All About Pocket Knives

Here's a scan of my Grandfather's knife, PAL Cutlery. Don't see this company mentioned much on the forum even though it was a popular brand at the time. 3-3/8" overall closed. Carbon steel blades. Nickel-silver bolsters. Jigged bone handles.



Just sharing. Does anyone happen to collect PAL Cutlery?

very nice old knife with a real history....priceless

I don't think Pal get mentioned much because not many people have them. I have a couple, but they are hard to find & bring a better price than some other brands.

Dale

Bob nice old knife! Rogers bone. I have a Pal or two, I really like the early ones. I found a two blade e-z opener jack in a antique store. Really nice almost like new but it was not finished out very well, a knife friend told me it was a military knife.

Stockman

PAL knives are without a doubt high quality knives and also don't show up all that much for sale.I have several fixed and folding blade PAL's as well as several PAL letter opener knives.I will have to take some pictures of them as they are mixed in with photos of other knives I have.I also have a very neat little PAL/Remington transition knife.

I think PAL was one of the four companies to make the USMC knife during WWII. That's from memory, so I could be wrong.

The bone on the other side is actually a darker, deeper brown. I'd love to show it, but my catalog number (a sticker) is on the other side.

The build quality is pretty good. Negatives: The scale on one side is loose, and the opposite side has a gap between the scale and bolster. The main blade has a bit of wobble, but not much worse than many new knives. Positives: The bolsters/liners/springs are prefectly fit. Both blades have a great 'snap' with distinct half-stops. The blades are obviously carbon steel, and although used for many years, still have a lot of life left.

Here's a scan showing the build quality of the structural pieces:

Here's a couple of pics of my Pal folders.Note the etch on the Remington.

Here are some photos of my Pal EOs. The Remington influence is clear in 2 of them and I suspect the other is military.

For those unfamiliar with this company I am attaching some history ( Sargeants 3rd and New England Cutlery Pankiewicz. ) Sargeants 3 rd also has photos of many of the patterns produced. To many for me to post however I am attaching some catalogue pages ( also in Sgt 3). I also included a pic of an example of a box of mine and there is another in the page from New England Knives. This company made knives in jigged imi bone as well as bone I have always felt but was never to sure if my examples were imi bone the ends of the handles are not colored to the ends this is common with imi bone however frankly I am not sure. LT PS looking at the pics posted before mine by Bob W the first knife that was posted looks like imi however the knife showing the bottom by him is bone so if both pics are of the same knife you can see the confusion, if they are different then the first looks like mine and is possibly imi bone . The EO looks like imi bone and in the group the left utility looks like bone the one on the right imi, the one above them looks like bone. However I think I can be sure the letter opener is Cell. ( that was a joke in case you were not confused enough. If you have access to a Sargeants 3 look this company up it is one of the relatively few books showing them and sargant also gives the then current values ( and that book is from I would guess the 80tys or early 90tys. )

LT PS looking at the pics posted before mine by Bob W the first knife that was posted looks like imi however the knife showing the bottom by him is bone so if both pics are of the same knife you can see the confusion, if they are different then the first looks like mine and is possibly imi bone.

Not sure if you're asking about my knife, but yes both of my pictures are the same knife. And it definitely looks like genuine bone and not imitation.

Here is a third scan showing the back of the knife. It has more of the original brown dye remaining, and the bone pores are more obvious.

Yes indeedy if they are pics of the same knife ( which you have confirmed ) it is bone. LT

Thanks for the pics and the history LT!
I don't have much info on Pal.

Dale

Do they still make PAL knives? Or did they go out of business? Looking at trying to put an age on one and have no idea where to start....

They are long since out of business.

Please post a picture of the knife

I've got a couple Pals. They are well built knives. Very solid.

I also have a few old Pal razor blades.

Joe,
Have you ever shaved with those "Safety Razor" type blades?
My face burns just looking at the pictures!
I can feel the nicks in my face and the blood running down my cheek!
Quick hand me some tissue before I bleed to death!

Does anyone else remember shaving with these torture implements?
Remember how the alcohol in the aftershave stung your face?

With those as basically the only alternative to a straight razor it is a wonder that straight razors ever lost popularity!

Not all memories of the “Good Old Days” are good memories!

Here is a pic of a PAL Utility..

Dale,
I have shaved with that type of blade. That was the shaving tool of choice. I seems like that was what we had. I never used a 'lectrik shaver. I am glad things have improved, aren't you. You could take off a peel of skin with those things.

I lost more skin to that type of razor than I care to remember!
Now days I am spoiled.
I use a Schick Quattro Titanium with 4 blades or a Gillette Power Fusion with 5 blades and a blade on the back of the cartridge for trimming around my nose.
Young folks today don’t know what they missed!

Those old “Safety Razors” would make a man out of a young fellow, or bleed him to death, one or the other.

My wife bought me an electric razor a 5-6 years ago. I use it so seldom that I still have the original heads in it. That is what happens when you grow up without electricity, I just never adjusted to all them dad burn modern conveniences!

GRINC wrote:Here is a pic of a PAL Utility..

Sorry for digging up this old thread. I have this knife as well, do you think the handles are delrin, plastic or bone? And what do you think is the approximate vintage? BTW I would call that a Scout or camp knife not a utility...
Thanks for any help.

I don't think Pal was around long 1940-53 maybe so delrin was not an option. The handles on the camp knife are definitely a composition similar to what camillus and others used. Pal had a composition material that looked very much like bone and also made some striking bone handles.

thank you Greg

Don't know if anyone has come across this before. I got it off of a
military web forum.

David, thanks for sharing this. Being a Pal fan I enjoyed the information but it reminded me of the Paul Harvey stories in that it lacked the part that said, "Now for the rest of the story".
Treefarmer
edit: going back to the earlier posts in this thread the closing of the Pal factory is mentioned but doesn't seem to tell why.

treefarmer wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2020 4:27 pm David, thanks for sharing this. Being a Pal fan I enjoyed the information but it reminded me of the Paul Harvey stories in that it lacked the part that said, "Now for the rest of the story".
Treefarmer
edit: going back to the earlier posts in this thread the closing of the Pal factory is mentioned but doesn't seem to tell why.

You're right it does seem to be "unfinished." That research came from a guy on usmilitary.com I think, that just happen to be all he got from the newspaper. I wish there was more. And yes I remember Paul Harvey very well.