All About Pocket Knives

I always wanted one of the knives with the square holes for an acetylene valve. They were for the old acetylene head lamps on early cars. I decided to make my own, out of an old Syracuse Beer Scout. Please post pictures of yours.

Here's a KA BAR multi with a Presto-lite key. Do you have acetylene headlights!? J.O'.

Nice one! No I don’t have any acetylene lights. I’m a plumber and a welder so I wanted a fun way to carry a spare key.

Some nice ones are being shown! Today, we're seeing a sort of the same idea with 1/4 bit drivers on basically every small keychain tool and bottle opener on the market.

My only Prestolite key is on an old bottle opener/church key advertising Genesee Beer. I don't drink, but I enjoy old church keys. They are cheap, take up little space (I've got over a dozen in a small Sterlite box), and well, they do work. I still use them a lot on condensed milk; albeit none of these. I have an old Ecko for that.
The maker is given as the Mercury Novelty and Advertising company of 318 Broadway in NYC. Their best-known product seems to have been thermometers.
Has anyone got an idea of when it was made? Prior to Prohibition?

I think this one has been broken or modified, but it would probably still work. Some German Scout might have needed to light something else up.

Here are a couple beat up old scout knives

A HS & B made by Schrade.

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:46 am I think this one has been broken or modified, but it would probably still work. Some German Scout might have needed to light something else up.

John, I've seen one like that before somewhere! ( ) I think someone told me that square cutout was so it could be used as a skate key. (But you might be too young to remember the old roller skates that needed a key.)

herbva wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 10:53 am

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:46 am I think this one has been broken or modified, but it would probably still work. Some German Scout might have needed to light something else up.

John, I've seen one like that before somewhere! ( ) I think someone told me that square cutout was so it could be used as a skate key. (But you might be too young to remember the old roller skates that needed a key.)

Well bring over your skates and torch tomorrow, we'll figure it out.

Interesting stuff here!

I am an old retired, new construction plumber. I used "B" tanks every day for years. I carried a tank valve wrench on my car key ring. I would certainly buy a Prestolite knife, for old times sake, if I found one.

W.R Case and Son’s

This one is kind of cool. The feet are a bottle opener and there is a square prestolite key. Even the round hole for the key chain is the baseball.

Being a baseball fan, that is super cool.

1967redrider wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 1:00 am Being a baseball fan, that is super cool.

I agree

The HSB is my kind of knife. J.O'.

Some more interesting key chain ones from eBay listings. I think they are all vintage except for the Indian Motorcycle one is a repro. Interesting that none of the adds mention the square hole acetylene or presto-lite. It’s the same problem I ran into searching for a pocket knife with the hole. The sellers don’t know what they have.

Here's an old Empire with a prest-o-lite key.

eveled wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 12:47 am 4B99269E-CC3B-438E-9C87-B83FF6D3BA73.jpeg

This one is kind of cool. The feet are a bottle opener and there is a square prestolite key. Even the round hole for the key chain is the baseball.

Very good article by Dennis Ellingsen in the June 2024 Knife Magazine about knives with Prest-O-Lite keys. Explains the history of Prest-O-Lite Company (they’re still in business today), the knife blades and other tools with square holes or notches, who made which kind, etc. Also explains why the often believed story that they are skate keys cannot be true.

Ken

eveled wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 12:47 am This one is kind of cool.

No, it’s not “kind of cool“, it is very cool!

I have a theory about the square hole on the cap lifters: I think that because of the beverage advertising on them, they were used to open the valves on co2 tanks in bars.
Another use is in the carpentry field to operate the shaft of a doorknob. Here is a pic of an unmarked knife with a sheepfoot blade, a 1/4 inch square shaft that folds out, a protrusion non the end for opening paint cans, & a 1/4 incih hole cut through the handles. The advertising (in French) is for the painters society(union maybe?).

A Terrier Carriage Knife