Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

The Camillus Cutlery Company was one of the oldest knife manufacturers in the United States with roots dating back to 1876. The company manufactured Camillus branded knives and was a prolific contractor for other knife brands up until its last days in 2007 when the company filed for bankruptcy.
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Paul Tummers
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by Paul Tummers »

gino wrote:Thanks Dave,made with Bocote wood handles and it has a filed spring also. The easy open was added for looks and I really like it. Caddyman73 made it for me.
Here is a few better pics.
Beautiful!!

If I would have a knife like this, I would prefer a bail on it, this one is too nice to loose somewere!
My father's rule; "The only safe knife is a sharp knife".
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Just Plain Dave
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by Just Plain Dave »

Pretty sure I have seen it before.

Still LOVE it! :oops: :roll: ::paranoid:: ::shrug::
Looking for the magic penny!
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bonehead
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by bonehead »

Here is an interesting ole Camillus Jack, with the Streamline name. Quite possibly unsharpened but my eyes are only so good.. The handles are simmulated rosewwood polymer.

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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by msteele6 »

Great old knife, I especially love the saber style blade, you're lucky to have the dark red handles, this knife was also made with tan handles and those handles are very prone to deterioration. I haven't seen this handle deteriorate.
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by bonehead »

msteele,

This looks to have plenty of shrinkage, and some interesting, ( What I'll call (4) sink marks), in the handle interior of the bolsters. Interesting enough these are also present on the other Streamline posted earlier in this Section?
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by orvet »

I'm pretty sure that is a pre-WW II knife with celluloid handles.
It is a beauty though!
Hard to find them with full blades.
Great find!! ::tu::
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by gino »

BH, sweet knife! It just has a great look about it. like Dale said hard to find a knife like that in that condition. ::drool:: ::envy::
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by gino »

Here is my latest Camillus finds

1976 commemorative knives with brass medalions
White delrin with brass shields
Engraved numbered bolsters
Mint in original boxes (original prices on boxes from 1976)
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by Ramrod »

Nice finds Gino!
That seems pretty pricey for the 70's huh?
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by gino »

Hey Mark. I like them and they are pretty good quality knives. I liked the white delrin with the brass shield. The pics dont do them justice. I always take crappy pics.
Good to hear from you, I havent talked to you in a while. Gino ;)
-( life is too short to carry a cheap knife )-
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by bonehead »

Thanks Guys,

I now own a total of (2) Camillus knives. :cry: I've been trying so hard to keep my collection to a limited Company,Knife pattern, Now that I've read some on Camillus its makes it really hard :? What I do like is that one can obtain some of these fine knives for a fraction of some of the other bigger names of the day ::nod::

PS: I do not own a celluloid knife that I know of but I'll be sure to keep this one at distance from the others.. Thanks for the info

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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by gino »

Bone, you can try to only collect one but sooner or later the bug will get you. LOL! I only have one knife material I stay away from and that is cel.
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by orvet »

Nice finds gino! ::tu:: ::tu::
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by tjmurphy »

Camillus are great knives and I like them a lot. If only they had used better handle materials. Just don't like delrin. Of course if they were bone or stag the novice collector would not be able to afford them. As I've said before, the knives are way better than the handles.
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Paul Tummers
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by Paul Tummers »

tjmurphy wrote:Camillus are great knives and I like them a lot. If only they had used better handle materials. Just don't like delrin. Of course if they were bone or stag the novice collector would not be able to afford them. As I've said before, the knives are way better than the handles.
Neither do I like delrin as a handle material, but is is a lot better than the stuff Camillus used after they parted with bone and before they used this Delrin.
I looked it up in Google, and it seems to be a material which is used as a substitute for metal in machine contruction as well.
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by orvet »

I agree that bone makes a much more pleasing handle than does Delrin, but I think it is important to remember that most Camillus knives were made as tools for people who used a knife day in and day out.

I have repaired and customized more knives than I can count, and I can count on one hands the number of Delrin handles I have seen that failed in normal use. I rarely ever see a broken Delrin handle on a knife. When I do see one, the problem is usually a pin crack and as a rule the knife came from the factory with the crack or else the pin is located too close to the edge of the handle, causing the crack.

Rarely does a Delrin handle fail even in rough usage on a knife. That is why most US knife companies moved to Delrin as the default handle material for user knives. It is durable, can be colored, it can molded to look like bone or stag, it does not off-gas, it is extremely stable and it is not expensive to make. In short the perfect handle for user knives.

However, I do prefer to carry a bone handled knife. :mrgreen:
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by tjmurphy »

Dale, you left off the phrase; "I said all that to say this", or, "To make a long story short" :lol:
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by orvet »

Here is a Camillus I picked up a couple weeks ago.
It is the Camillus version of the "Ka-Bar" of WW II fame.
It is also known as the Mark II fighting knife in Navy terminology.
Camillus actually made more of this type of knife, nicknamed “Ka-Bar” by Marines than the Kabar company actually made. Between 1941 & 1946 Camillus made 14,895,881 knives for the US Armed Forces, (almost 15 million knives)! Of that 15 million, the fixed blade fighting knives, like the Mark II and other patterns including bayonets, accounted for nearly 2 million (1,955,024).
Camillus Mark II a.jpg
The tang stamp is hard to read because the Parkerizing is still heavy over the stamp.
Camillus Mark II  tang.jpg
Camillus Mark II e.jpg
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by carrmillus »

gino wrote:Here is my latest Camillus finds

1976 commemorative knives with brass medalions
White delrin with brass shields
Engraved numbered bolsters
Mint in original boxes (original prices on boxes from 1976)
i may be wrong, but i read or someone at a knife show told me the shield on the 100th anniv. knives were actually gold.-carrmillus
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by carrmillus »

gino wrote:Here is my latest Camillus finds

1976 commemorative knives with brass medalions
White delrin with brass shields
Engraved numbered bolsters
Mint in original boxes (original prices on boxes from 1976)
another senior moment!!- i found it!- in "the standard knife collectors guide"-sixth edition by ron stwewart- on page 516 it shows both knives and says the shields are gold!
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by orvet »

carrmillus wrote: another senior moment!!- i found it!- in "the standard knife collectors guide"-sixth edition by ron stwewart- on page 516 it shows both knives and says the shields are gold!
I have the 2nd, 4th & 5th editions, but no 6th edition.
Is there a Camillus section in the back of the Sixth edition?

Thanks,
Dale
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

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orvet wrote:
carrmillus wrote: another senior moment!!- i found it!- in "the standard knife collectors guide"-sixth edition by ron stwewart- on page 516 it shows both knives and says the shields are gold!
I have the 2nd, 4th & 5th editions, but no 6th edition.
Is there a Camillus section in the back of the Sixth edition?

Thanks,
Dale
dale, the info on the camillus 100th anniv. knives is in the section on bicentennials/commemoratives(pg. 516-6th edit.). there's still no camillus index in the back(appendix section). i also have a camillus 100th. anniv. whittler in a special box, it has a duck blade etch, oval camillus shield, and , i think, black jigged delrin handles(looks too black to be dyed bone)-says 1 of 2000 on the certificate.
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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by Toejammer »

Camillus Sword Brand #882 3 3/4 closed - got some big honkin wood scales on it !

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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by Toejammer »

Camillus pen #21 - 2 3/4" closed - someone did a number on the secondary blade, but still a nice little knife

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Re: Show Us Your Camillus Knives!

Post by trail »

Toe, you're posting some nice ones. That Sword looks like a handful. I like wood handled knives and that handle looks a lot like the ones on some of my Bears. The little pen knife shows how tough Camillus made them - obviously been used and carried, but still serviceable. I've noticed that no matter how beat up, pocket worn and sharpened, most Camillus knives are still tight and still snap.
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