All About Pocket Knives

spear is tang marked miller bros. in an arc over miriden over u.s.a.

punch is marked miller bros in an arc over cut. co. over meriden.

handles are very good with little wear and no faults. odd though, there are two shield pins with no shield. no inletting or evidence of a surface mounted shield. brass liners, steel bolster and peened pins. very tight and sharp. used but not abused. 3 5/8"

Johnnie, when I get back to my own computer, I will try and dig up some examples of the bone/jigging styles that Miller Bros used. It sometimes helps to compare.
There probably never was a shield on those handles, but. . . . . . . . .
Some of the possibilities are;
1)Pre-drilled handles were used up at the factory.
2)A re-handle.
Tony Bose has a knife with rivets like yours, and he's pretty sure the handles are original.
Can you see inside the knife? It's sometimes difficult, but can you see if the rivets go all the way through the liner?
The shield on mine sits on the surface of the bone, barely inletted if at all. Maybe this one fell off, and someone shortened the rivets??
Blah blah blah. . . . .I wish I had the knife in hand for 10 minutes, then my blah blah blah might mean a little more.
BTW, are you going to the Oregon Knife show in April??

hey charlie, the pins are real, through and peened under the liner. the bone is jigged perfectly where a shield would be, no indication one was ever there, so maybe a surface mount as you suggest. what shield might have been used, federal? the brass liners have a few small dings that correspond to marks on the bone. if it's a rehandle, it's been on for a long time. is the jigging not correct for this old knife? thanks for the help.

no, i won't make it to oregon

Johnnie, I think this is the same knife, essentially. Maybe you can compare the jigging. Try your pics at different angles if they are scans.
They are ebay pics. If you need better, I'll take them for you.

that's it. pin positions are correct and the same material. the jigging looks like the same. now i need an old shield like that. thanks for helping.

Johnnie, isn't the shield on the keen kutter's the same kind, size, and era that may fit your knife? I'm just guessing on this.

lots of cutlers used that style shield so i will find a proper one with the correct spacing for the pins. don't want to but i can make one. thanks duffy.

I didn't know if they were the same shields or not as far as size and pin space. I know I've seen a shield something like the one pictured, on some keen kutters that didn't have any name on the shield. I'm used to working more with guns. I've never done any knife work to know the in's and out's of them. But hey, I like to learn new things.

cool, i learn somethin here every day!

Me too Johnnie. Now I know what kind of shield goes on that era Miller Brothers jack, (like I could ever be lucky enough to find one like that ) if I was to see one again.