All About Pocket Knives

As the title implies what’s the small o with a line under it indicate ? Had a conversation years ago and the old timer said it would be from Germany if it had a stamp with that in it . Here s a pic of an arched stamped Camillus with that small underlined “o” . Out of all the older Camillus here this is the only one in the pile .
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

My understanding is that the underline might indicate an early production of the knife.

Adolph Kastor was an importer when he purchased Camillus so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the early ones had some German roots.

Eric

ea42 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 8:22 pm Adolph Kastor was an importer when he purchased Camillus so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the early ones had some German roots.

Eric

Agreed.

natürlich

Maybe we could solve the question if we all looked through few knives of any mark for underlined O's.
By the way, the German words for "company" are: "das UNTERNEHMEN" and "die FiRMA", so it makes one wonder why the "Co.?

I am of the opinion that an underlined and elevated small “O” in the abbreviation for company is indicative of, but not an absolute for German manufacture.

I know there are very knowledgeable people here that will disagree with that.

I think it is a stylised abbreviation for 'company', as the numero (upper case 'N' followed by lowercase underlined 'o') is a symbol for 'number'.

It's a very hard thing to Google to confirm, however.

ea42 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 8:22 pm Adolph Kastor was an importer when he purchased Camillus so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the early ones had some German roots.

Eric

Yes, usually indicates German.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 11:33 pm Maybe we could solve the question if we all looked through few knives of any mark for underlined O's.
By the way, the German words for "company" are: "das UNTERNEHMEN" and "die FiRMA", so it makes one wonder why the "Co.?

Those German cutleries were making knives for the U.S. market, not the German market. Thus their frequent use of anglicized company names. As Lyle said, the underlined o in Co is typical on many German-made knives.

Ken

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com ... underlined


You also find it on knives made in England and France quite a bit in my experience.

The stamp I'm referring to is like the OP by JP with the suspended underlined small o and , since I learned , all I've seen were German.

Please show your non German stamped examples.

That's what I was asking about, some non-German examples. My Grandfather was in the livestock business and all his company stationary had "C.E. O'Dell & Co. I'm just wondering if the underlined o is a reliable indentifier for a knife's origin or is it found elsewhere. It's going to take quite a bit of blade opening to find out. Thanks, O'.

wlf wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 1:27 pm Please show your non German stamped examples.

I will if I can find some, Lyle. But first let me show my German example I carried today.
A Harrington Cutlery Co., Germany, that I can find no information on.

wlf wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 1:27 pm Please show your non German stamped examples.

Here are my NON-Germany stamped Cᴏ̲ examples.
Caption(s), if any, are on the BOTTOM of the corresponding picture(s).
Click on a picture to ENLARGE.

Thanks Skip. J.O'.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 6:46 pm Thanks.....

You're welcome, J.O'.

Because some might be found doesn't dissuade my opinion that most all marked such are German.
I expect there's an explanation why these are marked in the German manner , probably a strong German influence.

Skip would know about Whitehead &Hoag.

Thank you to all who have taken the time to post. Been interesting to see the knives and read all your posts.
It’s also a good excuse to look thru your knives
Are all of the knives posted here from around the same time period ? It makes me think so and when did this small o stop being used by the cutlery companies?
Skip what time frame are the WH knives ?

At one point in time they called it German Silver but started calling it nickel silver due to anti German sentiment. Could it be that the underlined o was a way of indicating German origin but without using the word which might scare off a potential buyer?

Just a thought. Maybe not a good one.

Ripster wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 12:10 am Thank.....
Skip what time frame are the WH knives ?

JP, ALL three "W & H" are from the early 1900's to the 1920's.

ThatWeirdKnifeGuy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 1:32 am At one point in time they called it German Silver but started calling it nickel silver due to anti German sentiment. Could it be that the underlined o was a way of indicating German origin but without using the word which might scare off a potential buyer?

Just a thought. Maybe not a good one.

Zach, Thanks for the Nickel Silver vs German silver thoughts. As WW1 drew closer there was definitely issues brewing around the world
Mr KASTOR ,owner of Camillus had German ties in the cutlery business. So they did buy from Germany . Somewhere here is a couple of KASTOR stamps ,will look to see what’s on those. Once KASTOR ( Camillus ) had their own cutlery here I believe the small underlined o was dropped .
Don’t know much about English or French cutlery’s so it’ll be interesting to see to how that pans out .

New_Windsor_NY wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 1:35 am

Ripster wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 12:10 am Thank.....
Skip what time frame are the WH knives ?

JP, ALL three "W & H" are from the early 1900's to the 1920's.

Thank you Skip.
Some may not give a care either way but I find delving into the history of old cutlery companies ( mainly Camillus) is interesting and helps me to appreciate the older knives

Ripster wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 1:32 pm Thank.....

You're welcome, JP.

As per Wikipedia: "The practice of underlined (or double-underlined) superscripted abbreviations was common in eighteenth century writing."