All About Pocket Knives

Over the years, folks have wondered when a particular WESTMARK Model 701/702/703 was made. It has been assumed that someone somewhere had the answer and that it was simply a matter of time when the mysteries of when a WESTMARK 701/702/703 was made.

Well, the mystery has been solved. It turns out that an online friend of mine, Mr. Robert Upchurch, a long time employee of Western in Boulder and Longmont CO (along with his wife, who was also a Western employee) until Western shut down in 1991 has been the custodian of the Model 701/702/703 stamp record log. He has recently designated me as the new custodian of the log book. For the last week, I have been perusing the log book and compiled the Model 701 information. As time allows, I will compile the 702 and 703 records as well.

I am placing the info here to ensure that it is publicly available. I hope that it is helpful for folks. One key fact is that EVERY MODEL'S serial number run begins with the serial number 02001whether the knife was a 701 or a 702 or a 703.

Below is what I have gleaned...... and I hope the tab spacing stays in place And .... NO ... my attempts to space out the dates after each serial number set using either tabs or extra spaces gets stripped out.

Western Cutlery Model 701 SERIAL NUMBERS

The dates are the day that a particular batch was stamped and sent to heat treatment. The actual day of assembling is unknown.
The first page of the record log has 2 entries for 14 and 15 May 1970. The two serial number ranges are
02001 – 02025 14 May 1970
02026 – 02553 15 May 1970

The second page of the record log indicates that the stamp was changed to WESTMARK. This seems to imply that the first 553 model 701 knives were manufactured with a WESTERN stamp. I have never seen a model 701 with a WESTERN stamp. This does NOT mean that they never went out the door but no one knows whether these knives shipped out or were scrapped. As noted below, the first WESTMARK stamped 701s were stamped on 19 June 1970, over a month later.

On 17 September 1974, the record log states “no zeroes”. Apparently the “0” stamp broken or was misplaced that day, resulting in 40 serial numbers not being used that day.

Model 701
Serials Date
02001 – 02137 19 June 1970
02138 – 02700 26 August 1970
02701 – 03200 27 August 1970
03201 – 04001 03 November 1970
04002 – 04252 04 November 1970
04253 – 04581 05 November 1970
04582 – 04955 06 November 1970
04956 – 05077 07 November 1970
05078 – 05402 09 November 1970
05403 – 05722 10 November 1970
05723 – 06293 16 November 1970
06294 – 06721 17 November 1970
06722 – 06970 11 February 1972
06971 – 08747 14 February 1972
08748 – 09199 16 June 1972
09200 – 09479 07 August 1972
09480 – 10490 24 August 1972
10491 – 10996 01 March 1973
10997 – 11566 22 March 1973
11567 – 12691 17 April 1973
12692 – 13375 26 September 1973
13376 – 14034 20 November 1973
14035 – 14339 06 February 1974
14440 – 14919 29 March 1974
14920 – 15531 03 June 1974
15532 – 16083 18 June 1974
16084 – 16412 06 August 1974
16413 – 16737 18 September 1974 (no zeros)
16738 – 17131 17 October 1974
17132 – 17250 31 October 1974
17251 – 17761 24 February 1975
17762 – 18499 14 March 1975
18500 – 19373 08 April 1975
19374 – 19963 20 May 1975
19964 – 20267 20 October 1976
20268 – 20927 09 March 1977
20928 – 21455 08 March 1978
21456 – 21747 17 April 1978
21748 – 22228 29 January 1979
22229 – 22743* 30 April 1979
22743* -- 22997 19 July 1979
22998 – 22421 01 October 1979
22422 – 22871 15 January 1980
22871 – 23185 02 April 1980
23186 – 23925 02 September 1980
23926 – 24252 25 November 1980
24253 – 24699 19 October 1982
24700 – 25118 31 August 1983
25119 – 25595 01 March 1984
25596 – 25702 24 October 1984
25703 – 26175 15 February 1985
26179 – 26507 03 December 1985
26508 – 27132 24 March 1986
27133 – 27641 06 October 1986
27642 – 27799 05 June 1987
27800 – 28002 02 September 1987
28003 – 28162 03 November 1987
28163 – 28163 18 November 1987

* – Either a log entry error was made on 19 July 1979 or serial number 22743 was duplicated.

Production total ~~ 26676

Wow, what a valuable gold mine of info passed on to your trust.

I started college in the fall of 1969. Sometime that school year my roommate, from the mountains of Colorado, showed me his Western 702 hunting knife. He must have gotten one of the very first of those produced. I only roomed with him until the following June. I lusted after that knife and finally bought an almost-mint one with original sheath online a few years ago.

tallguy606 wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 8:22 pm I started college in the fall of 1969. Sometime that school year my roommate, from the mountains of Colorado, showed me his Western 702 hunting knife. He must have gotten one of the very first of those produced. I only roomed with him until the following June. I lusted after that knife and finally bought an almost-mint one with original sheath online a few years ago.

The first 702s were stamped on 12 June 1970, and there were only 12 made. The next batch was stamped on 27 August 1970 to the tune of 1,074 knives. A complete list of the 702s will come out in separate thread in a week or so.

Great info Wayne! Thank you for sharing it.
They couldn't have found a better custodian of the information!

Wayne,

Formatting a spreadsheet into a forum post can be a pain, I've been there. For background, I've done some research in serial listings for other collections I've been involved with.

I've taken the numbers that you posted above and put them into excel (a spreadsheet program), done some basic checking on the sequences, and have some questions. Not sure if it's typos or problems with the original list you received.

Not making any presumptions here, as I have no idea of your level of skill with this kind of data checking, and your skills may exceed mine. However, if I can maybe provide some help, please PM me.

Thanks,

Scott