All About Pocket Knives

I got this one off Scott a while back, sort of with the idea of revamping it. At the time the tang stamp was very difficult to read but I recall Dale (Orvet) saying that what could be made out might be yet another variation on the Camillus tang stamps that he'd not come across before.

Well, I finally got round to cleaning it up, very, very gently, and would like to have your opinion on the tang stamps:

On the main, which was a spear point at some stage in it's life, the following:



From what I can see, it reads: Camillus/CutleryCO/CamillusNY - no sign of "USA" that I can see

On the secondary (probably pen) blade, which is worn to a nubbin, the same wording has been applied although it looks like a different stamp was used:



Now, your opinions please. As you will see from the pics below, this knife has worked hard in it's life and I have a lot of respect for that. On the other hand, if at all workable and possible I'd like to give it a new lease on life. This would mean either finding and old knife or two that has the same blade configuration but with better blades, and "repair" this one, or it would mean making up all new blades for it.
The other alternative of course, and especially if these turn out to be unusual markings, is to leave it as is, and retire it gracefully. On the one hand that is my first inclination, and one of the reasons it has been laying here untouched for some months. On the other, it has some really nice handle scales with tons of character that would be just too cool to lug around as an EDC - but for that it needs blades...





Your thoughts?

I'd put new blades in it.

I tried buyin a half whittler with a broken spring off my nieghbor a couple weeks ago with a stamp like that--if I can get my hands on it again I'll try to get a pic. Be on the look out for it he sez it's going to E-bay

I thought this knife looked familiar......

Deciding what to do now, can sometimes be helped by thinking of what will happen to the knife if you've seen all of your life....then what would you hope the new owner would want? Weird way to think, but that's how I look at things sometimes.

Willem, as near as I can figure that three line tang stamp was used from about the end of World War I until about 1933. They are rare enough that I haven't seen a lot of them. As far as I have been able to determine at this point there were 3 and perhaps 4 different three line tang stamps used by Camillus prior to the introduction of the four line tang stamp, circa 1933.

2 of the three line tang stamps were used on knives made around World War I and those two stamps appeared on the master blade and the secondary blade of the knives. From what Tom Williams has told me the word "CUTLERY" only appeared on Camillus tang stamps prior to 1946.

I have two examples of your tang stamp in my collection, both easily dated to 1932 as they appear on the reproduction of the George Washington quill knife made in 1932. In 1933 Camillus was using the four-line tang stamp as we can see on this example from the 1933 Chicago's World Fair.

If your knife were mine, I would preserve it as is and not change anything. At least not until we have a better idea of when these were made, and in what quantities. The three line tang stamps are pretty uncommon. I hate to see history destroyed, especially when there are so few remaining examples of it.

The three line tang stamps are pretty uncommon. I hate to see history destroyed, especially when there are so few remaining examples of it.

That's all I needed to know. It will be retired gracefully. I would be glad to give it a place of honor in my small collection, but I do feel that it might be better off in a real Camillus collection, especially back in the USA, as in the final analysis it is a piece of Americana, so if someone here is interested in swapping me for a similar knife with as good a set of bone scales and shield, that I can revamp without destroying valuable history, or that might be good for EDC as is, I'd be glad to - on condition it is retired in your collection and not revamped.

Willem - PM inbound

Got it thanks Dale, and replied