Robo and any toothpick/fish knife collectors - I thought you may like to see this knife which is just like Robo's and also seen in a few other members group photos - the knife with the "National Chemsearch Corp" stamp and the flask shield on the pile side.. I got lucky finding this one - basically unused though no doubt handled and never sharpened - inside and outside essentially NOS - and in the original boxRobo wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 4:41 amOkay, I have a hunch I know what it is: I went through a whole page of Imperial Fish Knives on Pic Clic. I found the symbol on a fairly low percentage of both the 4 1/4 med knife and the 5 inch version. They were only on back of the one's with the fish symbol on front. But I also found something else they had in common: a number of them had "National Chemsearch Co." etched on the mark side of the clip blade. And the ones that had that etch still remaining also had the symbol on the mark side. My conclusion: The Pile side symbol is a symbol of what is known as a Retort distilling Flask (see pic). This was or is probably Chemsearch's trade mark. and it went on back because the fish would of kicked it's flask a$$ if it tried to take the front seat. Of course most of the ones with the flask symbol are too beat up to locate the Chemsearch etch, so I can't prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. But That's my theory and I'll stand by it til somebody knocks this house of cards down. (You have to enlarge the photos to see the Chemsearch etch)just bob wrote:Anyone know what the little symbol or emblem is on the back of an Imperial fish knife? Only a few knives have these from what I see. Most of these knives do not?
--Robo
... Other than the speck of tarnish/stain on the fish shield it is remarkably clean with a factory edge.. It's amazing to me how many were made for this National Chemsearch Corp if they are fairly common - must have been alot of employees and many were given out I would assume for advertising and such 
..Bit of a story finding this one: So I'm working at the antique shop yesterday (and I'll start by saying in 1 year working there a day or 2 a week I have yet to find a knife of my liking
- but today was different 
- sitting behind the counter waiting to be tagged for sale and sitting on the inner shelf was this small box that piqued my attention I figured it needed immediate investigation
and sure enough inside the box was this Imperial toothpick - cool old Imperial box with the "CROWN' logo stamped on the cover.. at this point the knife in box no longer needed to be tagged for sale as it was coming home with me ... Here's the knife photos -
... First Imperial box I have seen and certainly looks 50-60s... the box was no doubt just as good as the knife, maybe better 
