Dating or ID of old stag fixed Winchester needed

[baldbuckeye]

Need any information on this Stag handled Winchester fixed knife. Through my research I have not found ant pattern like it or a another like it. Overall condition is excellent OAL is 10 1/4" with the blade measuring 6 1/8". There is no tang stamping other than #8 stamped on the back side. The blade is etched "WINCHESTER-trade mark-MADE IN U.S.A"

[Mumbleypeg]

I believe the knife is likely a “modern” reproduction, not an old original manufactured by the Winchester factory. I say that because I have a Winchester collector’s guide, which is a very large book full of catalog reprints of Winchester branded products ranging from firearms, cartridges and shotshells, sporting goods, gardening tools, carpentry tools, axes, hatchets, hammers, kitchen and household appliances, paints, etc. 750 pages of Winchester branded stuff!

Included are 53 pages of pocket knives (approximately 6 knives per page). There is only one fixed blade knife in the entire book (see below). It looks like your knife except the blade grind and etch, the guard, and sheath are different, therefore my “guess” that your knife is probably a later “reproduction”. JMO. Still, could be 30-40 years old, just not an original Winchester knife.

In the text of the pocket knife section it says “in the late 1980s Blue Grass Cutlery was licensed to make Winchester knives; they subcontracted that production to an American firm.” (That firm is believed by most to have been Queen Cutlery).

Ken

[OLDE CUTLER]

I believe the knife is likely a “modern” reproduction, not an old original manufactured by the Winchester factory. I say that because I have a Winchester collector’s guide, which is a very large book full of catalog reprints of Winchester branded products ranging from firearms, cartridges and shotshells, sporting goods, gardening tools, carpentry tools, axes, hatchets, hammers, kitchen and household appliances, paints, etc. 750 pages of Winchester branded stuff!

Included are 58 pages of pocket knives (approximately 6 knives per page). There is only one fixed blade knife in the entire book (see below). It looks like your knife except the blade grind and etch, the guard, and sheath are different, therefore my “guess” that your knife is probably a later “reproduction”. JMO. Still, could be 30-40 years old, just not an original Winchester knife.

In the text of the pocket knife section it says “in the late 1980s Blue Grass Cutlery was licensed to make Winchester knives; they subcontracted that production to an American firm.” (That firm is believed by most to have been Queen Cutlery).

Ken

Ken, I agree with your assessment of the knife in the OP. I have a Winchester collector book by Larry Ehrhardt, first printing Jan 1974 as shown. While not as complete as the one you have shown, with all the pocket knives and tools in it, there is only one " hunting knife." It is the same one shown in your book. I was somewhat bewildered that Winchester, with the multitude of folding pocket knives, only offered one fixed blade.

[knifeaholic]

I believe that the OP knife would more correctly be a modern counterfeit. I don't recall Bluegrass offering one like that, and - more importantly - if they had, if would have been properly tang stamped including the pattern number and the year made.

[Mumbleypeg]

That is why I don’t try to collect Winchester knives - too many fakes. As far as I know in 20 or so years of manufacturing cutlery Winchester never changed their stamp, making it very difficult to determine when a knife was made. The problem is compounded by Winchester-stamped knives being made in Germany off and on from the 1950s to 1980s, using that same stamp. Then in mid-1980s until today they (Olin Corporation, which owns the Winchester trademark) authorized Blue Grass Cutlery to make the so-called “Black Box” Winchesters. 40 more years of knives made using that same stamp.

Some who collect Winchesters can tell the differences. I haven’t tried to learn to tell, so I leave them for others who either have studied the brand, don’t know better, or don’t care.

Ken

[baldbuckeye]

Thanks for the information to all, perplexing knife