All About Pocket Knives

Guys need a little help on yard sell find Herters belt knife real good shape looks to be maybe War 2 age time frame. Not able to post any pics.

Hey Glenn, Could very well be a WW2 vintage belt knife. G.L.Herter started his business in 1937, but can you provide a tang stamp perhaps? I have a couple of herter's old catalogs which may tell us something. I have no idea who manufactured knives for Herter's, but you can bet it was claimed to be the best to had. All herter's merchandise was marketed with that claim. The Geo.L.Herter knife and sheath + guide book sold new in 1969 for $2.98 each. Does the knife have wood handles? Describe it a bit more and I'll see if it matches anything described in the catalogs I have. Also, describe the sheath if there is any tooling on the front. Bull

Thanks No tang stamp wood handles with Herters INC Waseca Minn USA

Glenn, My catalog is from 1969. There are 4 sheath knives advertised. All 4 are wood handled; the "Improved Bowie", Geo.L.Herter Knife, Herter's Camp knife, and Herter's Crooked Knife. The wood used is "African tiger wood". The handle on the G.L. Herter knife is three riveted, the other three are two riveted. Sorry, but can't tell you much more than that. Hopefully you will get a picture which would help a lot. Good luck, Bull

Wow, Herters!
Growing up in an area what would be today considered near wilderness, we always had a Herters catalog.
While some kids in my era grew up looking at the toys in the Sears catalog, I grew up looking at the guns, knives, traps and other cool stuff in the Herters catalog. It was my wish book.

Three or four years ago I decided to look for a Herters knife on ebay. I finally found one a couple years ago.
It is a trapper pattern with jigged bone handles, made in Solingen Germany. It has seen some use but is still a solid & serviceable knife.

Please post pics of your knife. They seem to be few and far between!

Bull,
If you run across an extra Herters catalog that is a duplicate of one you have, please let me know.

Thanks,
Dale

Orvet, The trappers knife listed in my Herter's 1969 catalog sold for $2.97 ea. There is a muskrat model which lists for the same price. The trapper shown in my catalog has a dog bone type shield. I have on occassion come across a Herter's catalog at the estate sales i go to. Next one i see I'll pick up for you Dale. Bull

Dale wish i could post pics not set up for it.

Many of the Herter's fixed blade knives were in fact made under contract by Chicago Cutlery.

I wish I would have taken my gas money and bought a bunch of those for $2.98!

glenn wrote:Dale wish i could post pics not set up for it.

Glenn,
If you can email the pics to me, I can post them for you.
If the issue is a camera, well that is a different matter.

Thanks Bull,
I appreciate you keeping an eye out for me.

Dale

I had a lot of Herters' products back in the 1960's, especially reloading items. I wish I had a catalog or two from those days, also. I had both of his books, one being something like "Bull Cook Recipes and Historical Practices," or similar, and the other was his "guide" book. Both of them were absolutely chock full of the most outrageous lies, misinformation and ignorant rubbish you ever saw, and were an absolute hoot to read. I let mine go, which was a mistake. I had one of the belt knives, which was an odd shaped beast. The blade was heavily convex and shaped like a leaf, and the wood handle was kind of a reversed curve to the blade. It was deeply stamped in the same kind of way that Chicago Cutlery stamped some of their wooden handles. I think it was described as a "Canadian," or "Russell" pattern, a copy of a design that was briefly popular many decades ago. A typical item from one of the pages of the catalog might be described as a "Turkish laminated XXIII degree, master mason French royal Kenyan Bwana Guide Presidential Premier Doohickey, Limited."

Herter's ! What a hoot !

I didn't live in the boonies like Dale did, but still spent a lot of time with a Herter's wish book. Their descriptions were outlandish, but some of their products were serviceable for the price.

I had one of the " World's Finest, laminated recurve bows to be found anywhere", which I got rid of at a yard sale back about '90, and I think they had at least 3 books. I remember one called " How to Make Wine " that Dad and I got a lot of use from. I may still have the Bull Cook book around here someplace.

In the back seat of my pickup is a 4' glass ultralite spinning rod that I put together with all Herter's components. It's seen many years of use, caught a lot of fish, and is still the first I grab after nearly 50 years of service with a little Mitchell 308 on it.

Back about '67 or '68 I got my first permit to purchase a handgun, after hounding a N.J local police chief for several months to issue it. I came over here to Pennsylvania to a sporting goods retailer called Edelmann's, which carried Herter's products, and bought " The World's Finest Single Six, cal .22 Revolver", with genuine plastic stag horn grips, adjustable sights, and a blotchy blue finish on the cast aluminum grip frame. I later sanded the finish off the frame, made a pair of walnut grips, and still have and shoot it. I never did refinish the grip frame, but it's an accurate and serviceable ( though homely ) little 6 shooter, made in West Germany. I think the price was less than $20 when a Bearcat was pushing $50.

Fran

Glad to know that this post brings back some good memories of a time when things was a lot easier I use to like those old wish books

Fran, I will quadruple that $50.00 on any Bearcat you might want to sell me today! Great little .22's Wish I had one of the older ones