All About Pocket Knives

Acquired this Western States Electrician knife. First time I've owned a Western from this era with this blade etch. According to my book it dates from 1911-1928. Screw driver locks open but not with a liner lock. It is unlocked by pressing down the main blade.

That's a new one on me. Love the shield and lock. Awesome pickup!

bkazz, that thing is pristine. A great example of an old classic. First Western I've seen of that model.

Very nice. Interesting "unlocking" feature on the secondary blade. I too have not seen one of those before. Sure is in great shape.

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mike

Very nice looking knife and in great shape for it's age! Great find!

That is a VERY rare Western pocket knife.

How rare is it? Well, it does NOT appear in the 1919, 1921, 1931, 1936 or 1941 catalog reprint pages in TKMWWW. That tells me it was produced during the late 1920s (1926 - 1930) based on general Western catalog intervals. And only during that period because if it was an active model when any of the catalogs came out, it would have been included in the pages.

As far as the blade etch use of the tic-tac-toe / pound sign arrangement, TKMWWW does list 1911 - 1928 as the years of usage. That being said, the 1931 catalog pages still show 10 models with it, the 1936 catalog shows 11 and the 1941 catalog shows 2 models still sporting the pound sign etch.

This could indicate that --

1) Western recycled the pictures 3 catalogs and 11 years
or

2) some models were so unpopular that they still were available after their initial runs in the late 1920s and Western chose to use pictures of what was actually being sold

or

3) 1928 was not the final year the etch was used.

With Western, any of the three could be possible.

I don't pursue electricians knives, but if i seen that on a table I definitely wouldn't leave it behind. That's one mighty fine knife Somewhat uncommon to. Iv'e never seen one.

That’s mighty fine! I don’t collect electrician knives, I I do love Old Westerns and I’d not pass that one up! Very nice.