All About Pocket Knives

tongueriver wrote:An excellent treatise on the 'scout' type canopeners. Thank you, Jim! Somewhere in the past threads there was some info on dating these types but I don't remember now. I have used the hawkbill type found on modern scout knives; it is ok but not great. I have found that the old military thingies are really good, but one has to put them into some kind of slippie in the pocket or it will cut one's pants and one's legs.
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OLDE CUTLER wrote:I have always been amazed at the bewildering variety of designs that have been used by knife manufacturers to produce can opener blades on pocket knives. Seems like everyone thought they had invented a better mouse trap. There have been openers that have looked like hawk bills, potato diggers, lobster claws, hatchet heads, mini knife blades, one piece, two piece and others. Some worked good, some hardly at all. Some manufacturers started with one design, then later changed to another. Since I have quite a wide assortment of camper/scout knives on hand, I thought I would try to see which design was the most efficient. I am sure others will have pictures and comments on these as well as other styles of can openers.
The most common one I have is the "hawkbill".
L-R, Case, Remington, Western, Kabar, Ulster, Hammer, Forest Master, Rodgers
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L-R, Sabre, No Name, Atco, No Name 619, Robeson, 114OT, Craftsman, Jowika
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L-R, Camillus 99, Camillus Mil., Camco, Imperial Kamp King Custom, Imperial IMPC4D, No Name, Imperial Kamp King, Imperial Scout
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The potato digger style
L-R, Veritable Sauzede, C. K. Co., Enderes, Henry Sears, Camillus, N.Y.Knife, Buster Brown, Ulster Scout
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Blade type.
L-R, Winchester store, L. F. & C., Kent, Utica, Colonial, Kutmaster, No Name
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Variation on the hawk bill without the sharp point
L-R, Colonial Hobo, Ideal
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Pal had at least two different styles, two piece, and a one piece "lobster claw"
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In my opinion probably the best can opener, the Swiss Army Knife
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RobesonsRme.com wrote:Robeson's prewar can-opener was also a cap-lifter.

I've never tried to open a can with one.

Charlie Noyes

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Robeson's prewar can-opener was also a cap-lifter.

I've never tried to open a can with one.

Charlie Noyes

knife7knut wrote:If nobody has any objections I would like to add a few more to the mix. My interest was piqued when I started to read this most informative post. I went back through my collection to see just how many I could come up with. Never realized there were so many variations.
As an aside;the Robeson that Charlie posted was an early version;the later one was shaped slightly different and I have enclosed a pic of both styles.
The Pal opener pictured was obviously a holdover from the Remington years as the later models were changed to the hawkbill style.Pics are enclosed of both.
I've also added some pics of French style openers that came in the champagne pattern and similar utility knives from other countries in Europe as well as a few military pieces. The varieties are mind blowing.

tongueriver wrote:An excellent treatise on the 'scout' type canopeners. Thank you, Jim! Somewhere in the past threads there was some info on dating these types but I don't remember now. I have used the hawkbill type found on modern scout knives; it is ok but not great. I have found that the old military thingies are really good, but one has to put them into some kind of slippie in the pocket or it will cut one's pants and one's legs.
P-38001.jpg

OLDE CUTLER wrote:Thanks for all your comments on the can opener types and the excellent additional pictures. I too learned something from this, the one that I was referring to as "a potato digger" style is actually called a French opener. Makes sense as my Veritable Sauzede French knife has this type. I referred to it as a "potato digger" type because growing up on the farm as a kid, we had one farm field that came right up to the buildings, so we planted a huge garden behind the garage. We had an old single row potato planter that my dad would pull behind the tractor while my older brother would sit on the seat of the planter with the bucket of seed potatoes. My mom had cut the seed potatoes so that each piece had an "eye" which was the seed. As my dad pulled the planter, my brother would look straight down as a wheel in the middle turned and drop the seed potatoes for the wheel to take down and plant in the furrow. Later in the summer my brother and I would take the "potato digger", which was a long handled shovel like tool out to dig up some of the potatoes. It had a working end that looked much like the can openers, but was of very heavy construction to be used as a lever. My brother would push it into the ground beside the potato row and pull sideways to lever them up and I would shake off the dirt and put them into a pail. I was probably 6 or 7 years old then (so in other words this was about 60 years ago).