All About Pocket Knives

There is a gentleman that runs a small country store near Durham, NC that sells a lot of knives! I got this from him today. It was only $20.00 and I have never seen anything like it! He says he has been selling knives in this store for over 30 years, but is not a collector. He has lots of Case knives as well as a wide assortmant of other names like Schrade (I got an Uncle Henry trapper and an Old Timer trapper from him, both new, USA made), Buck, Winchester, Remington, Bulldog, Puma, Frost, and some others that I can not remember. He has several expensive Case collectors sets. Some of these knives I think have been in his store for years! Here are some pictures of this sailors knife for you experts to analyze! I have kept it in the bag it came in for the time being, although I doubt the knife is that old. I am not that lucky! The knife is made by Camillus. It is not to clear from the photo, but the bag has stamped on it a Coast Guard approval number, and is labeled jack knife with can opener. Any feedback on this would be great!!

Hi Mike:
You should be able to chase the documentation on the package to find a date. Were I you I would not open unless absolutely necessary for the time being. The date may be on package. Could be two(2) digits. You have a nice treasure. It would probably been used in rubber life raft as an emergency cutting tool. A militaria collector could probably help you I.D. Again Nice knife. Thanks for showing,
W.B.

Mossdancer wrote:Hi Mike:
You should be able to chase the documentation on the package to find a date. Were I you I would not open unless absolutely necessary for the time being. The date may be on package. Could be two(2) digits. You have a nice treasure. It would probably been used in rubber life raft as an emergency cutting tool. A militaria collector could probably help you I.D. Again Nice knife. Thanks for showing,
W.B.

Thank you for your reply! The only number I see on the packing is "Coast Guard approval No. 160.043 /1/0. There is a piece of paper in the bag that looks like some sort of instructions, but it is folded and I can not read it!

Hi;
If you are tempted to open. Do it at a seam spread it flat and use a razor blade or DUH a knife, only slit as long as needed. Remove take photo's.
Do not remove preservative. When done replace in bag, force out as much air as possible and reseal. The whole thing could be resealed in a vacuum packer. This is only my suggestion. Take pics of everything, macro all the marks. Verify handle material. There may be a date on blade. Good Luck,
W.B.
Edit P.S. If the preservative is gooey use rubber gloves or you will get it everywhere. Work on a spread out newspaper or?? Lay down back ground paper and take photo's

Hello Mike, I would not open the package. Even though you could reseal with a foodsaver it would not be the same. I believe this is a verson of a sailors knife. A true sailors knife has a marlin spike that will fold out. This is used in braiding eyes for picking and rigging into hemp and manilla ropes. They also are used to braid back the ends to prevent unraveling of the ropes and to pry ropes apart to inpect the core rope. This knife does look like its use was intended as an emergency knife as Mossdancer stated. If your carefull you may be able to open enough to read tang stamp with-in the package itself, it looks like you have the room in the package. Be carefull though so you dont damage package. You may just look on ebay for styles that are the same and start your search from their. Good luck and keep us posted on what you find.
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Jim

Looks like a rope knife, see some here on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WW-II-US-COAST-GUAR ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/US-Coast-Guard-Navy ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAMILLUS-COLUMBIAN- ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/KUTMASTER-COAST-GUA ... dZViewItem

Here's one with can opener:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Camillus-Knives-A ... dZViewItem

Luis

This COAST GUARD knife reminded me of my father-in-law.
One day I took him out fishing in my boat on the IL. River.
The river was running swift neer the dam. I stoped and told him to throw the anchor out the bow. He did and let the rope slide through his hands.
Then at the end of the rope he just watch it flop in the river, because he for got to tie it to the boat. By BY anchor. So I sang the song ("Anchor away my boy, anchor away.")

mikekoz,

That whole package is a nice find...

You might try posting this in the Knife Lore forum...with a heading like "Camillus Question"...as Camco (Tom) was a long time Camillus employee, and he checks in there once in a while.

Just a thought.

Bill

I did not want to open the package so I bought the last one at the store on my way home! He did not have the bag for it. This should help get a little more info about this knife! Thanks to all of you in advance!

The Camillus S702 is still listed as "former-may use" in the U.S.Coast Guard Equipment List (here's 1 page, PDF), the current version is the
Revere Survival Products Jackknife.

The picture is three on my rigging knives and marlin spikes, the black Camillus in the middle is the civilian version, the U.S. Government version has bolsters and jigged handle.

Luis

Mike, this knife looked familar so I went diggin in the knife safes and I also have this exact knife(out of pkg/less rope) also. SOOO I got to looking in Levines #4,#3,#2 and all the 1980's knife value books I have. No luck for an exact match but page200 of Levines #4 and pg 166 of Levines#2 shows this style camillus less the can opener and with wood handles. Disc. listed as Camillus/cutlery co./Camillus, N.Y./U.S.A.//approved/USCG/1944 Q5 lifeboat knife,wood handles:$45(Similar Kutmaster:$65.) It is in the Sailor knife section. I'll keep pokin around and maybe we can find out the exact history of this little number.
__________
Jim

Thank you! I am guessing this is not that old. The gentleman I bought it from thinks he got it in his tore about 20 years ago. He told me after I got his last one that he knew if he kept them around long enough, someone would buy them! This is new to me, but I remember reading somewhere on this forum about stainless steel blades not being put on knives until the 1970's??? I could be wrong, but I do not think knives were made with stainless steel before then. I have Levine's guide 5th edition, and I saw the same knife with the wooden handle that you saw.
Thank you again!

hi everyone. Stainless steel was invented just around the time of the start of WWI. However, because of the war effort, it was in scarce supply so was not used for pocket knife blades until the early 1920s. I have few examples from this time period but they are Sheffield-made. I don't know when US makers started using stainless steel but am very interested to find out. Of course, in the early days, there was considerable resistance to to the new-fangled steel so some companies may not have used it until much later. s-k

Don Luis hit the nail on the head.
That is a rope knife made for the U.S. Coast Guard. The piece of paper inside the package is mainly instructions for using the can opener.

9ball

In reference to the photo offered by Don Luis- I have a Kabar rigger's knife that is exactly like the black handled with marlinspike. It is stamped on the tang-"KA-BAR, OLEAN NY". "Ka-bar" was after 1951. It has "KA-BAR RIGGING KNIFE" engraved on the handle.
I have seen this knife several times identified as Camillus, so I wonder who really made it.

Hi radicat:
If possible post photos of all views of your knife. If you can, get close ups of all stamps. The KA-BAR Olean you allude to was first used in 1923 as a union cutlery brand. The brand lasted till 1953. Pa knives might be able to give you more info on it.He has a considerable interest in union as they were in Tidioute ,Pa. before Olean. He should be along before long. If not you might try a pri msg to him.
W.B.

Don Luis wrote:
The picture is three on my rigging knives and marlin spikes, the black Camillus in the middle is the civilian version, the U.S. Government version has bolsters and jigged handle.

Luis

Hi Don, fantastic knives I am very interested in these knives.. Here is the government issue of the marlin spike with the bolsters and the jigged handles..

Sunburst

Hello Folks ,

That is a nice knife you have there Sunburst. You need to send that up this way to confirm.

Just happened to have some out for maintance. Here is an image of the four line Camillus Grizzly_Dog informed us about. It lost its bail between then and now, but still a fine ole Vet.

Radicat, A few images would help.

Old Soldiers never die.......Hell, they don't even fade away

9ball

My mistake gents. Being new to the forum, I didn't realize I had tripped into the Q & A. I was really just pondering, more than asking anyway. My knife is pictured on page 171 of Levine's 3rd. Ed. I think just because Kabar's manufacturer had the patent it isn't necessarily true that they ever made one. The only difference I can detect on looking again is the slight difference in the curvature of the point and the Kabar having a swedge from the nail nick to the point. The odd stamp has OLEAN NY in letters only half the size of KA-BAR above it. I collect Camillus, so I'm hoping it is made by them. I got it on ebay item # 270077515721 Thanks just the same.