All About Pocket Knives

Here’s one of my favorite Hammer Brand handle wrap colors on a great knife I found in Warrenton, Texas a few years ago. The knife was in great condition, except for the spring. After I installed a new spring (a little tricky on these fragile knives), it works “good as new”!

Here’s an old match striker Ulster that I got for $2 at a garage sale years ago. It had full blades, but no handle covers. I made some mesquite covers from some scrap from my Dad’s workshop and fitted them to the knife. Feeling pretty proud of the results, I showed Dad. He thought I was “gifting” hi...

Here’s an old match striker Ulster stockman that I got for $2 at a garage sale years ago. It had full blades, but no handle covers. I made some mesquite covers from some scrap from my Dad’s workshop and fitted them to the knife. Feeling pretty proud of the results, I showed Dad. He thought I was “gi...

Ken,
Does your example also have the jigged, dark plastic scales?
Thanks,
Neal

Thanks, Bill!

I recently obtained this Bower Import German leverlock. It seems to be in decent shape and a good candidate for clean up and repair (broken kick spring). (I’m sorry for the dark photos.) It is different from my other “springers” since its lever spring extends halfway down the front handle and it has...

Thanks for the response and the information! I’ll keep looking for more information!

Handles are some type of olive green “plastic”. Possibly celluloid.

What a find! I have a Hammer Brand Utility Jack with the same handle color. (I believe it’s called “firebrick” in Mark Erickson’s book, “Antique American Switchblades “.) It seems to be one of the rarer colors that Imperial used “back in the day”.

I bought this well-made knife (I’d call it a “cattleman whittler”. ) in an antique store, years ago in Wisconsin. The knife is in pretty good “used” condition, except for the cracked green handle scales. The master blade is marked “CHALSET” over “CANADA”, with “920” stamped on the other side. The pu...

Great photos! Similarly,I have used a 90amp Harbor Freight wire feed welder to add a tiny spot of material to the tang of a leverlock switchblade to close the worn sear hole. I then re- file the hole “open” just enough to catch the sear. This can address the problem of worn switchblade knives when t...

I just found another example of the Remington/SWP Co. stamped pen knives.

I recently purchased this EIG (Saul Eig import) 14 cm black horn picklock. The blade had been sharpened to be a user and, at some point, the kick spring had snapped. The rest of the little knife had additional “bumps and bruises”, but was complete enough for me to take chance on repairing it. Since ...

Great find! Those are some of my favorites. The candy stripe covered ones seem to be rarer, especially in good condition!

It does look German. Nice looking knife! However, I do believe that most leverlocks of that “time period”, whether German or Japanese, had “dovetail” springs. They would likely need to be shaped to be wedged in from the side, rather than slipped in. (Bill DeShivs would know for certain.). The backsp...

Thanks for the help, Mumbleypeg! That clears it up!
NM

I just acquired my first KA-BAR “dog head”: a nice stag folding hunter, much like in previous posts, with both blades stamped. My question is regarding the shield itself. There appears to be two different “dog shields”. One has a curved front ear-margin. The other type has a “straight” front ear-mar...

Very nice eBay find! That’s the “stuff” that makes pocket knife collecting so interesting!

Thanks for the compliments! I was a bit apprehensive to tackle this one, but the stag and the nickel silver were nice, plus the tang mark was a bit unusual. This was my second attempt to actual try to spot weld he sear hole smaller. (I practiced on an old lawnmower blade to get the correct setting o...

Here’s the Boker shell puller that I was able to repair to working order. The project was more involved than I thought, but I had a good parts knife that provided a good back spring and kick spring. The processes included: 1. Grinding the kick spring to accommodate blade action. 2. Drilling the blad...

Great find! Those knives are among my favorites!

Thanks for the advice, Bill! I’ll measure carefully and go from there!

I recently acquired this old “H W Boker” shell puller that has a worn, chipped blade, no kick spring and worst of all, a broken back spring. Since I believe the tang mark is rare and it has nice stag scales and nickel silver bolsters and liners, I’m going to attempt to restore it using a donor “spri...