All About Pocket Knives

CAN ANY ONE GIVE ME ANY INFO ON THIS OLD KNIFE APPEARS TO BE MILITARY ISSUE

smarter folks will be along. think it's a camillus.

One of my friends has that exact knife...except its condition isn't as good. I'm not sure who it's made by, but I can try to look here in a few days when I go to visit. I think he told me they were made during the Vietnam war.

From Wikipedia: "During the Vietnam War, Camillus again manufactured a large number of knives for the armed forces, for instance a pilot survival knife, a USMC combat knife and a four bladed utility knife."

Here are 2 on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-Camillus-U ... 0813451993
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1972-US-Camillu ... 2a18efbfc4

hope this helps

ON THE LANYARD RING IT IS STAMPED "STEVENSON 45"

Appears to be A Camillus US Military Utility knife.

Should be a year stamped on it somewhere and Camillus stamped on the main blade.

Camillus made bunches of those for Uncle Sam. Imperial also made some of those metal handled utility knives on military contract.

Kingston did one for the Boy Scouts that has thus far evaded me.

It seems the ones produced during the years of the Viet Nam "conflict" fetch a little more money than the ones made later. They are very handy knives and most can be had in the $30 - $60 range, some more, some less depending on year and condition as best I've been able to tell.

Can't tell you about the Stevenson 45 on the bail.

Phil

allen in il. wrote:ON THE LANYARD RING IT IS STAMPED "STEVENSON 45"

Here ya go

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... fe-History

Queen made some too.. John

Hey, neat old knife you got there. Be careful about opening two blades at a time. The backsprings on those can't take the extra strain. You find a lot of 'em with broken backsprings.

Enhanced photo.

Stevenson marked U.S. military four blade utility knives were made by the Robeson Cutlery Co. of Rochester and Perry, New York.

The maker of the Stevenson knives was, for quite some time, a mystery. It was solved to most military collectors satisfaction in the mid-1990's by Frank Traschka (? sp), Dennis Ellingson and others.

There were two versions of the Stevenson knives. Both were marked on the bail. There are no tang marks on any of them.

The earlier version was marked, on the bail, STEVENSON-U.S.A.

Those knives contained a punch blade, a cap-lifter/tin-opener, and a short stubby screw-driver blade that were proprietary to the Robeson Cutlery Co. and used on their 642214 four blade scout/utility knives, as well as on Robeson tang stamped U.S.Army bone handled issue knives from WWII.

Later in the war, the Army mandated that the blades of the knives should all be uniform, regardless of manufacturer and issued specifications to that effect.

The later, 1945, version of the Stevenson reflects that mandated uniformity, as does every such knife made since.

Here are photos of a non-military bone handled Robeson scout/utility made prior to WWII, a bone handled Army knife from WWII, the 1st version Stevenson and a post-war strawberry bone handled one.

Note that they all have a spear master blade and that the punch, cap-lifter/tin-opener and the short stubby screw-driver blades are all the same with only slight variations. The WWII era Stevenson is marked, STEVENSON-U.S.A. on the bail.

Last is a photo of the 2nd version Stevenson. It is marked, STEVENSON-45 on the bail. This knife has the standard mandated blades, as does the knife in the original post.

It is quite possible that the Stevenson marked knives are the rarest, least encountered, all metal U.S. Army scout/utility knives from the WWII era.

You have a very nice example.

Charlie Noyes

I just discovered this site and came across your post which was really helpful. I have a Stevenson U.S.A. pocket knife. If I read your post (and others) correctly then this is an older knife - maybe WWII or older? Does it have much value? I'd leave it to my grandson but not sure he'd appreciate it for how special it is.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Peter

PAB58 wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 3:33 pm I just discovered this site and came across your post which was really helpful. I have a Stevenson U.S.A. pocket knife. If I read your post (and others) correctly then this is an older knife - maybe WWII or older? Does it have much value? I'd leave it to my grandson but not sure he'd appreciate it for how special it is.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Peter

Hey Peter! I can't help you identify your knife , but someone with more knowledge than me will be along eventually who can, so be patient and explore the site in the meantime. BTW, to AAPK! Mark!