s" on here under Articles and Research, like for instance Case/Queen/Schrade etc? Is it because the info is freely available elsewhere, or is it just too much work (I know I'd not have the time to spend on something like compiling that, or at least not much time)?
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orvet
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by orvet »

It is a LOT of work! ::dang:: ::dang::

You can see the Schrade info I posted in the Research Section.
Those lists of knives took me 4 years to compile. I went through every Schrade catalog I could get my hands on from 1946 to 2004. There are only about 4 or 5 years missing in the late 40s and 50s.
Compared to Schrade Camillus is three times as difficult.
There are several reasons it is more difficult:

1- Camillus changed their numbering system within that time frame.
2- Camillus did not print as many catalogs as Schrade did.
3- The way Camillus organized its info is more difficult to categorize than the way Schrade did it, (at least for me).
4- I had a number of sources for Schrade info but far fewer sources for Camillus.
5- Camillus did not print as much literature as Schrade did.
6- The lack of yearly catalogs & price lists makes it much more difficult to establish a time when a knife pattern was introduced or discontinued.

All these factors combine to slow an already slow process down to the pace of a crippled snail's. :lol:
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smokepole
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by smokepole »

:shock: Now that you put it like that....... ::facepalm:: I understand fully.... I wish I could help
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Be on your guard against a silent dog and still water.
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laboreseafood
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by laboreseafood »

Hello all. I'm a newbie on here but I collect Camillus knives. I stumbled across this website from I guess Russia that has a bit of info and pictures from the later Camillus stuff from the company's last 20 years or so. I'm not sure if this is a repost or not. http://camillusknives.narod2.ru/1lnav.htm
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orvet
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by orvet »

laboreseafood Welcome to AAPK ::tu::

That appears to be a Slavic language version of the Camillus catalog that was on the web when thet went out of business.

The pics are great for reference, but I cannot read the language. :lol:
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Vit_213
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

Hello from Russia!
I'm a fan of Camillus knives, and creator of the site www.camillusknives.ru
Link the above is not quite correct, and I had to convert a file 1lnav.htm to display properly ::nod:: .
I am glad that my site looks in the U.S. and try to eventually make an English version of the catalog, but to translate articles - it's beyond my abilities (my English is very bad :( ).
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Iron Hoarder »

Your English is better than our Russian so we won't mind. we could probably help if you get the translation close.
I measure my collection by the ton.
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laboreseafood
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by laboreseafood »

I know its a pain but you can copy and paste lines from his web site into google translator and get a good idea on what he quotes. Tony
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

Google can translate not only lines but also the entire site.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... l9JAsMqCgw
Unfortunately, often it does not function properly.
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

I combined the information from the catalogs and prices of Camillus in spreadsheet.

http://camillusknives.narod2.ru/cats/Camillus_cats.xls - xls version
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub ... utput=html - online version

Table is divided into two parts (1946-1990 and 1988-2006)
Legend:
Green - true dating
Yellow - wrong dating
Blue - new
x - discontinued
* - change or different model

Please correct me if I made ​​a mistake somewhere.
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orvet
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by orvet »

Vit,
That is a lot of work in those spread sheets. Very impressive!

I have done similar spreadsheets with Schrade knives: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/sch ... /index.php

I know how much work it is.
Very nice work!

Dale
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Vit_213
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

This is very interesting, Dale!
I also have a few Schrade knives :wink: .
Do you collaborate with Larry (lrv) from the bladeforums.com?
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orvet
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by orvet »

Vit_213 wrote: Do you collaborate with Larry (lrv) from the bladeforums.com?
Yes. Where did you meet Larry?
We met years ago on BF.
Larry & I work with Tom Williams, the historian for Camillus, on the catalogs on Larry's site.
I have been working on cataloging the Camillus patterns like I did with Schrade.
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

Less than a year ago, I come to BF.
There I learned many interesting from Larry Vickery, Phil Gibbs and Tom Williams.
Regrettably in the BF activity is low.
I'm glad to get acquainted with you ::handshake:: :D
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orvet
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by orvet »

Vit_213 wrote:Less than a year ago, I come to BF.
There I learned many interesting from Larry Vickery, Phil Gibbs and Tom Williams.
Regrettably in the BF activity is low.
I'm glad to get acquainted with you ::handshake:: :D
Well Vit, you are in good company, all three of those guys are top notch men!
Phil and Tom both worked at Camillus and both grew up in the cutlery industry.
Tom' mother is a nice lady, I have talked to her on the phone a few times. She worked at Camillus for about 55 years.
Phil's father worked at George Wolstenholm in Sheffield, if I recall correctly, before coming to the US to work.
Larry does a great job with his site. I am getting ready to send him some videos I bought that came from the Schrade factory. Most are ads I believe, but I haven't watched them yet.

I also have 4 tapes from the Schrade factory that are in Beta format, but I have no way to watch them or to convert them to video files.

It is nice to meet you too! ::handshake::
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jerryd6818
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by jerryd6818 »

orvet wrote:I also have 4 tapes from the Schrade factory that are in Beta format, but I have no way to watch them or to convert them to video files.
Dale, here's a Betamax to DVD conversion service. It's not cheap but it can be done.
http://t2dvd.com/dvd_from_beta.htm
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orvet
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by orvet »

Thanks Jerry.
If I cannot find anyone local I may have to try it, but at those prices it will be after Christmas. :shock:

I would really like to view these first, as they are not labeled.
For all I know it may be a Schrade employees home movies!
No point in paying to see that. :lol: :lol:
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Vit_213
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

I rewrote my website starting page.
Welcome back to www.camillusknives.ru .
The text for the welcome-page I copied from the old Camillus site. If it needs to be rewritten, then offer me options.
Over time, I will do the other pages in English.
I would appreciate any help.
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smokepole
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by smokepole »

Vit_213 - Respect!! It is looking very good and I think you are doing a great job of documenting the old company and it's product lines. I don't even want to think how much time and effort you must have spent on this, but it is really nice and I think you can be proud of it. Thank you for sharing!
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Be on your guard against a silent dog and still water.
Latin Proverb
Vit_213
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by Vit_213 »

An example of the future design of the site http://www.camillusknives.ru - Camillus/American Wildlife Series ::pray::
What is your opinion?
Please help me if the English text is incorrect :oops: .
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Re: Camillus Page

Post by fergusontd »

Do you still have your Beta machine? If you do you might try to run a red, yellow, white plug harness to your dvd recorder from the back of your Beta machine. I did this to a VCR to a DVD recorder and it worked. ftd
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