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It wasn’t Red Devil Tool Inc., I’m sure of that, because it doesn’t show up in any product catalog, civilian or military that I can find and I even contacted the company for verificaiton. They said it was their “putty knife” but not their skinning knife, it was homemade by someone else. Was it Warren that made it, I don’t believe so, and here’s why. It’s not the only one out there and I don’t think he would have had or taken the time to do it. I’ve found one on eBay, listed in Spanish as a “homemade” knife. So I believe there are more than one of them and the one on eBay is almost identical. That supports my thought that they were all “homemade” and not mass produced on an assembly line.
Let’s identity the knife that’s not really a knife. My research shows this to be a Red Devil Putty Knife. The trademark on the blade of this putty knife was first used in 1948. Red Devil must have had a government contract because according to the register of federal specifications there were several putty knives listed. The P1 would indicate Putty Knife Series #1. The 1 ¼ is the width of the top of the putty knife blade in inches and the S stands for “stiff.” Also F was used for “Flexible” which meant the blade was thinner and could bend more during use. Specifications also stated that the bolster was to be made of pewter to avoid corrosion, the pins are brass and the handle was required to be either Mahogany or Cocobolo wood from Central America. Cocobolo was specified for use in the 1939 federal specifications manual and I believe this is what Red Devil was using in 1948 when I believe this putty knife was manufactured.
Warren joined the USAF in 1948 and was stationed in El Paso, TX. Is there a connection here where some Air Force personnel were using government issued putty knives from supply and turning them into a custom homemade fixed blade skinner style survival knives made from a putty knife? Personally I doubt it after interviewing several USAF old timers. Could there have been a local citizen that was getting his hands on the Red Devil putty knives and turning them into these skinning knives and making money selling them? This is more likely for the time period and location. We may never know, but I believe these two knives were made by the same person, because the shape of the blades is almost a perfect match. Right now there could be a number of these homemade knives out there in someone’s toolbox or in some old tool barn and for me they fall into a special category of “repurposeed folk art.” To me this is history and a history worth preserving.
