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TerryDale, I made a mad dash to my little pile of Imperial Fish knives to see if I had the mark on one of mine. No such luck! But I just tore through Pic-clic and found one in a lot of fish knives somebody's auctioning and another on one being auctioned separately. Being a toothpick/tickler pattern nut makes your inquiry all the more interesting to me. Just staring at the little symbol (?) pile-side shield (?) tool (?) hasn't produced any answers. It does look an aweful lot like the litte bubble that comes out of a cartoon character's mouth with the words they are speaking inside of it. I'm guessing that's not what it is... But I shall not rest until I find some kinda answer! Thanks for sharing this!just bob wrote:Anyone know what the little symbol or emblem is on the back of an Imperial fish knife?
Okay, I have a hunch I know what it is: I went through a whole page of Imperial Fish Knives on Pic Clic. I found the symbol on a fairly low percentage of both the 4 1/4 med knife and the 5 inch version. They were only on back of the one's with the fish symbol on front. But I also found something else they had in common: a number of them had "National Chemsearch Co." etched on the mark side of the clip blade. And the ones that had that etch still remaining also had the symbol on the mark side. My conclusion: The Pile side symbol is a symbol of what is known as a Retort distilling Flask (see pic). This was or is probably Chemsearch's trade mark. and it went on back because the fish would of kicked it's flask a$$ if it tried to take the front seat. Of course most of the ones with the flask symbol are too beat up to locate the Chemsearch etch, so I can't prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. But That's my theory and I'll stand by it til somebody knocks this house of cards down. (You have to enlarge the photos to see the Chemsearch etch)just bob wrote:Anyone know what the little symbol or emblem is on the back of an Imperial fish knife? Only a few knives have these from what I see. Most of these knives do not?
Thank you for taking the time to do the research and post that. I would never have guessed that. It does make sense after reading your information. Here was the original knife I asked about and it does have Chemsearch on it. Looks like that company is still in business today.Robo wrote:Okay, I have a hunch I know what it is: I went through a whole page of Imperial Fish Knives on Pic Clic. I found the symbol on a fairly low percentage of both the 4 1/4 med knife and the 5 inch version. They were only on back of the one's with the fish symbol on front. But I also found something else they had in common: a number of them had "National Chemsearch Co." etched on the mark side of the clip blade. And the ones that had that etch still remaining also had the symbol on the mark side. My conclusion: The Pile side symbol is a symbol of what is known as a Retort distilling Flask (see pic). This was or is probably Chemsearch's trade mark. and it went on back because the fish would of kicked it's flask a$$ if it tried to take the front seat. Of course most of the ones with the flask symbol are too beat up to locate the Chemsearch etch, so I can't prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. But That's my theory and I'll stand by it til somebody knocks this house of cards down. (You have to enlarge the photos to see the Chemsearch etch)just bob wrote:Anyone know what the little symbol or emblem is on the back of an Imperial fish knife? Only a few knives have these from what I see. Most of these knives do not?
--Robo
I just searched Chemsearch, in Google; then, clicked on images...and started looking for something that looked like your flask. Didn't take long. Altough I don't own a knife, like that...It's one of those things...that once the question is asked...you just gotta know! Thanks to your breakthrough...I think it's been solved.Robo wrote:
PS: Doc, I couldn't get past a thousand phony advertisers pretendending to be Corporate research sites when I tried to find ChemSearch's Trade Mark--good work! Please share how you managed to do it.
Robo and any toothpick/fish knife collectors - I thought you may like to see this knife which is just like Robo's and also seen in a few other members group photos - the knife with the "National Chemsearch Corp" stamp and the flask shield on the pile side.. I got lucky finding this one - basically unused though no doubt handled and never sharpened - inside and outside essentially NOS - and in the original boxRobo wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 4:41 amOkay, I have a hunch I know what it is: I went through a whole page of Imperial Fish Knives on Pic Clic. I found the symbol on a fairly low percentage of both the 4 1/4 med knife and the 5 inch version. They were only on back of the one's with the fish symbol on front. But I also found something else they had in common: a number of them had "National Chemsearch Co." etched on the mark side of the clip blade. And the ones that had that etch still remaining also had the symbol on the mark side. My conclusion: The Pile side symbol is a symbol of what is known as a Retort distilling Flask (see pic). This was or is probably Chemsearch's trade mark. and it went on back because the fish would of kicked it's flask a$$ if it tried to take the front seat. Of course most of the ones with the flask symbol are too beat up to locate the Chemsearch etch, so I can't prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. But That's my theory and I'll stand by it til somebody knocks this house of cards down. (You have to enlarge the photos to see the Chemsearch etch)just bob wrote:Anyone know what the little symbol or emblem is on the back of an Imperial fish knife? Only a few knives have these from what I see. Most of these knives do not?
--Robo
... Other than the speck of tarnish/stain on the fish shield it is remarkably clean with a factory edge.. It's amazing to me how many were made for this National Chemsearch Corp if they are fairly common - must have been alot of employees and many were given out I would assume for advertising and such ..
- but today was different 
- sitting behind the counter waiting to be tagged for sale and sitting on the inner shelf was this small box that piqued my attention and sure enough inside the box was this Imperial toothpick - cool old Imperial box with the "CROWN' logo stamped on the cover.. at this point the knife in box no longer needed to be tagged for sale as it was coming home with me ... 
... First Imperial box I have seen and certainly looks 50-60s... the box was no doubt just as good as the knife, maybe better ... I wonder how many years they made the etched blade with flask shield given there seems to be a fair amount ... 
..