All About Pocket Knives

A friend of mine came up to me this morning at coffee and showed me this knife that he had gotten at an auction in a box of misc. stuff, not much money involved I'm sure! anyway after cleaning it up a little , I was able to make out the tang stamp as "tomahawk- Clinton , Mass." It has rather a strange looking butt cap and black and red and brass spacers between a cracked ice handle. I did some research online and found out that they only ,made around 1000 of these sets in 1935-37. It was a small axe or hatchet with the knife inserted into the handle and the butt of the knife making the butt of the axe handle and also had a leather sheath to carry it in; I believe the axe had a hard checkered black grip with "Tomahawk " printed on it. The knife has been heavily sharpened and it missing the Indian Head medallion to cover up the tang screw and nut. If he had the complete set , it would be worth about $400-$500? Interesting anyway in any condition. thanks for looking Terry

Friends with interest are good to have Terry. Interesting discovery.
Good research, thanks for sharing Terry.

I better slow down on I-80 in western Nebraska as I go thru twice a year (at least)
And hey Terry, with your skills with knives I know you possess,
just a thought for ya...
Fit a buffalo head nickle in that butt cap for a cool finished up knife

Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives

thanks for the response guys. Stag man if you ever can slow down for a few minutes, I'm just 3 miles north of I80, watch for the Lodgepole exit, I'm in the west end of town just one block north of hwy 30. I did make a guy a knife in 2014 with his birthday quarter for a butt plate (1965). It was a little hard to fit into a sable horn but I guess he liked it. sending a photo. Terry

Terry: Very interesting. Never saw a handle with that combination of elements. At first I thought the knife blade had been extremely worn down. But with your explanation of it fitting into the axe handle, no doubt the blade had to be very slim to fit inside the handle. Unique.

QS, I think the blade has been worn down quite a little, if you notice the photo (taken off of the internet)It shows the knife blade as issued. but your right it could not have been a very "heavy duty" blade to fit in the handle. This is the first one I have run into. Terry

What a neat old knife1 Too bad the hatchet wasn't with it. Sort of reminds me of a custom knife that (I believe)Ron Lake made years ago that featured a tiny bird & trout knife inside a standard size hunter.

Interesting find!

I live a stone's throw from Clinton MA. I have heard of theses but have never seen a complete set in person. The only part of one I have ever found was a knife blade missing the handles but still had the Tomahawk stamp.

knife7knut wrote:What a neat old knife1 Too bad the hatchet wasn't with it. Sort of reminds me of a custom knife that (I believe)Ron Lake made years ago that featured a tiny bird & trout knife inside a standard size hunter.

If Ron Lake made one it would be top notch,
Steve, thanks for the response, that is interesting that you live that close to Clinton, Mass. Maybe I'll run across a hatchet some day? Terry

terryl308 wrote:

knife7knut wrote:What a neat old knife1 Too bad the hatchet wasn't with it. Sort of reminds me of a custom knife that (I believe)Ron Lake made years ago that featured a tiny bird & trout knife inside a standard size hunter.

If Ron Lake made one it would be top notch,
Steve, thanks for the response, that is interesting that you live that close to Clinton, Mass. Maybe I'll run across a hatchet some day? Terry

I think that Knife World published an article about these many years ago.

The knife is severely worn down, maybe 50% blade loss. It is also missing the brass "Indian" insert in the pommel. These did NOT only come with the axe combo, they were also sold separately with their own special sheath. I have both the axe combo set up and a knife in it's own Tomahawk marked sheath. Steve, you're correct, Cindy Taylor did a great article on the Tomahawk axe/knife combos in Knife World years back. She was unaware of the knives being sold separately in their own sheaths at the time.

Gunsil wrote:The knife is severely worn down, maybe 50% blade loss. It is also missing the brass "Indian" insert in the pommel. These did NOT only come with the axe combo, they were also sold separately with their own special sheath. I have both the axe combo set up and a knife in it's own Tomahawk marked sheath. Steve, you're correct, Cindy Taylor did a great article on the Tomahawk axe/knife combos in Knife World years back. She was unaware of the knives being sold separately in their own sheaths at the time.

Some pictures would be great. I know I'd like to see what they look like.

Ken

Gunsil, I too would love to see a photo of the knife alone model, wondering , did it have the detent/ plunger/keeper on the bottom of the grip? I mentioned in my original post that the knife was "heavily sharpened and missing the indian head medallion". The web page for the background shows the medallion. Thanks for posting a photo if you have one. Terry

Dadgummit!! I just took pics of the separate one and my axe combo, can't remember how to upload photos directly from my computer!!

Gunsil wrote:Dadgummit!! I just took pics of the separate one and my axe combo, can't remember how to upload photos directly from my computer!!

Gunsil, go to the first page in aapk and click on jerryd6818 post called "AAPK Tips and Tricks" and you will find his help on downloading photos. That will help you out. Terry

Here is the one with it's own sheath. Note it is ricasso marked "MOHAWK" and has a flat ground blade. It does have the detent and is just like ones I have seen ricasso marked Tomahawk.

Here is the knife and axe combo with original sheath and belt. Note that this knife has an unmarked ricasso and a saber ground blade. The original belt has a money pocket on the inside of the belt.

Thanks for sharing them gunsil. This entire thread has been new to me.

Gunnsil, thanks for posting the photo's , very interesting! Terry