All About Pocket Knives

Nice one Capt. I really like the electrician's knives. Every one I have ever handled has been as solid as a rock.

Thank you TJ! I don´t know what it is about those Sparkies, perhaps because they are so different from ours here in Germany.

What does a German "Sparky" look like?

They are more simple and have no screwdriver. After all I wonder what size the socket screws in the USA are when I look at the TL-29.

Capt. Farrel wrote:They are more simple and have no screwdriver. After all I wonder what size the socket screws in the USA are when I look at the TL-29.

The original TL-29 was: Tool, Lineman's, #29 (military nomenclature), which was designed for the men laying lines for field telephones; think WWI, before field radios.
They were not designed for an electrician. Use by electricians was a later adaptation of an existing tool for a newly emerging trade (electrician).

Prior to WWI most of rural America did not have electricity. Only about 10% of rural households had electricity in the 1930s. WWII interrupted the electrification of rural America. I grew up on a ranch where we didn’t get electricity until the fall of 1968; about the time I started my senior year of high school.

“The Rural Electrification Act of 1935 provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve rural areas of the United States.” -Wikipedia.
So now you have a big demand for lots of tools for people laying electrical lines all over the country. The TL-29 easily fit the needs of the linemen for a knife & screwdriver; they were plentiful, inexpensive and readily available. They were quickly marketed as the “Electrician’s Knife” and the rest is cutlery history!

Amazingly, the slotted screwdriver blade of the TL-29 will actually fit the screws that hold the plug socket fixtures in the box and it will even fit the small screws that fold the covers on the plate over light switches.
I did not know that until I just tried it with a Camillus TL-29!

Last week I added a knife to my TL-29/Electrician Knife collection.

The knife is a Red Devil, screwdriver blade only and no knife blade.
Instead of having a liner lock for the screwdriver blade like the modern TL-29, or the internal lock released by pressing down the closed spear blade on the WWI era TL-29; the Red Devil is a lock back! It is one of the only ones in my TL-29/Electrician Knife collection.

The Red Devil is definitely an interesting variation; a long sought and welcome addition to my collection!

Dale -- Excellent synopsis of the history of the "TL-29" Electrician's knife and lucky find on the Red Devil.

My dad worked for the REA (Rural Electrification Association) in 1948-1949, bringing electricity to White County Illinois. At the time, we had moved across the field to my uncle's place (dad's brother). It was an old log house my great-grandfather had built. There was no electricity, no telephone, no inside plumbing of any kind and the "central heating system" was an old Warm Morning coal stove that we burned wood in or coal when we could afford it. If it wasn't warm enough for you, stand a little closer to the stove.

I heated up a lot of rivets on my blue jeans when I was a kid too, Jerry.

Dale, I think I put in a snipe bid on that one. Glad you got it

EDIT: Yep, I went back and checked and you beat me out by $0.50.

tjmurphy wrote:I heated up a lot of rivets on my blue jeans when I was a kid too, Jerry.

Dale, I think I put in a snipe bid on that one. Glad you got it

EDIT: Yep, I went back and checked and you beat me out by $0.50.

That is what you get for sniping cheap TJ!
I think my max bid was north of $50!
I was tickled to get it so low!

Like I said, I had been lookin' for one for a long time!

That´s a fantastic Sparky Dale and thank you for the history lesson! When my familiy moved in our first house back in 1969 we had electricity but heating and hot water was still done with a coal oven. Fortunately this was the first to make way for electrical appliances.

orvet wrote:

tjmurphy wrote:I heated up a lot of rivets on my blue jeans when I was a kid too, Jerry.

Dale, I think I put in a snipe bid on that one. Glad you got it

EDIT: Yep, I went back and checked and you beat me out by $0.50.

That is what you jet for sniping cheap TJ!
I think my max bid was north of $50!
I was tickled to get it so low!

Like I said, I had been lookin' for one for a long time!

Well, some times you win and some times you lose. Glad you got it cheap, that's the good way for sure.

Here's my contribution to the thread:a Lineman's kit with 4 line Camillus knife and Utica drop forged pliers.In my home when I was growing up our furnace was coal fired(ask me how much fun it was shoveling coal into the furnace at night)and our stove was a wood burner.Our refrigerator was an icebox that had to be refilled about once a week and hot water was obtained by heating buckets of water on the stove.We did have electricity however but no TV or phone.Those didn't happen until I was headed into the Navy in 1964. Try explaining THAT to your grandchildren!
No complaints though;my grandparents who raised me were very loving(although my grandfather was hard pressed to show it)and always made sure I had warm clothes and enough to eat.I had chores to do;mostly making sure the furnace was well tended and mowing what little grass we had and helping my grandfather feed his homing pigeons and keeping the coop clean.Oh yes;and bury the stray cats that managed to invade the coop and mangle a few birds only to feel the wraith of Gramps.For this I was paid 50 cents a week.Took me 3 weeks to save up enough money to buy my first knife which I still have.

That's a nice kit, K7K, I've got one just like it except my pliers are H.Boker. Do your pliers have the hole in the end of the handle for the lanyard?

Here's a few I recently picked up. 5 bucks a piece.
M Klein
Kutmaster
Wards

The Wards is in great condition, everything works as it should i'll add extra pics of it.

I stumbled across a brand of TL-29 on ebay that I did not existed!
I am reasonably certain it was made for the consumer (civilian) market like Sears, Powr Craft, Proto, ect., and not for the military. The tang stamp reads: HOFFRITZ/NEW YORK.
It has an interesting rear tang stamp in the spear blade: RITZ/BRAND in an inverted trapezoid frame. The nice rosewood handles and the bowtie shield makes it one of the most attractive looking production electrician’s knives made. IMHO.

Another unusual feature is that both blades are tang stamped on the mark side, which makes me think it was probably made prior to WW II.

I stumbled across a brand of TL-29 on ebay that I did not existed!
I am reasonably certain it was made for the consumer (civilian) market like Sears, Powr Craft, Proto, ect., and not for the military. The tang stamp reads: HOFFRITZ/NEW YORK.
It has an interesting rear tang stamp in the spear blade: RITZ/BRAND in an inverted trapezoid frame.
The nice rosewood handles and the bowtie shield makes it one of the more attractive looking production electrician’s knives made. IMHO.

Another unusual feature is that both blades are tang stamped on the mark side, which makes me think it was probably made prior to WW II.

Nice one Dale! I think it may have been made by Camillus as Hoffritz was basically a wholesale/import house according to BRL from about 1930 onward.I have several knives marked as such and they vary greatly in quality.Here is a picture of a 4 line Camillus from a military tool kit.Note the similarities.

It is similar, but no lanyard loop.
Camillus probably made more TL-29 for other companies than all the other knife companies put together.

Got a Robeson TL-29 in today, real nice knife, typical heavy springs of a TL.

Nice one.
I got an unstamped jack at the OKCA show that everyone says shouts Robeson and the Heavy Duty Spring.
Sure makes you set up and take notice.

This one took a SCREAMING edge with little effort.

Another Case for my Sparky accumulation came yesterday. I have just written that I don´t like Hawkbills and minutes later I own this electricians knife! Well, who can say no to a nice Case Sparky? Definitely not me.....

Frank most folks wouldn't understand but.........we do.

Phil, I feel all warm and cosy when I am with you guys!

Probably the best M. Klein electrician's knife I've ever seen.

One of you guys should own this knife.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-M-KLEIN ... 3f376dae7c

Is it or is it not marked, "Cattaraugus"?

That pattern number 21087 is consistent with Catt.

CNoyes