A Tale of Two Camillus TL-29's

[#goldpan]

I was going through my pile of knives and these two Camillus electrician knives caught my attention. Both have four line tang stamps. I have read here many times about Camillus using available tangs stamps. These two both have the four line stamp but the one marked USN has an etch on the screwdriver blade that's looks a lot newer. It does not appear to have been re-bladed. Is the USN knife one that was issued at a much later date? And with what ever tang stamp was available at the time? Or did Camillus start using the etched screwdriver during WWII?

[jerryd6818]

Ken, the shield on the black handled knife with the etch on the screwdriver blade, tells me it's probably an older knife. In my estimation, more than likely WWII.

[edgy46]

Somewhere in my pictures is a change order removing the shield and stamping TL29 into the handles. It was dated {IIRC} May of 42 or 43. This is all from memory so results may vary. I will post the picture when I find it. Hope this helps.

edit

[jerryd6818]

Thanks Bill. That's a handy piece of history to have.

[tjmurphy]

I would guess that the dark handled knife is either pre or very early WWII based on the brass liner and the lighter handled USN is later WWII. JMO.

[#goldpan]

Jerry , Bill and Tj, thanks for the info. It seems that the lighter colored one has a tang stamp that's right on the edge of the cut off date for the four line mark. Very interesting. I will have to take a closer look at my other TL-29's

[Tsar Bomba]

How often were steel center liners seen on the 4-lines? I thought maybe the newer ones would have the brass liners and the older ones might have steel, but the shield vs. stamping data seems to indicate otherwise. IIRC all my 4-line TL-29s (and all my Camillus linesman knives in general) use brass.

Thanks for that contribution, Bill! I love that kind of stuff, you've got me wanting to drag all my TL-29s out now.

Would love to see a high-res version of that blueprint if any enterprising military or cutler might have rescued one!

[edgy46]

goldpan
You are welcome I try to help when I can.
Jerryd
[iirc] that picture was from this site. My 70 year old brain still functions at times.

[carrmillus]

goldpan
You are welcome I try to help when I can.
Jerryd
[iirc] that picture was from this site. My 70 year old brain still functions at times.

..........wait till it gets to be nearly 80!!.....then it stops completely!!......... .............