All About Pocket Knives

I have camillus 884 with hoffritz on blade and small swords . I looked up hoffritz and see a bunch of knives with hoffritz on them. It has light colored wood . My other new 884 has very dark wood ? How can you date these knives ? My 45-70 knife probably 1991 . On the one box it has numbers 110 02211. So I'm guessing with all my knives I got from dad the range 1983 to 2005 . I'm going to guess 90's kn the 884's
Any ideas?

Hoffritz was a retailer and importer of cutlery. They had stores in some shopping malls and sold knives made by numerous makers, some stamped or etched with the Hoffritz name on them. Like a special factory order.

Do a search here on AAPK for Hoffritz to find more examples.

Ken

Gotta be the first Camillus I have seen with Hoffritz on it. Most I've seen were Swiss Army Knives.

I have seen Schrade 25OT and other Schrades with the Hoffritz etch as well as many German made fixed blades.

thank you guys I appreciate your help

The wood handled Camillus knives 881 to 887 (or 886 ?) were called the "Woodcraft Series". There were 2 'runs' a couple of years apart. The first series is considered more desirable, has handle pins. The second run had glued on handles. Came out in late 1980's or early 1990's.
kj

thank you

kootenay joe wrote:The first series is considered more desirable, has handle pins. The second run had glued on handles.

The opposite is true.
The Woodcraft series (#881-887) was produced approximately from 1988 to 1999 (excluding #885). The first run had handles without pins and crossed swords tang stamp (perhaps the #887 is an exception, since I have never seen it with crossed swords tang stamp). In 1990-1991, pins appeared and crossed swords were replaced with a standard tang stamp. In my opinion, the knife shown in the first photo is a transitional model made just during this period.
By the way, welcome to my site http://www.camillusknives.ru

It was Phil Gibbs who told me handle pins were first and the more desirable. Maybe the information you have became 'mixed up' when translated ?
kj
Edit: if someone here is also a BF member a search of "Woodcraft" in either the Traditional forum or the BRL forum you might be able to find the post by Phil Gibbs, the former 'manager' at Camillus.

I talk with Phil in the forums and via e-mail for many years and appreciate his knowledge, but he is the same person as all of us, and could also 'mixed up' something. It is enough to compare the catalogs of 1990 and 1992 (and later), and then read the last page of 1991, then you can have your own opinion on this.
Catalogs can be viewed here http://www.collectors-of-camillus.us/Ca ... talogs.htm