All About Pocket Knives

I left home without a pocket knife so needed to find one (always have one in my pocket - picking them up is a habit). I found this one at a local market. I'm curious about it, wondering its age, whether the single blade has been shortened and what the outside cover is made of. Any advice welcome. It needs cleaning, oiling and careful sharpening.

It is a stockman pattern, so that short blade was a spey blade that has been reprofiled, probably because it broke at some time.
The handle material looks like a composite material, possibly Delrin plastic. There were earlier man-made materials used before the early 1960's, but I don't know if your knife is that old or not.
Those are great knives. It should be a good user forbmany years to come!

Reverand’s analysis is spot on!

Welcome to AAPK.

KEN

Thanks Reverand! It is good to know something about it. I suspected the blade had been reprofiled so it's good to have the confirmation.

Hi Ken, Thank you for the welcome - as a long time lover of pocket knives I suspect I'll be haunting this site a lot.

Welcome to AAPK.

I have had two of those IXL "Premium Stock Knives"; one in genuine stag and one with the rough black imitation stag. Eventually, the rough black one's main blade got so sloppy that I took it apart and made a two blade knife out of the other two blades.

I still have the stag one and I carried that one as well at one point. IXL knives are very good quality, on a par with Case and Remingtons from the same era, and in some cases, the older ones were vastly superior to anything American firms ever put out. The steel is excellent and they are very solidly built. I'd say the one you have is probably just before or just after WWII based on the rough black handles. If you clean it up, "oil the joints" and keep it sharpened it will be about the best carbon steel-bladed vintage stockman pattern knife you can find, even if the handle materials are somewhat basic and not that attractive. It's def a great using knife. Enjoy

Thanks for all the great info everyone. I am pleased to say the main blade has a very nice edge (perfect for orange peel and apples) and I'm happy to have found it. Now to find some steel wool and machine oil.