Approximate age of Estwing knife?

[Modern Slip Joints]

It has a stacked leather handle with aluminum hand guard, bird's beak aluminum pommel and single tang construction. There might be a hole in the end of the pommel that is plugged with lead. I'll I can say for sure is that silver plating has flaked off that spot. The rest of the pommel is bare aluminum. It has a 4 1/2" sabre ground blade with lightening grooves. The primary grind is etched Estwing. The tang is etched Finland in cursive. There are no other stamps or etchings. The original leather sheath has a silver metal reinforcement strip on the front just below where the knife inserts. I bought it at a gunshow yesterday mostly because it goes with my hatchets.

[eveled]

I’m not familiar with that one. The one I’ve been looking for is a closer match to the hatchet handles.
It has the same steel plate pommel.

The current Estwing knife looks like it belongs to Marvin the Martian.

[Modern Slip Joints]

The thread on Estwing knives that you copied and pasted the picture from, viewtopic.php?f=34&t=63261&p=750597&hil ... ng#p750597 , includes replies that write the knife with a hatchet like sheet metal butt cap is older than my Estwing knife, is much harder to find and more valuable to collectors. That thread has a picture of a knife that almost matches mine. The differences are its sheath which does not look original, the location of its blade etching and its etching includes the name Sportsman. About a half dozen knives like mine were either auctioned or did not sell through buy it now listings on eBay in the last week. Most or maybe all of them had patina and various amounts of wear or had been polished. Mine still has its original bright silver color and factory edge. If Estwing knives were in local hardware stores during the 1970s I think I would remember them. I do not remember any. Other than their current odd balls I did not know Estwing made knives before seeing mine at the gun show.

[mrwatch]

I looked at a vintage Estwing fixed blade at a antique mall and talked to the dealer. as I recall that they did not make them. He also stated not unusual to find the sheath is not the original for many fixed blades. Someone will come along with better info.

[Modern Slip Joints]

The prevailing opinion expressed in the thread that I linked is that the knives with sheet metal hatchet like butt caps were made by Estwing during the half a dozen years before the US entered WW II and my newer knife was made by someone else after WW II. It was suggested that Kinfolks was a likely manufacturer. My question is when and for how long did Estwing sell knives like mine with "bird's head" alluminum pommels?

[eveled]

Is this one like yours?

[Modern Slip Joints]

Is this one like yours? 11AF97E4-AB8E-42C2-8A32-EA1303281C19.jpeg

Yes! First, I'm sorry that it took a week for me to notice a new reply to this thread. I can not read anything stamped or etched on that knife but it and its sheath look exactly like mine. Do you own the hatchet & knife kit? If you bought it new then I'd have my answer.

I bought my first Estwing hatchet for $7 at an Ace Hardware Store's going out of business sale during 1975 or 1976. Its factory paint is a light greyish blue. While my hatchet might have been in the store's inventory a long time I think the lack of blue paint on the hatchet makes the kit from a different time period. Estwing hatchets from the 1980s and most of those in the stores now have a clear coat of lacquer to keep them shiny while they are on display. Estwing used a metallic blue paint for a while but those are disappearing from stores' inventories. My knife's blade is bare tool steel.

My hatchet still has most of its paint because boy scout size hatchets are not a great idea. They are not worth their weight back packing or hunting on foot and longer and/or heavier hatchets are more effective. Buck, Case and Western's hatchets stamped out of sheet steel are even worse. I see them as odd chisels with side handles. I heated exclusively with wood for years. My favorites have 2 1/4 pound boys' axe heads on 17" handles. They are usually sold as Hearth Axes or House Axes. Plumb, Vaughn and Craftsman have sold great examples. Estwing's shorter Camp Axe is a cool looking competitor but it balances poorly with too much weight in the handle and not enough in the head. While it is not as good a tool as my wood handled hearth axes I've used mine a lot more than my old blue scout size Estwing. Vaughn 17" Rig Builder hatchet/framing hammers also are great hatchets. It is more comfortable moving my grip up their straight handle for light kindling and of course they make better hammers. Their forged heads were 1 3/4 lb. The heads on newer cast ones can be as heavy as 2 1/4 lb. The heaviest ones make the best general purpose hatchet.

[eveled]

No it’s not mine. It was listed on eBay and sold for $195. The listing didn’t say much. No age given unfortunately. It did say the knife was made in Finland and the axe in the US.

[Modern Slip Joints]

No it’s not mine. It was listed on eBay and sold for $195. [...]

I just bought the knife and its sheath in excellent condition at a gun show for $25 and for those who do not already have one the scout size hatchets are about $45 new. Oh well. It could be there are only two never opened kits on the planet and 10 people want one. Maybe it's past time for Estwing to sell more hatchets paired with normal camping/hunting knifes that have matching stacked leather handles.

[eveled]

I’ve always wanted a matching classic hatchet knife set. But they always sell for more than I am willing to spend. I agree a new Estwing set is overdue.

Maybe I’m crazy but I’d like to see a knife with the blue handle Estwing uses.

[Modern Slip Joints]

The shorter 17" Camp Axe really is a neat hatchet. If they paired one with a matching blue handle knife that had a normal 4" to 5" blade I'd be seriously tempted.

The longer Camp Axe that is Estwings version of a boys axe is a lot more common. They're about 25". I bought mine about 1980. While I have not used it a lot I used to always take it as far as our hunting camp because my partners loved using the fancy axe. If I count their use then I've gotten more than my money's worth out of it. More so than the shorter version too much of its weight is in the handle. I'll keep it forever anyway.

What I'd like to see Estwing do is sell the 17" Camp Axe with a stacked leather handle.