All About Pocket Knives

Just learning how to post pictures and having fun so bear with me please. The first knife is of unknown make with no marketing of any kind. With the brass bolsters it hardens of far east origin in my mind. Anyone with information?

The second folder is quite unique in manufacture and design. From the little I have been able to find out, it was made in the 1890's by E.B. SEARS. Only manufactured for a couple years. It is a dynamite knife. The blade is used for general purposes such as cutting powder sticks in half and cutting off lengths of black wick fuse. The odd " nipple in the half circle " near the base of the blade works in unison with the hole in the bolster. This is a cap crimper. Simply insert fuse in cap and run both through hole and depress closed blade for crimp. It save biting down on fused cap to crimp as was common practice. The unusual tool found in the opposite end of the knife, inserted between scale and liner, very much like Victornox does, is a mystery. I used explosives for 28 years on a daily basis and I don't have a clue what this tool does. This knife was found in a shop in the old mining town of Leadville, Colorado.

I don't know anything about your 2 knives, 3030, but they sure are cool, especially the first one!

Both are unusual for sure. Would I be out of line in saying the 2nd one is dynamite!. Glad you have it with your back ground.

doglegg wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 8:29 pm Both are unusual for sure. Would I be out of line in saying the 2nd one is dynamite!. Glad you have it with your back ground.

!
Good one, Dog!

3030remchesterCOLO wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 4:50 pmI used explosives for 28 years on a daily basis and I don't have a clue what this tool does.

I found other such models on this forum, wherein someone mentioned that Bernard Levine discusses this very knife in his 5th edition guide on p300.
I don't have a copy myself, though maybe someone else who has can offer some information?

This is what you mean, I think:

Your Sears knife has value.

Don’t let it go without knowing how much.

Charlie Noyes

Having been licensed and used explosives for 28 years, I have seen and used many tools especially made for explosives. However, I have not seen any tool like the little extra tool in the handle.

Two beautiful and remarkable knives.

I used to go with my father to the quarries on occasion. He used both powder cord and electric battery boxes. Fifty years later I don’t remember what he used to crimp with, just that he did. He might of used pliers.
He used his knife all the time to cut cord, strip wire and he used it to slit the dynamite in the end of the stick and embed the cap. I was wondering if making this slit in the end of stick was the intent of the extra little tool. I also remember he made a loop around the stick with the wire or cord and dropped the stick in the holes with the end containing the cap going in first so the cap stayed secure.
On more than one occasion he would come home complaining that he had “shot his knife away” after laying it down and blowing the charge. Usually it was a yellow handled Case jack or later a German Eye copperhead.
Froe

Froe wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:58 pm I used to go with my father to the quarries on occasion. He used both powder cord and electric battery boxes. Fifty years later I don’t remember what he used to crimp with, just that he did. He might of used pliers.
He used his knife all the time to cut cord, strip wire and he used it to slit the dynamite in the end of the stick and embed the cap. I was wondering if making this slit in the end of stick was the intent of the extra little tool. I also remember he made a loop around the stick with the wire or cord and dropped the stick in the holes with the end containing the cap going in first so the cap stayed secure.
On more than one occasion he would come home complaining that he had “shot his knife away” after laying it down and blowing the charge. Usually it was a yellow handled Case jack or later a German Eye copperhead.
Froe

All you describe sounds familiar for sure. I guess you could use "the tool" to open a cap hole but it would be difficult. For those that don't use powder, the cap must be inserted into the dynamite not just laid next to it. A "prick" of some make was used to make this hole. I used a standard set of dike wire cutters with one handle ground down to a point for that purpose. Dupont, a major supplier of dynamite would give away a pair of handy little plyers with wick cutter, crimper and prick. I seldom used them. My powder splitting tool was a riggers ax as we used to have to attach the powder to some type of board and the rigging ax could cut the board and powder and the hammer end would drive nails into the board to secure the powder to.

As to your dad shooting his knife away, I can relate. It always perplexes me when people talk about having their knives all their lives and using them daily. Like your dad, I have ended up shooting away 2 of mine with rifles, blown 1 up, broken and lost many. Hard to count how many ended up dropped down a well or shaft or lost in river crossings or the multitudes of other daily life adventures. Kind of hard to hand on to sometimes.

This is a fascinating post and the question about the dynamite knife goes back a long way 3030, as I see you asked it on BladeForums over a decade ago (https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/dyn ... ns.736456/). I thought one of the commenters there had nailed it when he said the blade held the cap while it was the other tool that actually crimped it. However, the more I look at the knife design the less that makes sense to me, because that extra tool doesn’t seem long enough to reach the cap. And that still doesn’t explain the ‘bottle opener” feature on the other tool. In addition, the groove created by pressing down on the blade seems ideal for crimping.

If an explosives expert like yourself can’t figure it out there is little hope for the rest of us. Nonetheless, all the speculation sure is fun!

Dennis

Dupont, a major supplier of dynamite would give away a pair of handy little plyers with wick cutter, crimper and prick.

Here is the DuPont tool.

Dennis

Well 3030 I think I solved the puzzle. Here is the link to the 1892 patent for your knife; https://patentimages.storage.googleapis ... 487562.pdf

It is clear from the written description that pressing on the knife blade is intended to hold the blasting cap not crimp it, It is the other tool that is held in your other hand and the “bottle opener’ end rotated against the cap that does the crimping. The commenter to your BF post back in 2010 was correct.

I’d be interested to hear if you think this would have been an effective crimping technique. Can you try it and see?

Dennis

Thanks deo-pa. Very useful information for sure. The inventor lived just 2 counties' away from me. I have been fiddling with the tool since reading the patent information and description and so far, all I have manage to do is cut myself. Twice. Apparently, these were used by someone who didn't possess 10 thumbs.

That dynamite knife is outstanding! Very cool and amazing history.

Very cool and informative thread with an interesting tool knife. I like knives that are extraordinary.

Well I never would have guessed that!
Thanks for the information.
Froe

Mostly unrelated, but my dad was EOD in the Air Force. This was his kit. The crimping tool was particularly interesting as related to this discussion.
He used to have the tool kit attached to the front of the knife sheath. When he gave it to me, I separated the two, and made a stone pocket for it.

Glenn, see red arrow on the attached photo of the sheath for the blasting cap crimper. Are there any tools/parts in the indicated pouch that are related to the use of explosives? If so, perhaps you could show a photo.

Dennis

deo-pa wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2023 2:55 pm Glenn, see red arrow on the attached photo of the sheath for the blasting cap crimper. Are there any tools/parts in the indicated pouch that are related to the use of explosives? If so, perhaps you could show a photo.

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

The pouch is what holds those 2 tools. See this pic for reference. That's all those pouches hold. My dad also had a small plastic container as part of that kit that held blasting caps (see picture)

Nice pair of Atlas crimpers. Atlas isn't seen around our area often. The leather pouch was common for the signal corp. The top pocket fit a TL-29 knife and the lower pouch held the lineman plyers. Most plyer are marked TL-13A. Many different makers of the lineman plyers and TL-29's. Pouches were numbered CS-34. However, many GI's would modify for personal use. Very nice combo GLENBAD.