All About Pocket Knives

IF NEWER WINCHESTER POCKET KNIVES HAVE THE YEAR ON THE TANG AND MODEL WITH THE OLD WINCHESTER LOGO ARE THEY MADE BY BLUE GRASS CUTLERY? WHAT DO THE CHINA ONES USUALLY SAY. AND FINALLY ARE THEY BOTH JUNKERS NOW OR ARE THEY WORTH BUYING. DID I READ ON THIS SITE THAT GERBER AND QUEEN MAKE WINCHESTER AND BLUE GRASS IS THE OWNER? I HAVE A CHANCE TO BUY SOME BUT DON'T WANT TO GET BURNED IN THE PROCESS. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR THE HELP.

I have a few Winchesters, only one with the "C" word on it, and they are really quality knives. I'm pretty sure the Chinese made ones will have "China" on the tang stamp. I also believe all of the 3 knife collector sets are Chinese made. If it says;

WINCHESTER
-Trade Mark-
Made in USA

you're good to go! Hope this helps.

Here's a shot of some of my kids.

Thanks for the help redrider, they look like well built knives. Can anyone tell me more what role if any Gerber and Queen played along with Bluegrass. THANKS AGAIN.

AFAIK, BlueGrass has/had a license to use the Winchester name. I don't think they made the knives themselves. Queen made just about all of their premium knives. I don't know if they are still manufacturing them. The Queen made knives are very well constructed, as they should be. Many were made with tooling similar to the Case Classics series (also made by Queen in most cases). I don't know if you are familiar with the Turn of the Century series of Winchester knives. All large frames with abalone handles. I have all of them but the huge display knives. Think they were around 10 inches closed.

All the new ones I have seen lately have been Chinese made, but that is not to say that they are junk. As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I didn't know that Gerber made any of them but I am no expert by any means.

Thanks needbucks, i would be interested in photo's of the turn of the century winchester knives if you can. im not familiar with them. thanks again.

I've got a few of those black box Winchesters from Bluegrass too. I picked them up when I was building the Case Classics collection several years ago and would appreciate any insight given as to general worth today. They're nice knives and, as mentioned, compare to the Case Classics in build and quality. I know the Winchester fixed blades went to China several years ago while Bluegrass was still putting out Winchester Folders. Oops....I just checked and Bluegrass is still advertising on the back cover of Knife World and their website says their knives are made in America. Is it possible that two companies have the license to make Winchester folders? I'm offically confused.

I believe Blue Grass has the license to distribute Winchester Knives. They also own the Primble trademark. It is my understanding from talking to Tim Scott(son of owner of Blue Grass Cutlery) that in the beginning they leased a production line from Queen and made the Winchester, Case Classics, and Primbles there at Queen. Later they started actually manufacturing the knives in Ohio in there own factory. They currently have a line of Winchesters made in China but also still make knives in the Ohio Plant.

winchester907 wrote:Thanks needbucks, i would be interested in photo's of the turn of the century winchester knives if you can. im not familiar with them. thanks again.

Your welcome winchester907

There is a of the Turn of the Century canoe on eBay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Winchester-Knife-Ca ... 1e63cc373a

I can probably post pics of all of them this p.m. when I have more time to look them up in my database.

Here are some 1930's Winchester knives that have never been messed with if you want to compare bone handles.

Beautiful Knives Bert!!

You never cease to amaze me.

KEEP IT UP!

Willie

Here are a couple more I have laying around. The cattle knife is one of my favorites even though it had some poor storage thru the years. This has to be an early Winchester right after they bought out Napanoch with that double fluted punch blade stamped 4/7/08.

I'm throwing this out there just in case it helps someone date recent Winchesters. I have a 2004 dated (on the box) Winchester stockman with plastic pseudo-stag scales. It has an oval shield marked "WINCHESTER". Mark side of the clip blade is etched "WINCHESTER", pile side tang stamped "STAINLESS" over "STEEL". There are no other markings on the knife anywhere.
Fit and finish are really pretty decent. Snap is good, but not overly strong...none of the blades have any wobble.
The box bears the apparent model number of 22-01327. Text on box reads:
"WINCHESTER is a registered trademark of Olin Corporation and is used with permission"
also: "Carolina Knife and Tool / 14200 SW 72nd Ave. / Portland. OR 97224 / Made in China"

The address is Gerber's. I bought the knife at Wal-Mart for something like $12 out of sheer curiosity. I'm not trying to evaluate or endorse the knife...just thought the info might be helpful.

Sanders Knives wrote:I believe Blue Grass has the license to distribute Winchester Knives. They also own the Primble trademark. It is my understanding from talking to Tim Scott(son of owner of Blue Grass Cutlery) that in the beginning they leased a production line from Queen and made the Winchester, Case Classics, and Primbles there at Queen. Later they started actually manufacturing the knives in Ohio in there own factory. They currently have a line of Winchesters made in China but also still make knives in the Ohio Plant.

Does anyone have an example of the Ohio made Winchesters by Bluegrass?

The 1987-88 Winchesters were made by Queen. After that they really started to mix things up and the lineage begins to get foggy. I do know that I had a couple early 90's Winchesters that had celluloid handles that gassed out and affected some mint knives that were close by; they were Waterfall Cel. You can see the original Waterfall Whittler on the bottom right next to a Xmas Tree that I sold. All the black jigged bone knives are 1987-88 vintage made on old tooling. The Xmas Tree was beautiful and hadn't shown any problems when this pict was taken a couple years ago.
The Stag Whittler was made in 1991 and may be an Ohio example.

Here are two that were re-handled in mammoth ivory; these might be the Ohio made variety:
1991 Whittler 1992 toothpick

Elvis, I saw a Winchester banana lockback (with the rifle shield) go for $150 at a gun show in Joplin Mo about 3 months ago. It was in the box and was the same as the one posted above. The dealer had $200 on it. I was surprised by what it sold for. I don't know if that is an average price or not, but it was an all cash deal.

Joe

All the Winchesters that I have or had, were made by Queen for BGC.......this is the first time that I have heard of the Ohio Plant. I'm curious to see what the fit and finish is like on them.

Nice Cartridge Series knife!

I love the look they have. Just picked up 2 from SMKW, a clasp and large congress, both with cell handles which I will probably regret but really love the look. They were too pretty to pass up.

Thanks. .........I didn't realize that SMKW sold them.

Beware of the evil Waterfall Celluloid, guys. Take my word for it.

Here are a few pictures of the Winchesters I just bought from SMKW. I know it's like pulling the pin on a grenade buying celluloid handled knives but I couldn't pass these two up. The tortoise cell on the clasp knife has such amazing depth, which I tried to capture in the photos.

Already had a charcoal/ruby/copper seahorse whittler and one in waterfall. I'm letting them air and keeping them away from other knives just to be safe. Too bad someone hasn't come up with a product to stabilize celluloid handle material.

Those are BEAUTY'S!!

Thanks johnnie!

1967redrider wrote:I have a few Winchesters, only one with the "C" word on it, and they are really quality knives. I'm pretty sure the Chinese made ones will have "China" on the tang stamp. I also believe all of the 3 knife collector sets are Chinese made. If it says;

WINCHESTER
-Trade Mark-
Made in USA

you're good to go! Hope this helps.

I think they where made by Carolina Knife and Tool Company in 2005 anyway.

JACKNIFEBEN wrote:Here are some 1930's Winchester knives that have never been messed with if you want to compare bone handles.

Now those are the real thing.Nice wow+