All About Pocket Knives

I have a question about early Remingtons. Can someone enlighten me as to the reason that a lot of early multi bladed Rems. will have different tang stamps. I just found an R3963 which I think is a cattle knife due to blade layout. A clip and spey on top end with a punch on the bottom.

The clip and spey both have 21-24 stamp ie circle REMINGTON/UMC and the punch has 24-33 ie circle REMINGTON/UMC with Made in USA around circle. Did they use punches before 24, whats the guess, was that particular station just out of older punches or was there a surplus of 21-24 blades that needed to be used up.

Would it be a proper assumption that this knife was made in the 1924-1925 era? If so that is about as close as you will get on an 83-84 year old knife.

Any replies as answers or commentaries will be appreciated, thank you.
wb

Yes, Remington had been using punch blades from the very begining. Their first catalog has numerous knives with punch blades illustrated. I found alot of authentic knives that have different date blades in them. I believe its just a carry over from earlier stamps. They made so many different patterns with different blade configurations that it would been near impossible to use up all of the blades that had the 21-24 stamp at the same time. I'd guess they would carry over for at least 2 years maybe more. Your assumption of the knife in question being made in 24-25 would be a very good one.