All About Pocket Knives

Knife need cleaned it was nasty. 5 1/8” Harold

I have had 2 or 3 of those and they always seem to come with a thick coating of rust and crud as standard equipment for some reason.

This one had the crud!! Harold

Those cruddy ones just aren't old enough to have the crud worn away yet. Here is one that's not bad. It is available if anyone needs a pre-war stag model with etch.

That’s a beauty

toungeriver, pm sent

Here's two of mine . Nice and clean.
Great knives this Western pattern.

Yours is very nice, Harold.

FRJ do you think the one with the match striker pull is the older?

Harold, I wanted to show the tang stamps before I answered because I really don't know.
As near as I can determine these knives were made in the same era. They have Delrin covers.
The photo with text came from my copy of "The Knife Makers Who Went West", by Harvey Platts.
My knives are stamped:
Western
Boulder Colo.
Made in USA

Of course the book doesn't show a stamp with USA on it so I am only assuming I'm looking at a proper stamp.
They show others but not similar to mine.
I didn't scour the chapter on collecting knives but from what I saw there was no mention of the blade pulls.
I was under the assumption that matchstrike pulls were used on earlier blades but that is just an assumption.
I may have read something like that here on the forum.
The knife with the matchstrike has certainly been used more but as we know that is almost meaningless.
I'm sorry I couldn't have been more help.

The Western that I showed was made in the 1930s and has match strike pull. The catalog cuts in the KMWWW book show the early knives with match strike pulls.

FRJ

Your 062s appear to both be from the 1967 to 1972 era. A little sleuthing explains why.

3 key features of your knives gives us the time frame. The handle scales, the stamp and the pommel bolster.

First it looks like your handles are Delrin.

Western was one of the first, if not THE first, major cutler to use Delrin when it became commercially available in 1961. This puts the earliest a Delrin handled knife could be as 1961.

The stamp still has a reference to Boulder Colo. This put the latest date as being 1972, as references to Boulder were dropped across the board in 1973.

And finally, the pommel bolsters have no lanyard holes.

The 1961 catalog still shows the 062 as having a lanyard hole that were present from the 06 pattern introduction in 1931 as the 5206 and 2206, stag and plastic handles, respectively.

The 1968 catalog depicts them as being without one. Many of the "new" changes shown in the 1968 catalog have been found to have been instituted in the latter half of 1967.

All together, these clues put them as being from about 1967 to 1972.

Thank you, Z, for that information. That give me clearer idea of what I have here.
I appreciate you taking the time to do so.
There are so many twists and turns in this collecting, or accumulating as I pursue it.

Do you have any thoughts on the timeframe of Matchstrike pulls on these knives?

I haven't really studied the folders very much as I am primarily a fixed blade guy. I am pretty good at sniffing out details though. I know that I THINK it happened between 1969 and 1972.

Here's why I think that....

Western made many changes in 1967 - guard stamps, dangler sheath for the W49, etc. Also stainless steel blades were first depicted in the 1968 catalog, also probably started in 1967 - the S-series fixed blades and folders.

You have 2 knives most likely made between 1967 and 1972 based on the "details". One has a strike pull and the other doesn't. Since the strike pull SHOULD be earlier than the no strike pull, that would put the change as occurring during this time frame.

The no lanyard hole pommel bolster may have been one of those changes, or it could have been accomplished anytime during the 1963 to 1966 time frame. It's very possible that the no lanyard hole change occurred prior to 1967, since you have a strike pull with no lanyard hole. A 1965 or 1966 bolster change would explain that, but again, no proof.

Western didn't put out new catalogs every year, They only put out new ones when the total number of changes met some internal Western management criteria. This is where known date purchases of specific knives sometimes helps narrow change points.

Again, no facts, just mixing knowledge, facts and logic with speculation.

Ha! Man you are good at this stuff.
I really appreciate the time you took to post this. Thank you.
I have no time to chase this information down and I find it really interesting.
I never considered a lanyard hole in these knifes, the 62s.
Now I'll keep my eyes open.
Thanks again, Z.