All About Pocket Knives

Quote Gunsil: "they all say US Marine Corps as all the WW2 ones "
Did you read my post above ?
According to Mike Silvey the knives you are speaking of were all civilian issue, not military.
kj

Roland, don't get me going please. Did YOU not read my post? The first of these knives issued by the US to military personnel were made in 1945 and have US Marine Corps printed in the scales. They do NOT say USMC and they are 100% correct. Silvey is referring to those marked exactly as you put it, but not with Marine Corps spelled out. Better read your US military knife books a little closer.

The ones that say us marine corps all spelled out were issued in ww2. They were not made by Camillus. They were Made by Kingston.

It’s the Camillus ones that were made for each branch that were not issued. These just have the initials. Small font usmc large USMC, USN, USAF. I have never seen one handle stamped USA.

One is bail stamped Stevenson with no US on the handle. The other bail stamped Stevenson 45 is handle stamped US over the dimples

This is the closest one I have to what the Knife7knut is looking at. Master is stamped. USA. It has a pen blade instead of an awl. With no bail stamp. No makers marks. I think it is a Kingston could be Stevenson? As Gunsil pointed out Kingstons did not have the US stamped handles but they did have blank handles.

These unmarked steel blade brass liner knives are somewhat of a mystery to me. Especially if the bail is missing. Kingston was a joint venture between Ulster and Imperial for the war effort. So after the war either company could have made more? There are also various 3 blade knives one I have is actually tang stamped Kingston.

Stevenson seemed to just make the two runs of bail stamped knives then disappeared.

I assumed that Silvey's use of "U.S.M.C." referred to "U.S. Marine Corps". He makes no mention of any of these knives as having "U.S. Marine Corps". My post was based on the info Silvey gives. I did not know that it is incomplete/inaccurate.
Why did my post 'get you going' ? If we all posted identical 'information' there would be no point in having a forum. I come here to learn. A good way to learn is to post what you think to be correct. If a number of others correct it then i update/revise my 'knife knowledge'. I never troll which would be a post made with the intention of 'getting someone going'.
kj

If you start looking for patterns in the dimples you’ll make yourself crazy. But it seems the blank space around the center pin on the Stevenson’s has a round top with straight sides. The Kingston’s seem more like a circle with the bottom chopped off.

kootenay joe wrote:I assumed that Silvey's use of "U.S.M.C." referred to "U.S. Marine Corps". He makes no mention of any of these knives as having "U.S. Marine Corps". My post was based on the info Silvey gives. I did not know that it is incomplete/inaccurate.
kj

It is accurate if he was writing about the modern Camillus knives. Which I think he was.

Silvey mentions Camillus, Imperial, Ulster, Schrade and Queen. For the quote i gave in my first post he does not specify a brand nor is it written in a way that implies he is speaking of Camillus. The quote is: "Those that display USMC, USN, or USAF on the handle have no real military affiliation".
If you are a collector of these knives you might know 'ya he's referring to Camillus here'. But to the rest of us there is no way to connect this statement to only Camillus.
kj

Doesn't matter that Camillus is the only company that made the USN, USMC, and USAF knives, Silvey's statement is correct and not confusing. He is not stating they were made by all the manufacturers he mentions nor is he saying they were only made by Camillus, just that they were not military issue. I just posted my 1949 Camillus to see if there are others who are aware of it's rarity and see if the values I have been told are correct.

What this thread shows is that Silvey's short piece on these knives is incomplete. He does not mention Kingston or Stevenson or "U.S. Marine Corps".
The book is titled "Pocket Knives of the United States Military" so one would expect it to mention all the manufacturers and all variations for every pattern. In the 7 lines he devotes to these metal handled knives he seems to have left out a significant amount.
kj

As a collector of these I was disappointed when I read the book.

He left out the important WW2 part. Military pocket knives have always been tough to get info on. Just not exciting enough.

Almost like collecting military typewriters. Lol.

It’s been fun for me to go through that drawer of knives again. It’s been a while since they caught my attention.

This is an original ad for the knives with the initials that SMKW sold to the general public. I don't condone or agree with many of the current business practices of SMKW. I also feel their modern catalogs should have a warning label on the cover that they may cause nausea to a serious knife enthusiast, BUT these older catalogs are great and have a wealth of information. I'm in hopes I can find others and continue to share the information.

That’s a great add. Do you know the date? Thanks.

It's from the 1995 Christmas catalog. So far I have only found 2 of these catalogs.

Page shot from M H Cole’s Book III. OH

Cole shows a bailless one there though and I don't think it is a true military knife. Cole was an early military knife writer and a lot less info was available when he wrote those books and there are mistakes in them.