I asked her if I could look at the letter opener. She retrieved it and shuffled it from left hand to right hand repeatedly due to its extreme temperature, she then informed me to wait a minute while she cooled it off. Her technique of cooling was to toss it into a breadsize tupperware container filled with water.
A few moments later she handed it to me dripping wet. I inspected it and opened the small pen blade, it had the REMINGTON UMC (marked inside a circle) MADE IN USA which would date it: c 1924-1933.
I paid a few dollars for it. It looked to be brand new, unused, unsharpened. Counterfeit knives were nothing new to me and I realized it may not be real. Being that it was so new and had a Shoe Company name on the handle initially led me to believe that it was not an original Remington. It was just too perfect.
After I returned home I could find a few Remington letter openers within my knife books: Sargents, Bruce Voyles, James Parker 1987, etc. but none had this configuration. The internet was not available yet so I did not know if I had an original or a fake. As my research came to a sudden halt, the opener went into my odds & ends knife drawer. It slipped my mind to take it to any following knife shows to get a professional opinion in the years ahead.
As the years passed and the internet became available I thought I would research the "BAKER CASING SHOE CO." I found some interesting history. "BAKER SHOE CO." was not a shoe company like "Buster Brown" or anything similar, but it was a casing tool that revolutionized cable tool drilling to enable casing wells in hard rock and cement retainer walls for oil drilling.
The company was known as "BAKER CASING SHOE CO." formed in 1913 until 1928 when it changed its name to Baker Oil Tools.
So, 1913 to 1928 would put this company within Remington's mfg. date of 1924-1933. I then realized that I could most likely have an original Remington, unused and unsharpened.
Now, as I move forward to joining AAPK a couple years ago. I entered "Letter Opener" within aapk "Remington Knife Collectors Forum" search engine. Many aarp member names came up discussing Remington letter openers. I have listed a few of the Remington pros below that have unknowingly helped me in proving that I in fact do have a authentic Remington.
"knife7knut" has three pictured exact patterns like mine (different logos only) he posted on 11/06/2007
"Miller Bros" Dimitri", "espn77", "aremingtonsedge" and a few other aarp members.
Thank you gentlemen.
