Camillus fixed blade

[coffeecup]

Picked this one up recently (after waiting a month for the seller to ship it!). Overall length is about 9 1/8", with a 5" blade. That's about the same size as the Western Baby Sharks I'm so fond of. Sheath appears to be original, or at least an old replacement. The only thing that makes me wonder is the way the retainer strap is oversize. No mark on the glove snap.



The knife itself is well designed and has a very nice fuller. Crossguard is brass; the handle has a pattern of red fibre washer/brass/black fibre/brass/red fibre right above the crossguard and repeated below the aluminum buttcap, with very well-preserved leather washers in between. Butt cap is retained by a slotted brass nut.



The mark is what throws me, probably because I've seen so few non-military fixed blade knives from Camillus. Any idea when Camillus used this mark?



And a closer shot:



Anyhow, since I had time I thought I'd show off my latest addition. It doesn't really fit my collection, but I have to admit to giving serious though to sharpening it up for use. Like the Baby Sharks, it seems like it would make a dandy working knife. Maybe I'll just rework an old Jet Pilot's Knife, and copy the handle.

Jim

[orvet]

Nice one Jim.

Dale

[WelderBob]

Nice Camillus...could be a WWll knife. Picture and text from M.H. Cole's book, page 68.
Your knife and sheath look very similar. The stamp not being oval type is the only difference
I can see...maybe your's is a pre-war...?

Bob

[coffeecup]

Thanks for the info Bob! Not sure when it was made, I was hoping someone had some insight. You're right, except for the stamp it does appear to be the one in Cole's book.

I did a side-by-side comparison with a JPK. Measurements, proportions, etc match up--I'm guessing they used the same blade blanks and much of the same tooling. Fuller placement matches to a 'T,' as do most other dimensions. The only major differences from the crossguard forward are the greater curvature of the false edge of the JPK, and of course the saw teeth on the JPK. Even those are cut from a blank with the same dimensions as the knife I posted.

The handle is such an improvement over the JPK that it is unreal. This is a knife you could actually use (even if you can't stick it in an oar handle and make a spear). I think my old JPK is going to get re-worked.

Jim

[WelderBob]

Jim, I believe I've found the cousin to your knife...just got it this weekend and it's identical with the exception of the
tang stamp. The sheath is different than yours, but it's the same as shown in Cole's book. He calls it a Army Air Corps
and Navy knife...from it's looks you would think it's a civilian model. I'd sure like to find out more on Camillus tang stamp's
that were used on fixed blade's...not much info on them...maybe Dale know's something on this.

Bob

[orvet]

Bob,
Is the top line of the tang stamp curved up and the bottom line curved down, or is that a trick of the camera?

Dale

[coffeecup]

Bob, that is a nice one!

Dale, there seem to be two variations in the 3-line stamps on these. One is the curved stamp like on Bob's knife, the other is the parallel stamp like on mine.

I've found one knife I can date the retail purchase of; it was originally the twin to Bob's knife. Unfortunately, the guy who purchased it bought it in 1950 (off-base, he thought), and carried it as a pilot in Korea. (From it's current state, I suspect after the war he used it to cut an aircraft carrier in half.)

[orvet]

Humm.................
The construction of the knife looks circa WWII, give or take a decade.
I am tempted to think that the curved version of the stamp must be fairly close to WWII, either shortly before or shortly after.

I have a few questions for Tom. I have been trying to get in touch with him.
I missed him today and left him a voice mail. I will try again tomorrow.

Dale

[WelderBob]

Dale, Here's a better picture of the stamp...I got the knife from a friend in Oklahoma, he said it had belonged to a retired Army officer
who was a WW2 veteran.

Bob

[coffeecup]

Got some new information.

I was browsing usmilitaryknives.com and ran across a notice that part of the Camillus factory collection was being sold off. If you go to http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/camillu ... ection.htm and scroll down to the third knife shown, you'll see a much-better-preserved twin to my knife, right down to the markings.

Mr. Trzaska describes it this way: "5679 L36: WW II Army Air Corps knife. This is the early AAC survival kit knife with straight line marking. This is the factory reference knife that was adopted." This would seem to suggest that the arched marking is the latter of the two.

[orvet]

I did get a chance to touch base briefly with Tom by phone this weekend.
I talked to Tom and his mom. They had a bunch of their family with them and were vacationing in the Adirondacks.
Tom's mom is a real sweetheart. I would love to know the things about Camillus that she has forgotten!
She worked for Camillus for over 50 years, I think Tom said 55 years total. Amazing!

Tom did say there was an arched tang stamp like yours prior to and early on in the war.
It was apparently replaced by the 4-line we commonly associate with WWII Camillus knives.
However, IIRC, he has told me before that the 4-line predated WWII. I suppose it is quite likely that they used more than one tang stamp in the years leading up to WWII.

Tom & I intend to get another conversation going when he gets back home and gets caught up in the shop.

To be continued.......

Dale

[coffeecup]

There's some further information (and pictures!) here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... p?t=542736 After reading the thread, I remember reading it before, as it developed. Darned if I remembered the flat tang stamp though.