All About Pocket Knives

I picked up this 1950' era Kutmaster 3 blade Trapper the other day and was wondering about the history of the company. I know they were made by Utica Cutlery but how well known are they and what kind of quality is this company know for???

Sunburst

kutmaster was a stamping for utica. used from 1937?. utica started around 1910 by some ex camilus workers. pretty high quality and often overlooked.

johnnie

That is a neat old knife.
My Dad liked the old Kutmasters, they made good ones back in the day. Good Stuff. Quit putting bone on them in the early 60's. I do not see many 3 bladers.

Nice Nife in my book

9ball

As the other posters have indicatred Kutmaster is the brand name used By Utica Cutlery Company on pocketknives - it has been the exclusive tang stamp at least for all of their conventional slip joint pocketknives made from WWII to the present day. In the post WWII era, I would call them a "medium" grade pocketknife, not the quality level of Case, Schrade, Western, or KABAR, but better than Imperial.

I hate to burst your bubble on that particular knife, but IMHO it is a modern fantasy "put-together" knife made with parts that were taken out of the Utica factory in the 1980's. There were supposedly 5 tons of parts purchased along with the old Utica factory collection, and a ton of oddball knives have been made out of them, like cattle pattern knives with "Coca Cola" shields, 5 blade stockman knives, and other patterns never made in reality with the Kutmaster tang stamping. You used to see a lot of these in Parker's catalogs.

Well that's why they call this area Q & A; ask a question and get an answer even if it is not what you expected...

Thanks knifeaholic - I appreciate the in depth information because I had not heard that before, and it kind of answers a question I have had for sometime. I love to collect 3 bladed Trapper/Jack knives and have wondered if this was a recent modeling process or something thought long ago and just copied. I have not really seen any kind of vintage 3 bladed Trapper types and thought that it was a modern knife until I found this particular knife. There wasn't anybody to really ask about this so this is one more bit of information gathered to store away in the memory banks.

I will say this then, if the process of what you described in the building of this knife was to use old parts to make new knives or models. Then there really is not any difference from this knife than what Bulldog has done (Another Parker enterprise) when he used old 1985 blades to make his 3 bladed Trappers that sell so well...

So even though I bought this unaware it still will be a catch for a 3 bladed hoarder like me and probably sell at a fair price(even though its not my intention) because of it being so different...???

Thanks everyone,

Sunburst

Sunburst;

Yes it is a nice looking knife and well done....I would say that in making and selling these a line is crossed though, since they are trying to pass them as authentic 40's/50's era Kutmaster knives. As compared with the Bullldogs, at least its well known that ALL Bulldog knives are post-1985 or so and made for the modern collector/user market.

I posted mainly to let people know that this "put together" Kutmaster stuff is out there. And you are correct to note, that no US manufacturer ever made a 3-blade trapper/muskrat hybrid like this or anything even close....I mean at least prior to the modern "collector" era.