All About Pocket Knives

I picked up a "Sabre Japan 49" pocket knife on eBay in a lot. The knife appears to have carbon steel blades with bone scales. It seems well made! I can't find much information about these old Sabre knives. I know they were made by Cole National out of Cleveland Ohio. Also, they started with no pattern numbers and then went to the two digit and then the three digit. Does anyone know the age of these knives? Also, I would like to verify if the scales are in fact bone.

Please show us some pictures of your knife.
Thank you.

As Joe said, we like pictures. Jerry and many other excellent members have contributed to a very helpful illustrated thread on how to post pics here on AAPK which will hopefully make it easy for you.

Sabre was a brand used on knives made in the USA, Germany, Japan, China, and probably a host of other countries. I suspect over time a lot of different cutlers got involved with producing Sabre-branded knives (thought I've never successfully identified one). I just so happen to have a soft spot for Sabre Japan knives (never found a Sabre USA or Germany, and the China knives aren't up to the standards of the mid-20th century Sabre Japan knives). They are generally well-made, especially in the larger-sized knives, some of them have some compelling old bones (especially the Barlows), and they can be had for excellent prices.

Out of deference, I will wait to post pics until J529A posts some (or indicates he can't), but ultimately I'd like to see a nice, near-comprehensive (and information-packed) Sabre Japan thread. Seems like now would be as good a time as any, no? I had a whole mess of Sabres photographed with other Japanese knives and general "rummage box" pickups over the years, so I started piecing them into individual matched photos which I was planning on posting in a Sabre thread in the overseas factory knives forum. This thread just gave me motivation to finish up that drudgery.

Monarch is related to the Sabre stamp. I have five of which one is a medium jack that's stamped Sabre / Monarch and I have one that's only stamped with Monarch. I'll follow T/B's lead and wait until the OP posts pictures before adding mine.

I have a new computer and was not sure I could get photos added. I hope these turn out OK.

I enhanced one of the pictures a little bit and am of the opinion the handles are bone. For one thing, that is the standard Japanese 'scrat' style jigging, plus when the picture is enlarged the haversian canals become more apparent. Magnification will remove all doubt.

These are part of my small <<the collection is small. the knives are medium>> medium jack collection (3¼" and 3-3/8" closed).

2205 Made in Japan 205 Made in USA

Thanks so much! Still wish I had an age for when these knives were produced.

Jerryd, compliments. All of your photos are instructive and helpful. I had not encountered "scrat" jigging before. Now I know.

J529A wrote:Thanks so much! Still wish I had an age for when these knives were produced.

Do you mean all Sabre's or just that one? I don't know when they were making Sabre knives.

As for that one, we know it can't be any earlier than the 1950s because of WWII. Looking at the workmanship and since the handles are bone, it's more than likely pre-Delrin®. It's just a guess but I'd say it's possibly later '50s-'60s. Of course, I could be all wet on that.

Sorry, I meant the age on my knife. I assume they started making Sabre knives sometime after WWII but that is only a guess. I can't find much information about them. That's for your help! It was greatly appreciated.

There were a lot of Japan-made Sabre brand knifes like yours (and with other handle materials like imitation MOP) sold in the late 1960s and 1970s. I would guess yours is from that time period. During that time the brand was owned by Cole National which also owned Kabar - some folks semi-jokingly called the Sabres "Japanese Kabars".

Although they were a fairly well made knife they were generally low end price-wise, comparable at the time with imperial, Camillus, etc.

Ken

I have several of the Japanese made Sabres and a couple of USA made, and I recently picked up this 629 Daddy Barlow that is marked "stainless steel Hong Kong". So they literally did come from all over the world.

I believe there was at least one run of Sabre Japan knives done by Hattori. These would be of very high fit & finish standards.
kj
EDIT to add: the Hattori made Sabre is a small drop point fixed blade. Hattori also made knives for Valor USA and Jet-Aer for their G96 line of LB folders.

J529A wrote:I have a new computer and was not sure I could get photos added. I hope these turn out OK.

You've got yourself a good'un there. I believe I have that same knife (I know the bone is identical, as is the clamp-style shield). I'll have to get some photos of it. I suspect it's a 1950s knife but the data regarding model numbers is scarce to nonexistent (I'd love to know when they went from the 29 to the 629, for instance - maybe that was when they went to Delrin).

OLDE CUTLER wrote:I have several of the Japanese made Sabres and a couple of USA made, and I recently picked up this 629 Daddy Barlow that is marked "stainless steel Hong Kong". So they literally did come from all over the world.

That blade profile looks an awful lot like the old Jowika/Stag/Imperial Ireland large shell Barlows of the late '70s/early '80s or thereabouts. I also have a Sabre Hong Kong shell-handled fish knife with the same stamp that I tacked onto the end of my photos.

Here are the Japanese Sabres I have photos of. I toted one today, incidentally. These knives have excellent steel and are built very well considering they were competing against lower-priced American cutlers. The two knives that are pictured alone (with no other angles) are in my EDC box and both are among the sharpest knives I own. As much as I like some of Imperial's shell knives, I have little doubt that I would have preferred the warm sawcut bone of the older Sabres pictured here if I had that decision to make in a store.

Can't believe I nearly forgot what is possibly the most notable Japanese Sabre I've seen.
Looks like a boring old MoTS peanut, right? Plain-jane and boring dogleg jack.
Wait a minute. What's that?
Surprise!
I call it the stocknut. Only one of its kind I've ever seen. Don't let anyone tell you Sabre wasn't innovative.

Still trying to track down a couple Sabres but I did stumble across my old Sabre Japan #14 bone trapper. I guesstimate it to be from the 1950s.

Tsar Bomba wrote:Still trying to track down a couple Sabres but I did stumble across my old Sabre Japan #14 bone trapper. I guesstimate it to be from the 1950s.

What's the closed length on that bad boy?

jerryd6818 wrote:

Tsar Bomba wrote:Still trying to track down a couple Sabres but I did stumble across my old Sabre Japan #14 bone trapper. I guesstimate it to be from the 1950s.

What's the closed length on that bad boy?

My Supertool puts it at 4 1/8" closed - but is imprecise due to the way the ruler gradations closest to the hinge are situated - and by comparison it is identical in length to a Camillus-made Buck 311 and maybe 1/8" short of my 1982 Case 6254. It would be a "full slimline trapper" if I had to describe it in knife parlance.

Thanks.

Here is probably the strangest Sabre I've seen:called a Sabre Skeleton. The original handles were broken so I made a couple new ones out of Plexiglass to replicate them. Knife was free. Got a little hammer crazy trying to tighten them up and cracked one. Will replace it at a later date.

Tsar Bomba wrote:Still trying to track down a couple Sabres but I did stumble across my old Sabre Japan #14 bone trapper. I guesstimate it to be from the 1950s.

That's a beautiful Sabre 14 Tsar Bomba. I have one as well. It has bone scales, carbon steel blades, and steel liners and bolsters not brass. I wonder if yours is the same? Great to think it is 1950s vintage.

Man those are sa-weet knives!
I do have 1 sabre, a mini 3 blade stockman in my miniature knife collection. Got it for like $10 bucks. Main blade looked to be sharpened maybe once, abit not very good. Gave it a light cleaning/blade re-sharpen, now a super nice little knife . The bone they used is some of the best i'v seen, for sure.
Good stuff!

Just by coincidence, my most recent knife is a Sabre! She has no numbers at all, and no sign of having had any.
Here she is.

SharpEdge1, welcome to AAPK. Glad to have you aboard.