All About Pocket Knives

A Facebook acquaintance in West Virginia came across a catalog from the Whitney Sporting Goods Store in Denver, Colorado, dated 1970.

That catalog includes 3 pages of Western Cutlery offerings. He provided me copies of those pages and I am posting them here for posterity. There are 5 pictures that cover the 3 pages.

Page 1 of 5



Page 2 of 5



Page 3 of 5



Page 4 of 5



Page 5 of 5

Wow! That’s really neat. Thanks for posting that.

Thank you, Sir!

Thanks for posting Wayne! Do you know if all those Westerns were current to the catalog? I have found sometimes retailers, wholesalers, and even occasionally manufacturers use old stock photos or even advertise knives that have been discontinued. I like price lists since they usually show what was recently discontinued and are usually more accurate as to what was really available on the date the list was sent out to wholesalers and dealers.

Gunsil wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:17 pm Thanks for posting Wayne! Do you know if all those Westerns were current to the catalog? I have found sometimes retailers, wholesalers, and even occasionally manufacturers use old stock photos or even advertise knives that have been discontinued. I like price lists since they usually show what was recently discontinued and are usually more accurate as to what was really available on the date the list was sent out to wholesalers and dealers.

I haven't examined it really closely yet but I have noticed one discrepancy - on Page 1 of 5 is listed the venerable L46-5. No problem there as from what I have been able to deduce to this date the model was discontinued by 1973. The problem is that the picture shows either an L46-6 or is a depiction of the G46-5 from the late 1940s - full guard with a lanyard hole.

Obviously, the picture is wrong, unless Western tooled up a special request by Whitney for a throw back knife. Unlikely, but anything is possible.

As far as the rest go, mostly it looks like the offerings are the same as what is shown in TKMWWW for the 1968 catalog page reprints.

All my comments are in reference to the fixed blades as I know virtually nothing about Western folders beyond recognizing a few models such as the 901 (BSA Scout knife), 062 (large 2 blade hunter) and 932 "Ranger" (repro of the USN folding pilot knife w/ blade and saw).

Ah, that is exactly what I meant about catalogs using pics of knives that were no longer current. Thanks!