All About Pocket Knives

Here is a picture of the knife. We want to know the age of this knife.
The tang stamp is on three lines staright. All capitals top line CAMILLUS
second line CUTLERY CO. last line CAMILLUS NY We could not find this exact stamp in any of my books. This stamp is like a four line without the usa.

Stockman

I don't know the date, but I have an old ebony handled easy opener that has the same tang stamp on both blades, and I would also love to get an approximate date. All that I CAN say is that the tang stamp is not shown in Goin's, at least not in my edition.

By the way, great knife.

I cant help with the date but it sure is a nice knife!

are letters sans serif?

Hand set steel pins, and it looks like the same bone as this jack which is a four line stamp, so maybe about the same age ?

If it worries you, I'll take it off your hands !

Fran

jonet143 wrote:are letters sans serif?

jonet143, yes

Stockman

Stockman,

Are you sure that those letters don't have serif's? From what I can see, and on the knife I have that has this(?) three line marking the letters definitely have serif's.

msteele6 wrote:Stockman,

Are you sure that those letters don't have serif's? From what I can see, and on the knife I have that has this(?) three line marking the letters definitely have serif's.

Maybe I don't know what they are give me some quick lessons.

Thanks Stockman

The 4 line Camillus stamp has serifs, the " little tails " on the letters.

The next stamp does not, and is sans ( without ) serifs.

Hope this is explaination is clear.

Fran

Well, it looks like Sauconian beat me to the punch, I hope his pictures are clearer than my explanation.

Thanks Fran and msteele6, It is like I thought, except I did not look at the tang close
it is like Frans first knife the 4 line stamp. I am still looking for a approximate age of the knife.

Again Thanks
Stockman

goins places the four line like frans in 1941-1946 era. perhaps camco will show up.

goins places the four line like frans in 1941-1946 era

No it does not. The 4 line stamp was used starting right after WW1. Until the start of WW2 all blades were marked, after only the master blade was marked, up until 1946.

In regards to the knives above, both the swing guard and the 2-blade appear to have hand jigged handles in addition to hand set pins. My guess would be early 1920s for either one.
Does the swing guard have a 3 or 4 line stamp? I have a 2-blade EZ Open jack that has 3 line stamps as originally described on both blades, and another jumbo jack with a 4-line stamp on the master blade and the 3-line stamp on the small blade.

arathol wrote:

goins places the four line like frans in 1941-1946 era

No it does not. The 4 line stamp was used starting right after WW1. Until the start of WW2 all blades were marked, after only the master blade was marked, up until 1946.

In regards to the knives above, both the swing guard and the 2-blade appear to have hand jigged handles in addition to hand set pins. My guess would be early 1920s for either one.
Does the swing guard have a 3 or 4 line stamp? I have a 2-blade EZ Open jack that has 3 line stamps as originally described on both blades, and another jumbo jack with a 4-line stamp on the master blade and the 3-line stamp on the small blade.

arathol, goins does place the 4-line as 1941-1946. levine says it was used through ww 2. i am not "guessing", just relating what is written in several books. right or wrong.

goins does place the 4-line as 1941-1946

Yes, it does say that in Goins. But, if you were to read the passage on Camillus entirely you would see that the 4-line stamp used from 1941-46 was only put on one blade. From 1919-1941 it was on all the blades. Frans knife above is marked on both blades, so it was made earlier than 1941, probably quite a bit earlier.

did'nt dig deep enough. thanks

Jeez fellows, I don't want to stir the pot here, but stockman wants to know the age of his knife.

I only posted mine for an example of serifs.

Stockman's knife has a 3 line stamp with serifs, but only one blade. But he also has hand jigged bone and hand set pins, so might it be from the same era as mine ?

I think the bone & pins is more telling than the ( apparently ) unlisted stamp.

Fran

That stamp isn't listed in any reference book I have seen. However, I do have a 2 blade ez open that has the same stamp, hand jigged bone, etc. I think(if I remember right) that machine jigging wasn't done until sometime in the mid 1920s, so I figure that that stamp was used sometime after WW1. There was an earlier 3 line stamp that read Camillus Cutlery/Camillus/New-York, used around 1918-1919. The stamp described above may have been a transition between the earlier 3-line and the 4-line.

Thanks Guys, This all helps I'am still looking but have found nothing different
than what you all have found. We all have the same books, I have a large stack of books
and still can't find alot of knives. Someone knows maybe he will see this and come in.
Keep looking

Thanks Stockman