All About Pocket Knives

M Klein & Sons, Chicago. No blade play at all. Great snap and a groovy half stop. I've looked some, and best guess I've seen is that Camillus made these. I'm not sure when. I've got several TL-29s in various conditions, some better than others. I think this is probably the best one. The bottom pin sticks out enough to tell me there was a bail at some point. Wish it was still there. Fun stuff!

I'm wondering what the H on the tang stands for.

The "H" is a date code of some sort, but I don't remember how to read it.

It's got to be either Camillus or Ulster. Kutmaster told me themselves they didn't make the "M. Klein and Sons" marked ones. I don't have a Klein or Kutmaster TL-29 type, but I do have three hawkbills--all are great knives. The newest, Kutmaster marked one I bought a couple of months back when Amazon had them on sale for $11, is just as well made as the older ones are. Only problem is, new Kutmasters are extremely stiff out of the box, and it takes a bit of use to loosen them up--which is exactly the way they were 40 years ago. My grandfather remembers how stiff his was when he was issued it by the coal mine he worked for.

Dad liked Kleins obviously. Here's another. This one doesn't even pretend not to be plastic handled. But the carbon blade isn't in bad shape. Could come in handy.

I have a couple of Kleins, one an electrician and a stockman. I had seen many of the electricians, but had not seen a stockman until I bought this one recently. My understanding is Camillus made the stockman and probably a lot of the others. My electrician does not have a date code letter on it.

Those are in great shape. What a beautiful stockman. I've never seen one either.

This is from my file on Kline & Sons. It does not mention the letter H. At one time I thought it may have been a code to which company made them and I may have more information lurking some here.

"Email from Klein to Aimus Moses:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for contacting Klein Tools with your question about how Klein Tools letter date code tang stamp on our knives is read. Klein Tools began using a letter code on the tang stamp of knives that we made for dating purposes beginning in 1972 and we started that year with the letter "I". Then the next letter in the alphabet "J" was used for the next year 1973 and so on. Klein has make mistakes in our letter code date tang stampings in 1979 by omitting the letter "Q" and we skipped on to the letter "R", then another mistake was made in 1997 by using both letters "I" and "J" for that year. Once we hit the letter "Z" in 1988, we started over with the letter "A", not with double letter date codes tang stamps. Therefore a Klein knife with a tang stamp letter "A" date code =1989. We are currently at the letter "Y" =2012. When we hit the letter "Z" again next year, it is yet to be seen what type of tang stamp code Klein Tools will use on knives made after the letter "Z". Prior to 1972, Klein Tools used a 3-letter code tang stamp on our knives, though not every knife was stamped and would not have those 3-letters stamped on the knife anywhere. Klein Tools has never used a 2 -letter code date stamp. If you have a Klein marked knife that has a 2 -letter code tang stamped on it, the knife was most likely stamped that way by a cutlery manufacturer that we contracted to make the knife for us and we have no information on how that letter code date tang stamp would work, or who the exact contracted knife manufacturer was that made the knife. I hope this helps answer your question and thank you for your interest in Klein Tools. If I can be of further service to you please feel free to contact Klein Tools.
Regards,
Bill
Klein Tools"

That's fascinating. Thank you. It puts my knife at 1995 by my math. I'd have bet it was older. In reading between the lines there, I see that he says "by a cutlery manufacturer" and doesn't name a specific company. I suppose they could've used different companies over the years, depending on who offered the best deal. This is good stuff! Worth waking early on a Saturday for.

I’m suspicious that “Bill” was not correct in his response and that “H” might have been used before “I”.

Why would they have started date coding system with “H” or “I” and not “A”?

If their knife history had started seven years prior to that, it might make sense, but I’m pretty sure they were around longer than that.

My Dad was an electrician and I have some of his knives . There is a HOLUB and a Camillus and I’m pretty sure I recall an M. Klein, as welll, though I haven’t seen it in quite a while. Probably in a tool box, out of sight.

Charlie

I have the exact same knife complete but no year

Tyetye71 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 02, 2025 6:34 pm I have the exact same knife complete but no year

Welcome to the forum, Tyretye. Maybe your post post will stir up some new info about this knife.