All About Pocket Knives

I received this Utica jack today, nice little knife, not in the best condition but still a pretty nice addition to the collection. After I clean it up a little bit hopefully it will regain some of it's former glory... I've been searching the archives here for any info on Utica tang stamps and perhaps getting an approximate date on this one, but am not finding much here on the old Utica knives. I'm sure I am just looking in the wrong spot! Can anyone point me in the direction of some info on Utica tang stamps or some other idea of how I can gain some info on this new pickup? Thanks much to all the kind folks here always eager to help out those of us in quest of knowledge! Can't learn if ya don't ask...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220927320883?ss ... 1439.l2649

(sorry I have to post a link to the pics instead of just posting the pics. I can't seem to save those ebay pictures in a format that allows me to post them here...I'm working on it.)

Hi, Mike,
from what I gather from Goins Encyc. (if I am gathering correctly) the knife was made between 1910--1937.
Utica's "Kutmaster" trademark took over from around 1937.

Wow, I could tell it was old, but that really pushes it back there! The scales are in really good shape for being such an oldster...no cracks or chips.

Sweet, Mike. Tip bolsters, full blades and a righteous price. What more could you ask for.

Yeah dude, knice knife!! Congrats!!

Here are a couple of the auction pictures, for the sake of having them once the auction goes away.

I have the twin to that knife but mine bears the Seneca tang stamp. Seneca was another brand that Utica used from 1932-1942. My knife has a couple of "issues" having come to me by way of the last POS roundtable (missing bolster, no snap on the main clip blade) but it is still a nice example of that era and style. They are well made little knives.

Phil

I've found and saved a few other tang stamp charts that have the different company tang stamps and their respective eras, Imperial, Schrade, etc, does anyone know if such a thing exists for Utica? or were they not quite as structured or linear with theirs?
Phil, do you think that since your twin knife with the Seneca stamp was from between 1932-42, and since the one I have is essentially the same knife, that it too was made between 32-42?
Lately I've been feeling compelled to find out as much info as I can about each new knife I pick up, then writing it all down in a little notebook, so that some day when I'm gone and my son inherits a big ol' box of knives, he'll have a little guide to help him figure out what is what! Not that I plan on checkin' out anytime soon mind you, but the older I get the more I am sensing my own mortality and coming to grips with it! Anyways that is why all the questions, not tryin' to be a pain!

Mike I really can't be sure the production time frames ran concurrently for the two tang stamps. Goins' Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings does not give a clear cut off date for the Utica tang stamp, only that the Kutmaster stamp was introduced in 1937 and eventually replaced all other tang stamps for the company. I can easily imagine that the two knives were produced in the same era as it appears that much of the same tooling would have been utilized in production, but I can't say in total confidence that they were made during the same time frame.

Phil