mstery knife

[mickeyevans]

I have a couple of mystery knives, not cheap ones but nothing exotic with interesting history, hope this is the place to show them and maybe id them, here is the first one. It has indented or grooved bolsters, new to me.
I hope the handles are bone but I can't tell because I am still new at this.
hope my photos make up for my lack of knowledge
Mickey

[mickeyevans]

As you can see, the tang and blades were not grinded, in fact they are in great shape, just wear scratches
and that jigging pattern, is it peach seed or rogers?
hope it is not a newer china knife, LOL, trying to appear serious here.
Mickey

[0078]

Nice looking knife, looks like an old camillus that has been cleaned.

[mickeyevans]

I did not touch the blade, but I do like to clean old knifes I get
I am trying to be gentle and leave the patina , just remove the rust and grude or oxidation you can feel
mickey

[Cutty]

Definitely bone.

Nice knife.

[mickeyevans]

thanks Brian, I like it and am glad it is real bone, I will carry it and show it to friends who never see old pocket knives like we love here
mickey

[Miller Bro's]

Does the pen blade have any snap?

[knife-nut]

Does the pen blade have any snap?

I can see why you asked that. Mark.

[knifetime]

It is at a weird angle. look at how different the kick is on both blades.

[glennbad]

I'm not familiar with that jigging pattern. It almost reminds me of a Japanese-style jigging. The lack of any kind of tang stamp is interesting, but necessarily troubling.

Don't really have anything else to offer.

[knife7knut]

FWIW I think it is either English or early American. The curved shield and fluted bolsters appear on a lot of early English knives and the jigging is reminiscent of some early American knives such as Robeson or Southington. The Japanese jigging has more of a contrived and symmetrical look to it. It is possibly early German but they normally used badge type shields on just about everything.
Another indicator of English origin is the lack of tang stamps.I have quite a few unmarked knives and I would guess that they are mostly English. JMHO

[knifetime]

I would say you are spot on kk. It is for sure we'll made.

[mickeyevans]

The main blade has very strong opening and closing snap, but no half stop
the pen blade has very strong closing snap, but more of a 'spring' open, I would not call it a snap, and again, no half stop.
nothing wrong with the feeling of opening and closing, just a little weird on the pen.
the thing that I don't like is that no matter which blade I close first, the pull on the pen is behind the main blade, covered up
I can 'guide' the blades closed in the 'correct' position with the pulls exposed facing out opposite each other and there is no resistance to that 'guidence', again, just weird

[mickeyevans]

Oh, I see, by Kick you mean the angle of the blade when fully open, it is not really fully open
and the spring behind the pen does not come up flush with the scales
if I open the pen, I need to open the main, then close the pen then guide the main closed and it is almost normal
you don't get descriptions like this on ebay
I think the pen is closed for along time, maybe forever

[jerryd6818]

Mickey -- This may help. I cut this picture out of an old Camillus catalog. Click on the picture to enlarge it. The kick is marked with the red arrow.

[mickeyevans]

is there a fix for that, Jerry, other than changing the blade or the spring?

[jerryd6818]

That's a question for one of the knife mechanics.

[0078]

Take a look at this one, primble India steel. Only pic. I have

[mickeyevans]

Does it have tang marks ?

[mickeyevans]

does it have a shield?

[0078]

Sorry it's the only pic. I could find on the web where the bone looked similar to yours.

[knifetime]

It is strange that someone mad a nice knife like that and did not Mark it but from what I have read on this thread it happens.
Queen did not marks their tangs from 1960 to 1970 just a blade etch. I wounderd if it had a blade etch at one time ,not that I think it is a Queen.

[Miller Bro's]

The knife was made by Walden Knife Co. The blades and the back spring are Stainless Steel, I would estimate this knife was made sometime after 1915 when Stainless was being used commercially in knives. The early stainless knives had lots of problems, back springs would break due to improper hardening, the blade tangs would wear as well, it took quite some time before they got it right.

On most stainless blades the back of the tang had a letter "S" stamped into it, this was so the workers who were assembling knives could discern between the stainless blades and carbon as they both looked alike when polished. These Walden knives did not have this stamp, nor did they have the normal Walden Knife Co. stamp, why? I don`t know, but they did etch the master blade "Walden".

On the previous posts you were talking about polishing and altering the blades, don`t do it!

Leave it alone, these are scarce and it would be a shame if it was altered form it`s present state.

[mickeyevans]

which knife you think is a Walden, Mark, Mine or 0078's Primble?
I did not touch the blades on mine
do you want to see close ups of the blades and tangs?

[Miller Bro's]

which knife you think is a Walden

Your knife.

do you want to see close ups of the blades and tangs?

I would like to see a close up of the master blade face, there may still be a trace of the original "Walden" etch.