Klein Letter Tang Stamps, What Do They Mean?

[cody6268]

Recently, I've noticed my grandfather's old Klein Sheepfoot knife's blade has been so warped it doesn't close right into the handle. So off to Ebay, Amazon, etc. to find a replacement. I overspent my hobby budget big time, so I tried to look at used ones.

That one was issued in the '70s by Pittston Coal to my grandfather. He carried it heavily until he bought a cheaper knife to replace it, and it set in a drawer until he gave me the knife a couple months ago.

I've noticed mine doesn't have a lettered tang stamp, just the plain old "KLEIN TOOLS CHICAGO USA" that they usually have. But, I've noticed others, both newer and older have lettered tang stamps, such as KK (seen on images for new ones), U, or AA.

Are these letters just random? Date Codes? Any other ideas?

[philco]

I typed in "Klein Date Codes" in the search function and this showed up on the first page. I copied and pasted it but the post was originally from Jerryd who had "borrowed" the content from a previous post made by Aimus Moses here on AAPK.


The following was originally posted by Aimus Moses. Aimus if my posting this copy offends you, please let me know and I will take it down or get it taken down. Thank you for this contribution to a previously murky issue.

"Email from Klein to Aimus Moses:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for contacting Klein Tools with your question about how Klein Tools letter date code tang stamp on our knives is read. Klein Tools began using a letter code on the tang stamp of knives that we made for dating purposes beginning in 1972 and we started that year with the letter "I". Then the next letter in the alphabet "J" was used for the next year 1973 and so on. Klein has make mistakes in our letter code date tang stampings in 1979 by omitting the letter "Q" and we skipped on to the letter "R", then another mistake was made in 1997 by using both letters "I" and "J" for that year. Once we hit the letter "Z" in 1988, we started over with the letter "A", not with double letter date codes tang stamps. Therefore a Klein knife with a tang stamp letter "A" date code =1989. We are currently at the letter "Y" =2012. When we hit the letter "Z" again next year, it is yet to be seen what type of tang stamp code Klein Tools will use on knives made after the letter "Z". Prior to 1972, Klein Tools used a 3-letter code tang stamp on our knives, though not every knife was stamped and would not have those 3-letters stamped on the knife anywhere. Klein Tools has never used a 2 -letter code date stamp. If you have a Klein marked knife that has a 2 -letter code tang stamped on it, the knife was most likely stamped that way by a cutlery manufacturer that we contracted to make the knife for us and we have no information on how that letter code date tang stamp would work, or who the exact contracted knife manufacturer was that made the knife. I hope this helps answer your question and thank you for your interest in Klein Tools. If I can be of further service to you please feel free to contact Klein Tools.
Regards,
Bill
Klein Tools"