Little Western Knife

[Jtp1389]

I just got a Western knife on eBay. I love the red handled ones but I didn't know they made such a small version. I've come to learn that it is a "bird and trout" model. The blade and the handle are each about 3 1/8" long. Can anyone share some knowledge about the rarity and the date it was made? Attached are a picture of both sides of the Tang and the knife beside a Buck 110

[zzyzzogeton]

Based on that set of stamps and the spacer pattern, it was made between 1950 and 1952.

The 1949 spacer pattern was different and any reference to the double tang patent was dropped after 1952 (generally). There are some exceptions to that 1952 end of patent time point as I have 3 Westerns with both a patent reference AND a model number, which were supposed to be first added around 1954 or 1955, but I use 1952 as the end date for the patent stamp.

[Jtp1389]

Wow, thank you for the info. Where did you find all of that, the Platts Western book?

[zzyzzogeton]

From Platts, lots of Western ads in old magazines and collecting Western knives since 1965.

[Jtp1389]

I'm impressed. Thanks again for sharing

[XX Case XX]

Very nice knife you have there. I like those small fixed blades. That one would match up real good with a Buck 102 Woodsman.

____________
Mike

[tongueriver]

There is a man who calls himself DrGoodnight or something like that in the Denver area. He has been selling Westerns on Ebay for at least two years (or more) which are put togethers with modern materials to look like those old colored Westerns from the 1950s. They sell for absurdly high prices.

[Colonel26]

I love the Western B&T knives, both the large and the smaller versions. The size and blade shape is perfect for field dressing a deer. And that Western steel just can't be beat.