All About Pocket Knives

Just got this little Western 652 and was wondering about what age it is. I have Harvey Platts book but the tang stamp is not quite the same as he lists. It has "Western" on the top line, "Boulder" on the 2nd line and "Colo.U.S.A. on the bottom line. I believe it has a delrin jigged handle. thanks in advance. Terry

I can get you within 20 years or so. Delrin handles make it after Dupont opened their Delrin plant in 1960. (An important date to remember when dating some knives) Give Delrin a few years to catch on with the knife companies so say 1965-1970 as a start date. Western sold out to Coleman in 1984 so I'm going to say your knife is somewhere between those years.

Western was one of the first cutlers to adopt Delrin as a knife handle material.

Western replaced the use of stag and bone with Delrin in 1961 and dropped references to Boulder Colo in the stamps between the 1972 and 1973 model years.

So 1961 to 1972 on this one.