Remington R4095 Mystery

The Remington Corporation and the knives that they built have influenced the U.S. cutlery industry more than nearly any other manufacturer. From the time America was settled, to the end of WWI, American knife companies struggled to compete with Britain and German imports, but events that occurred during and after the First World War led to a great change in this phenomenon. Unprecedented opportunities arose, and Remington stepped up to seize the moment. In the process, they created some of today's most prized collectables. In an ironic twist, the next World War played the greatest role in ending the company’s domination of the industry.
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OLDE CUTLER
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Remington R4095 Mystery

Post by OLDE CUTLER »

I picked up this Remington Acorn shield R4095 recently. I have it apart now in the rebuild process. Photo shows it with temporary pins.
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It had a broken awl blade, and a bad spey blade, which was not a problem because I had another acorn donor knife. Anyway when I get the thing home and get to looking at it, I thought the layout of the knife was a little odd. I have other acorn Remingtons, and all of the ones I own have the punch by itself on the opposite end from the master blade. This one you can see has the awl on the same end as the master with the spey on the opposite end by itself. So I got out a book I have (Ritchie & Stewart Guide #5) to see if there are any photos of this model and there actually is a drawing of a R4095 on page 682.
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However, this drawing shows another, differing layout. It shows the master blade to the front (acorn side) and the awl behind it. The way the Remington awls are made would seem to make it impossible to assemble a knife this way, as the offset of the awl would lay on top of the master blade and make opening the knife impossible. So I start thinking maybe the knife has been apart before and was incorrectly assembled. After I got it apart, measuring the thickness of the springs compared to the blades means it could only be assembled one way. And that is the way it was when I got it. I have been looking for an actual photo of a R4095, but thus far have not found one, despite looking at hundreds of acorn knife photos on Yahoo, Bing, Google, and AAPK. The thought also occurred to me that the artist who drew the picture of the R4095 just made a mistake and drew it incorrectly. This knife also uses a thinner than normal spey blade with a spacer beside it to get the spey to lie next to the master blade correctly. Any Remington collectors have a R4095 or know why it was assembled differently than almost all other acorns?
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peanut740
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Re: Remington R4095 Mystery

Post by peanut740 »

I've had R4095's with the punch blade on either side. ::shrug::
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OLDE CUTLER
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Re: Remington R4095 Mystery

Post by OLDE CUTLER »

peanut740 wrote:I've had R4095's with the punch blade on either side. ::shrug::
Wow, that is kinda strange, two different configurations of the same knife number.
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espn77
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Re: Remington R4095 Mystery

Post by espn77 »

I guess I wouldn't call it common but I've seen a few things that don't match the original catelog and sure don't match the modern books. They had employees that showed up to work on Monday morning hungover in the 30's just like we do today. ::shrug::
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