9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

In 1911, H. N. Platts, was able to draw on his extensive friendships and family connections in the cutlery world to start Western States Cutlery and Manufacturing of Boulder Colorado. At first only a jobbing business, by 1920 construction and machinery purchases were underway to begin manufacture of knives. Through name changes--to Western States Cutlery Co. in 1953, then Western Cutlery Co. in 1956--and moves first across town and later to Longmont Colorado, the company stayed under the leadership of the Platt family until 1984. In that year, the company was sold to Coleman, becoming Coleman-Western. Eventually purchased by Camillus in 1991, Western continued until Camillus expired in 2007.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by Producer »

Here is an L46-5. I've got the original sheath somewhere and will post it when I find it! :)
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by zzyzzogeton »

orvet wrote:Here are the two knives side by side.

Two Western Baby Sharks.jpg

The top one has been badly abused with a Scotch Brite wheel I suspect before I got it.
It has the double sided brass guard. Was that a later model?
The top G46-5 is 1946 to 1954. That is the time frame for the bird beak pommel, brass, full guard G46-5. When Western changed the post-WW2 G46-5 to a half guard and started putting the model numbers on the pile side ricassos, the model number was changed to L46-5.

Western knives made during the 1946 to 1954 time period can be sub-divided into 2 parts -

1946 to 1952 - Patent reference present as part of the stamp, be it the full patent number or just the partial word "PAT.".

1953 to 1954 - No patent reference and no model number.

Until about 2 years ago, those two subdivisions were the ONLY options that I ever believed existed.

There exists an extremely rare and very small set of knives that have both a reference to the patent AND a model number.

I now have 2 knives in my possession that have both a patent reference AND a model number. I think these knives indicate that the actual date of ending the patent number reference and the date of first model number stamps actually had a short overlap period, despite what Harlon Platts said and implied in TKMWWW. But the where did the "no patent no model" knives come from and why are there so many more of them than the dual marked versions.

AAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH. :mrgreen:
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by knife7knut »

Not trying to hijack this post but rather add a similar knife that I just acquired today. Stamped,"Western Boulder Colo. Pat.No.1,967,47(5? last number is partially obliterated)" Five inch fullered blade with steel full guard that has a slot in it about 3/8ths of an inch wider than the blade.Aluminum pommel and leather handle. No sheath.Bought at a yard sale for $2.50. Any info is greatly appreciated.I posted this in the fixed blade forum also.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by zzyzzogeton »

That is an unusual one. It is a G46-5 for sure, with some passing acquaintance with WW2.

This is just a guess, as I have no real info to point at, but on gut feel, there are 2 possibilities as to when your knife was made.

The first is that your's is a WW2 era knife that was somehow assembled with a G46-6 guard,as that slotted guards was standard for the G46-6.

The other possibility is that it is an early post-WW2 G46-5, made before brass became readily available and before Western added "MADE IN USA" to the stamp.

The post-war G46-5s, from about 1946 to about (as only a guess) about 1949, were made with the same full guards as the WW2-era and the 1946 to 1954 era G46-6s.

Either way, your's is a unique duck. Let me know if you want to part with it.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by Dinadan »

This is a great thread. Thanks for sharing, fellows!
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by knife7knut »

zzyzzogeton wrote:That is an unusual one. It is a G46-5 for sure, with some passing acquaintance with WW2.

This is just a guess, as I have no real info to point at, but on gut feel, there are 2 possibilities as to when your knife was made.

The first is that your's is a WW2 era knife that was somehow assembled with a G46-6 guard,as that slotted guards was standard for the G46-6.

The other possibility is that it is an early post-WW2 G46-5, made before brass became readily available and before Western added "MADE IN USA" to the stamp.

The post-war G46-5s, from about 1946 to about (as only a guess) about 1949, were made with the same full guards as the WW2-era and the 1946 to 1954 era G46-6s.

Either way, your's is a unique duck. Let me know if you want to part with it.
Thank you very much for the information.I appreciate the offer but I don't sell knives;just accumulate them.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by zzyzzogeton »

Kinda like me.... :mrgreen:
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by knife7knut »

zzyzzogeton wrote:Kinda like me.... :mrgreen:
I know exactly what you mean. I showed my wife the knife tonight and her only response was:"And you NEEDED this why?" And when I told her it might be valuable she said,"Well sell it!" At least that was a lot better response than my first wife who would have punctuated her response with a series of expletives.And that is why she is an EX wife!
To me it is not so much the value of a particular knife than it is the finding of it.The hunt is always better.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by zzyzzogeton »

Well, if you ever get hit with a moment of insanity, hit me up.

I'm single, so the only responses/queries I ever get about my collection/accumulation is "How many do you have now?"

I can still honestly say "Less than 4000." For a while.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by knife7knut »

zzyzzogeton wrote:Well, if you ever get hit with a moment of insanity, hit me up.

I'm single, so the only responses/queries I ever get about my collection/accumulation is "How many do you have now?"

I can still honestly say "Less than 4000." For a while.
Sounds about right.I bought my first knife at the age of ten and still have it sixty-five years later.
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Re: 9 inch Fullered Western with 5 inch Blade - What Model is This?

Post by orvet »

zzyzzogeton wrote:Well, if you ever get hit with a moment of insanity, hit me up.

I'm single, so the only responses/queries I ever get about my collection/accumulation is "How many do you have now?"

I can still honestly say "Less than 4000." For a while.

I used to keep a spreadsheet of all my knives so I knew how many knives I had. Then it dawned on me if I knew how many knives I had if my wife ever asked me, "How many knives do you have?" I would have had to answer honestly and tell her. So I stopped adding knives to my spreadsheet. That was over 10 years ago and I was at 2000 then.
Fast-forward to about nine years ago, I'm talking to someone at my table at the Oregon show, my wife is helping another customer at the table. The fellow I am talking to asks me how many knives I have and I told him I stopped counting at 2000 as I didn't want to tell my wife how many knives I really had. My wife overheard that....

We are actually still married, she helps me at the knife shows, we go to flea markets together and she's really good at spotting knives for me, and she is learning how to do knife photography.
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