All About Pocket Knives

I thought that the ad copy on this box of 1970's era Imperial KAMP KING knives was funny.

Hammer Forged Blades? Right....

I can guarantee you that - Number One...no inexpensive shell handled knife made in the US was ever made with hammer forged blades.

Number Two...no pocket knife made in the US after WWII was made with hammer forged blades.

While hammer forging was the norm in the cutlery industry for many years (due to the lack of machinery in steel mills for precision rolling of steel)...as technology developed by the 1930's even the high quality firms like Case had gone to stamping of blades out of rolled flat sheet steel. Certainly the makers of inexpensive shell handled knives like Imperial never hammer forged the blades of these inexpensive knives, even when they were introduced in the late 30's.

By the end of WWII hammer forging was phased out completely (at least in the USA) for factory made pocket knife blades. It remained in use (and remains in use today) for some kitchen cutlery like the Lamson Sharp forged kitchen cutlery.

Now you've done it Steve. Done went and burst my bubble.

Somebody just forgot to tell the sales & advertising department.

But the guys on the box are swinging hammers ..... .... Kinda like hand honed,Thats when they wipe the blade with a rag before putting it in the wrapper/box

reddirtknives wrote:But the guys on the box are swinging hammers ..... .... Kinda like hand honed, Thats when they wipe the blade with a rag before putting it in the wrapper/box

That makes it even funnier because HAND hammering...as in using a hammer and anvil...was phased out way earlier, probably before 1910 for pocket knife blades. Forging was still the norm at that time but using power trip hammers.

You got ripped off, Steve! No doubt!

And now for the rest of the story...

A tribute to the Hammer Brand logo (1973). They were called the "Open Stock" or the "HB" series.
The blades were "roll stamped" to give the appearance of true hammer forging.
There never was a shield that ever said or showed the Hammer Brand logo - neither NYKC or Imperial,
other than this set.

There's more (another pic from a flyer) at schrades-r-us site. I'll see if I can find it real quick... a little better detail.

Looks as if the HB1 stamped on the box would have been the Barlow's!!!

(It IS FUNNY and I still like um - no matter what. Nice NOS find!!!)

..... Joe

Schrade USA actually did a set of 4 knives that were advertised as hand forged, although they could have been rolled steel....I gotta dig that set out and ask my relatives about it!

Tom

If I remember correctly they were 200th Anniversary knives for the Army, Navy, Marines 1775-1975

There's that Hand Honed claim again = to wiping the metal shards off the blade before packaging lol.... gotta love the low budget ploys

[/u]oh yeah I forgot to mention... Note the Specially ribbed nonslip "Ebonnaire" handles

Oh, but contraire, DJ! These things actually are hand edged!!!
In-fact to the point to where the grinds are so unequal from one side to the other,
that you would think that they gave them to the new guy to practice on!

...... Joe

LOL, I do like learnin bout all this stuff tho. Thanks for the lesson knifeaholic

Earlier advertisements stated that the blades on these models were "Scientifically Tempered".