All About Pocket Knives

Thank you Charlie

Here's my latest scout knife.........

Miller Bro's wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2026 11:15 pm Here's.....

NICE Ulster, Dimitri.

Thanks Skip!

I had a Sea Scout Canada knife made in Sheffield. I mailed it to a friend a couple of days ago, so I don't have a good photo. I'll ask him to destroy the ebonite handle, clean the stamps, and take a better photo. I made the handle, one of my first experiments, it was comfortable, but a little crooked. The blade is attached with Moment glue. I tried to add a photo here, it added but it looks like a set of striped fabric from the 70s

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCMVve

I found and added to the album a page from Knife World for July 2010 page 10, and this knife is there. It should have an ebonite or ebony handle with a thistle-top

orvet wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:11 am Nice knives Phil & a great set up for some info I got recently from Tom Williams.

Phil did me the favor of sending me a nice pic of one of his for the following article.


If you look eBay for old Boy Scout knives you'll find one of the most readily available brands, at this point in time, are those bearing the Ulster name. If you do a search of Ulster knives on eBay you will find the most readily available pattern is the Scout Knife.

I have often wondered why the Scout knife was so common since it is generally accepted that by the 1970s the Ulster tang stamp is no longer used by Imperial Schrade. Recently I found the answer, not from researching Schrade but some new information I received from Tom Williams who was the Company Historian for Camillus Cutlery Company.

Below you'll find a copy of two S-cards from Camillus. The S-card was a tool Camillus used in their plant. It was a card 8 ½” x 5 ½”, half the size of a sheet of notebook paper that gave the factory workers detailed information on the construction and materials of a particular knife. This included the blade patterns, die numbers, blade steel, blade size, blade grind, shield, nail nicks blade finish, handle material, liners & liner material, and a whole host of other information including the tang stamp to be used on the knife and the company that ordered that knife.

The picture below is photocopy of the fronts of two S-cards for Imperial Knife Associated Companies, (IKAC). The first card has a sample date of January 3, 1984 and the second card has a sample date of August 6, 1985. The backs of these cards are typically blank with the exception of hand written notations. These notations often include the quantity and date of when the orders are filled.

These cards are the key to why there are so many Ulster Scout knives on eBay. Like many things in life, they are not always what they seem on the surface. Camillus was known as the "knife makers knife maker." It was quite common in the cutlery industry for one company to manufacture knives or certain patterns of knives for other companies. Camillus was one of the biggest providers of certain knife patterns, especially working knife patterns, to other knife making companies. The camper pattern, commonly called a Scout knife, was one such pattern. Camillus provided this type of knives to the US military before, during and after World War II. They also made these knives or a number of companies besides their own Camillus and Camco brands.

The more I research the history of knife companies, the more I see how much they are contacted. This bit of information on the production of this one pattern shows glimpses of the connection between not only Ulster and Camillus but Imperial and Schrade as well. It's a long and interesting story of how those companies came together under the ownership of one man. But it's a long story that will have to wait for another time.

One bit of information I would add is that there were some numbers & dates written on the back of one of these S-cards. The info was cut off by the edge of the photocopy so I can't read them all. They were hand written and some are illegible but here is the info ac best as I can read it:

11,200 -P.O. 9253 - 11/83, (First Time) The first 2 numbers are hard to read. It could be 4,200 or 11,200
0,000 - P.O. - 9341 - 6/84 -there is one or more numbers cut off at the edge of the paper. This means that there were at least 10,000 knives in this one P.O. (purchase order)

3,000 Pcs to cover shortage - 4/85
168 - 6/14/85
611 - 8/16/85
665 - 9/20/85

These 3,000 pieces seem to refer to another order of 4/85 which is not listed on the S-card.

These numbers give us a clue to why there is such a large quantity of these Scout knives currently available on ebay. I have no doubt that there were other orders that were not listed on the back of the S-card.

I hope this info is interesting and helpful to Scout knife collectors.

Dale

Thanks for the information .Me thinks this ulster U.S.A. Scout knife may be one of the camillus Contract knifes ? Did the contract knifes have a blade etch ?

Thomasg wrote: ↑Sun Apr 19, 2026 8:07 pmMe thinks this ulster U.S.A. Scout knife may be one of the camillus Contract knifes ? Did the contract knifes have a blade etch

I believe that knives stamped Ulster U.S.A. are from the Imperial Knife Associated Companies. The shield is the "Round Tenderfoot" which was also used by Imperial and Camillus. The official etch is correct. Circa 1983-1988.

Thank you for your response. I don’t have many of the scout pattern knifes .Here is an old Survivor .Globe cut co/New York that was manufactured by Robeson 1921-1928 .Maybe some day I will run a cross an example in better condition.I really like the Old jigged bone and shield .

Thomasg: Here's your knife with the Robeson mark. Pattern #642214. An HOK. If you'd like the matched pair, let me know. J.O'.

Five official Girl Scout Robeson's , many moons of collecting to come up with these .
Thanks for looking .
Mike

Imperial Scout

ScoutKnives wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:49 am Five official Girl Scout Robeson's
Mike

Great group Mike

American Blade 92 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2026 3:53 am Imperial Scout

Nice clean example

Miller Bro's wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2026 4:58 am

American Blade 92 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2026 3:53 am Imperial Scout

Nice clean example

Thanks!

Nice old girl scout knife

That one is really special.
Here are 4 UTICA, "featherlight" aluminum framed GSA's and a Brownie. The nice part of Girl Scout/Brownie knives is they are usually well kept and not used as prybars or thrown at trees. J.O'.

Very recently, this “SCOUT”, multi-tool pattern or style of pocket knife, arrived in a group or lot of pocket knives that I bought. It now becomes my latest example to be posted under this topic or thread. I did NOT buy the group or lot of pocket knives to obtain THIS particular pocket knife. However, it did turn out to be a keeper. It did get added to my general, scouting/camping, multi-tool, pocket knife accumulation. It is an IKCO, one blade, two tools (a cap lifter or bottle opener and a can opener), one tang stamp, 3 1/2” closed (not including the bail), a “long” tool pull, two springs, scouting/camping, multi-tool, pattern or style of pocket knife. The main blade front tang stamp says, "IKCO" inside of a “parallelogram.” The main blade does NOT have a half stop. The main blade does NOT have an opening snap. The main blade does NOT have a closing snap. Both of the tools open and close without any problems. This pocket knife is in GOOD condition. This pocket knife did NOT need any cleaning at all. I just wiped it off. I took some pictures and here it is.
Caption(s), if any, are on the BOTTOM of the corresponding picture(s).
Click on a picture to ENLARGE.

Girl Scout RH251
Mike

Mike

I'll wager that's a rare bird! O'.

ScoutKnives wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2026 1:16 pm Girl Scout RH251

sweet pickup Mike, your like a pig rooting up truffles.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 6:39 pm That one is really special.
Here are 4 UTICA, "featherlight" aluminum framed GSA's and a Brownie. The nice part of Girl Scout/Brownie knives is they are usually well kept and not used as prybars or thrown at trees. J.O'.

Usually, J.O'. I just gave one to my Girl Scouts niece about 2 months ago, not sure if she still has it. Awesome group!



BTW- I still haven't been able to put my hands on the Boy Scout fixed blades with sheaths.

Red, I still have that official, WESTERN L-66 with the original Square Knot sheath and stamped blade. #3 below. Very nice condition. O'.