All About Pocket Knives

This was a really welcome Ebay find. 3" closed length. A single spring pocket pen with a good colored bone stag. This one dates somewhere in the 1950's.


The EO Notch is a little camouflaged. Very thin California clip blade.


Pretty backside handle.


A clipping from the 1959 Catalog Page

I see a lot of knives, this one included, that have BONE STAG handles. Are these handles bone or are they stag??

Nice knife BTW, I like it a lot.

Nice knife thawk! She is a beauty! Western made some sturdy well put together knives. here is a western I own. Large trapper that has a wicked close and is sturdy as heck.

tjmurphy wrote:I see a lot of knives, this one included, that have BONE STAG handles. Are these handles bone or are they stag??

Nice knife BTW, I like it a lot.

TJ, my understanding is that they are bone. For some reason they didn't advertise them as "jigged" bone. They preferred the term stag bone, or bone stag. I guess back in the day they were trying to make the bone look like stag...
When Boker first came out with delrin handles, they called them "improved stag".
What would we do without the marketing department?

Thanx a lot. I've been wondering that for a while now.

I used "bone stag" in the post, because of the description in the catalog. It is jigged cow bone for sure. I generally go by bone, jigged bone, or smooth bone when describing knives. In Western's catalog descriptions, for what we now call "stag" Western called their antler handle material "Buck Horn".



My other Western knives along with Mr. Bone stag, all similar patterns, in a "Pearl Composition" and two "Stag Delrin" that look to be same handles as Gino's trapper. Yes, they are very solid pocket knives. All of mine open and close like a champ.

On to look for a Buck Horn now.

Those are some good lookin knives Thawk. The pearl is extra swett!

Always found these little Western Pen's to be an attractive and well made knife. ( I believe this is the third or fourth one I own ) This is one I picked up last weekend at an estate sale. Model # 445. The previous owner looks as though he got his money's worth and used the little fella'. Not a whole lotta blade left, the bolster's are roughed up a bit, but still plenty solid for a $5.00 special. Dale

I believe this one is a little 632 with the round bolsters. A great knife.

Love the Westerns you guys are showing !!!Thanks
Heres my favorite from my small Western collection. Model#657. The bone handles look a bit like some of the old Robeson "Strawberry Bone" models. These blades take a razor edge!

Bob

Another genuine bone stag serpentine pen knife to add to the thread. I've posted it other times, but did not have it at the time of the original post. It's a 3 3/8" 652 pattern. Might add that the word "stagged" is often used in catalog descriptions in the same manner as jigged.

thawk, that's a 632 isn't it? Honey of a knife.

FRJ wrote:thawk, that's a 632 isn't it? Honey of a knife.

it is a 652...