MAKER:   Camillus

PATTERN:   Fixed blade hunting knife (also military issue at the beginning of World War II)

OAL:   7-1/2”

BLADE LENGTH:   3-3/4”

GUARD:   Steel

HANDLE:   Rogers bone

TANG STAMPS:   CAMILLUS/CUTLERY CO./CAMILLUS, N.Y./U.S.A.

SHEATH:   Leather factory sheath

CONDITION:   Excellent

DAMAGE:   Surface staining and spotting of carbon steel blade, which is normal. No noted chips or cracks to the handles.

BLADE WEAR:   The blade appears to be full, and though I think it has been used, I don’t think it’s been sharpened since it left the factory.

AGE:     Probably made at the beginning of World War II, or before.

 

MADE IN:   U.S.A.

 

ADDITIONAL INFO:   This is a beautiful example of an old Camillus hunting knife from the late 1930s or early 1940s. Tom Williams, the late historian of Camillus Cutlery, told me that Camillus supplied a lot of these hunting knives at the very beginning of World War II. The US military was not equipped and geared up for a war the size of World War II and so the military was buying pretty much whatever knives cutlery companies had in stock even as they placed their orders for new specific purpose military knives. There were many people will begin making knives strictly to give to the troops and many thousands of peoples personal hunting knives were donated to the military for the troops to use. They were so unequipped for the war that many soldiers did not have a fixed blade knife or a pocket knife to use. Between 1941 to 1946 Camillus Cutlery Company supplied and delivered 14,895,881 knives to the United States Armed Forces. Camillus supplied almost 15 million knives and they were only one of the major knife suppliers to the United States Armed Forces during World War II. This particular pattern was a common hunting knife pattern popular in the 1920s and 1930s and so they already had an existing stock of these knives on hand when World War II began. According to Tom, most of these knives were purchased by the US government within the first weeks of the war. After that Camillus begin producing millions of knives on government contract.

To me this knife is that interesting piece of history because of the time in which it was made and the military connection. I have three knives like this in my collection and I’m running out of room in my Camillus display. I have another one I will probably be selling with more blade wear and a chip in the handle.

 

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Item # 24877