All About Pocket Knives

Here is a fixed blade Camillus. Any ideas as to it's age? The finger guard it set different from all the other's I have seen...

The others I own or have seen have a centered "cross-guard" ...

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:10 am Here is a fixed blade Camillus. Any ideas as to it's age? The finger guard it set different from all the other's I have seen...

The others I own or have seen have a centered "cross-guard" ...

There should be a date on one of the flats of the pommel or the guard.
Someone cut off the top of the guard.
Here is one that I altered. I cut down the guard, rounded the pommel and dyed the leather handle.

OK, thanks. I have checked the pommel before and no markings there.

edge213 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:43 am

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:10 am Here is a fixed blade Camillus. Any ideas as to it's age? The finger guard it set different from all the other's I have seen...

The others I own or have seen have a centered "cross-guard" ...

There should be a date on one of the flats of the pommel or the guard.
Someone cut off the top of the guard.
Here is one that I altered. I cut down the guard, rounded the pommel and dyed the leather handle.

OK, thanks. I have checked the pommel before and no markings there.

Nice work! Your Camillus looks very "Slick"

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 2:06 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:43 am

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:10 am Here is a fixed blade Camillus. Any ideas as to it's age? The finger guard it set different from all the other's I have seen...

The others I own or have seen have a centered "cross-guard" ...

There should be a date on one of the flats of the pommel or the guard.
Someone cut off the top of the guard.
Here is one that I altered. I cut down the guard, rounded the pommel and dyed the leather handle.

OK, thanks. I have checked the pommel before and no markings there.

Nice work! Your Camillus looks very "Slick"

Thanks buddy

Does the blade measure about 6”?
That looks like a version prior to mine,
which has a 5” blade. I believe it was
called a Pilot’s Survival Knife, and I’ve read that the military contract required the mfgr and date to be stamped on one of the pommel flats.

All the contract mfgrs used the same materials and tooling to make the same knives for the civilian market, and that’s how I’ve always
distinguished them - military stamp on the pommel, civilian stamp on the tang (minus the date) as yours is.

People grind the guards down or radius them on these all the time, I’ve seen probably a dozen or more. The original steel guard dimensions on my ‘81 Camillus are 2-1/4”x5/8” with square-ish corners. Admittedly, that is kinda clunky for a daily user. When I was frequently carrying a Craftsman branded Schrade H-15, I removed the guard from the spine side.

Parker

Your knife never had any date stamped into it. The pommel marked ones had date marks, the ricasso marked versions never did. The 6" blade Camillus Jet Pilot Survival Knife was made fro 1959-1961 and they changed the blade length to 5" in 1962. The ricasso marked 5" blade knives were made 1962-1966 which is where yours lies.

So Gunsil, are you saying that both the 62-66 military and civilian knives were ricasso stamped, and then the military ones changed to the pommel stamp?

Parker

Gunsil wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:19 pm Your knife never had any date stamped into it. The pommel marked ones had date marks, the ricasso marked versions never did. The 6" blade Camillus Jet Pilot Survival Knife was made fro 1959-1961 and they changed the blade length to 5" in 1962. The ricasso marked 5" blade knives were made 1962-1966 which is where yours lies.

OK, thanks! My '67 Camillus and another Camillus Air force survival knife.

Gunsil wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:19 pm Your knife never had any date stamped into it. The pommel marked ones had date marks, the ricasso marked versions never did. The 6" blade Camillus Jet Pilot Survival Knife was made fro 1959-1961 and they changed the blade length to 5" in 1962. The ricasso marked 5" blade knives were made 1962-1966 which is where yours lies.

OK, thanks! My '67 Camillus and another Camillus Air force survival knife.

The 1967 is a good date, folks like the 'Nam era ones. The other you show is an early 1950s pilot survival knife, the forebear of the saw backed ones. These were made by Camillus, Schrade, and Imperial.

catspa wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 4:03 pm So Gunsil, are you saying that both the 62-66 military and civilian knives were ricasso stamped, and then the military ones changed to the pommel stamp?

Parker

Sort of yes. The military knives were ricasso marked until 1966, but I don't think Camillus made any civilian models of this knife until the 1990s. One of the best places to get info on US military knives is Frank Trsaska's Military Knife Site. Frank is also a member here and probably the leading expert on US GI knives.

Thank you, I’ll go check that out.

Parker

Gunsil wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:19 pm The 1967 is a good date, folks like the 'Nam era ones. The other you show is an early 1950s pilot survival knife, the forebear of the saw backed ones. These were made by Camillus, Schrade, and Imperial.

Thanks! I appreciate the information

I am on vacation so I don't have my variety of notes and computer files available to me so I cannot verify this from my notes and reference books such as Frank Trsaska's book & website.
Gunsil probably knows this better than I do so, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe the original design for the Jet Pilots knife was from Marbles Cutlery, but the contract to produce the knife was given to Camillus as Marbles was considerably more expensive.
The hex pommel nut was the Marbles design.
Apparently they produced quite a number of those hex pommels that were never used, since they didn't get the contract. The hex pommels were used on other patterns. I had one at one time, I believe it was call a Maverick. Beautiful knife!

Thanks for the info, Dale! Hope you're enjoying your vacation!

You are dang close Dale. Marbles did design and make the first ones for the government and they have steel guards and blued blades and are scarce but available. The Marbles civilian model Was similar but did had a brass guard and non blued blade. The Maverick was a very late version with a turned wood handle whereas the early Marbles had leather handles. Camillus certainly did get the contract from the government shorty after they underbid Marbles and Marbles no longer made the blued blade steel guard military model. The Marbles and the first Camillus had 6" blades but the government changed the specs to a 5" blade in 1962. The pommel marking began in 1966 and all other than late civilian models Have the date on the pommel. They are certainly robust knives that can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.