Kutmaster V

[edgy46]

Last nite i posted a Kutmaster on knife lore, and again saw a letter V at the bottom of the stamp. Three of the blades are marked and all of them have the V. The punch which is the usual type Kutmaster used is not stamped. Have any of you seen this mark before, or know anything about it? P.S. It is 3 13/16" long.

[knifeaholic]

I have seen that on many older Kutmaster knives - my only guess is that the V is for "Vanadium" which was the carbon steel that Kutmaster used, at least that's how they presented it in catalogs and on some blade etchings. They called their stainless steel "Tungsten" stainless, and those blades have a "T" stamped if I recall correctly. It was likely a way for the factory workers to be able to tell the blades apart during assembly so that stainless knives got all stainless blades and carbon knives got all vanadium blades.

[edgy46]

knifeaholic

Thanks for the information.

[jmh58]

Cool knife edgy.. I really like Kutmasters.. John

[TDCase]

I've got a similar era Kutmaster, not quite the same model as this one. The tang stamp V stands for vanadium. On really mint knives like my model, there is an etching on the master (saber) blade that says, Kutmaster and then Vanadium underneath that. You can kinda see that on mine which is in very good shape but not absolute mint. Really nice knives. I wonder if anyone might know the date when these were made?? TD .....