Knife Identification

[Etchasketch]

In 2014, my grandmother died. She was born in 1924 in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her father was a little-known folk legend called “The Malamute Kid”. Her stepfather also was a WWI veteran.(I only mention them because it may be relevant) A year or two after her passing, I needed a car and my uncle gave me hers.


I found it was still full of her things, including one old pocket knife. I wasn’t sure what was covering it, but it was some sort of dark brown grime or rust, like it’d been steeped in used motor oil for a decade.


For a few years, I figured it was one of my grandfather’s old pocket knives. Maybe from when they were in the outdoors with their kids the most during the 50s and 60s. I put some work into cleaning it up, and showed it to him. He didn’t recognize it.


Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I’ve become a bit of an outdoorsman and, for whatever reason, got really into restoring it again before I took another camping trip. I wanted to experiment with any home remedies I could think of for cleaning it, as I learned a few years ago that ketchup could be used to clean the tarnish off a copper ring I have.. I left the knife to soak in some lemon soda I happened to be drinking the first night. Then I cleaned it the following evening and left it in ketchup. I’m a service technician for computers, so naturally I have a large bottle of 99.9% isopropyl alcohol that I’ve used on it. I also tried briefly treating it with olive oil, lemon pledge, toothpaste, and hot sauce. I’d also been sharpening it with a cheap kitchen sharpener.


Eventually, since the progress I’d made hadn’t been too notable, I gave in and decided to try to find more information on the knife, and how to restore it. I started by googling the only marking that I could find on it. It’s stamped on the base of the outside of both the main and secondary blades:


“Union Cut Co”


The first result I found was this one, detailing the history of the stamp and it’s usage:

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... hp?t=64480


So I thought ‘cool! Maybe it’s actually from the 40’s!”


Of course that’s when I went back to cleaning it and discovered the small “Olean, NY” beneath both stamps. Then subsequently began to low-key freak out thinking I’ve been putting all these “home remedies” I’d thought of in my chemistry playtime on a knife that might be 100 years old.


In the weeks since then, I’ve been casually searching trying to find out what it is that I have here. I showed it to my aunt and she didn’t recognize it either, but believes it might have been my great grandfather’s. I’ve started cleaning and sharpening it using more effective methods and chemicals, but I still don’t know what it is.


It has two blades that open from the same end. I think the handle is made of bone. The housing I recall having a silver sheen to it prior to me soaking it in ketchup overnight, now it appears to be brass. There are three pins on either side that appear to be brass, but one you’ll notice is now missing. The fixtures on both ends appear to be aluminum. There is no shield, and I don’t see any signs that there ever was one. The main blade wobbles a little, I’m guessing either because some sort of stopping plate is gone, or because the housing is warped. There’s more damage, but I’ll let you gather that for yourself through the pictures. Can you help me find out what I have here?

[Mumbleypeg]

Looks like you’ve done a nice job cleaning it up. Here’s a post that may help determine the age. https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... sf=msgonly

What you’re calling the “housing” are the knife’s liners (also called scales by some). You can learn more about knife terminology by clicking on Research in the header at the top of this page. Scroll down to see all that is available there.

Welcome to AAPK. There are several here who know a lot about Union Cutlery (later known as Kabar) and will be able to tell you more.

Ken

[TripleF]

Very, very knice clean up job bud!!

No idea on the age.

Looks like you’ve done a nice job cleaning it up. Here’s a post that may help determine the age. https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... sf=msgonly

What you’re calling the “housing” are the knife’s liners (also called scales by some). You can learn more about knife terminology by clicking on Research in the header at the top of this page. Scroll down to see all that is available there.

Welcome to AAPK. There are several here who know a lot about Union Cutlery (later known as Kabar) and will be able to tell you more.

Ken

Ken - I thought the scales were the handles?? And the liners were the inner brass pieces....that's why some knives are called "linerlock"?

[Mumbleypeg]

I used to think the same thing Scott, until I learned better. The terms are confused and misused a lot, to the point that you can call the handle covers “scales” and most will understand what you mean. There have been several threads here about it. Here’s the post I consider to be the most definitive, from Eric Albers (ea42) where he explains that “scales” are the same as liners. https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... 63#p916763

In the knife factories the liners were always referred to as "scales"; center scales, bolster scales, etc. The handles were always referred to as "covers" or at times simply "handles". This was both at Schrade and Canal Street, and I know for a fact Queen used those same terms for the liners and Great Eastern still does.

The common definition was that anything touching the blade tang was the scale.

As Ken mentioned collectors use such a mishmash of those terms that it's generally understood no matter how you say it in those circles. Just don't use the wrong terms in a knife factory or you'll get a puzzled look from the workers (or a knowing wink and chuckle amongst themselves )

Eric

Note that even after Eric (who is a knife maker and was employed by Schrade for decades) posted that, folks wanted to argue the point. But like I said, the terms have become so mixed up that outside a knife factory it’s kind of a moot argument. In the case of the OP, a fresh mind new to the terminology, so I wanted to teach the proper terminology. Silly me.

Ken