KNIFE FINDS OF THE DAY

[gino]

Great find!

[jerryd6818]

Are those handles that Snake Skin Stag? (I think that's what Miller Bro's called it.)

[IMBand]

Gino - Thats a nice old Gerber.

Got this on the way from a guy who has sold me a couple other autos.

IM

[tjmurphy]

Ooooooo!! YUM!!!

[gino]

Gino - Thats a nice old Gerber.

Got this on the way from a guy who has sold me a couple other autos.

IM

Thanks, that Hubertus is SWEEEET!

[big monk]

Gino____ I really like the two,Robersons !!!!!!!!_____pretty bone jacks,are a weakness,of mine*****


That ""Hubertus"" is awesome ,Trevor !!!!!!!!----CONGRATS !!!

[gino]

Just bought this from Jerry, cant wait to get her.
GEC Elk Muskrat
Thanks JW

[cattaraugus57]

IMBand ,That is one NICE Hubertus!!

[trutemper]

Found this one at the local trade day.

Buck, does that say "Mayhall" on the tang? If so where are they made? Never heard of that stamp.....sure looks like a dandy knife!! Love the upswept blade and great polish job! Nice find!!

Bob

[trutemper]

I ran into this one some time back and really like the semitranslucent horn handles. Darn thing is near mint with the original sleeve. Might end up being my EDC for a while....gotta see how it feels in my pocket a bit!! sure feels good in the hand. 3 and 3/8ths closed. 2.75 master blade and 1.75 secondary blade. Has a really cool tang stamp. "Hugo Koller Solingen Germany" If anyone has any info on this brand I like to hear what you think. Thanks,

Bob

[Just Plain Dave]

DANDY lookin' piece there trutemper!

[IMBand]

I ran into this one some time back and really like the semitranslucent horn handles. Darn thing is near mint with the original sleeve. Might end up being my EDC for a while....gotta see how it feels in my pocket a bit!! sure feels good in the hand. 3 and 3/8ths closed. 2.75 master blade and 1.75 secondary blade. Has a really cool tang stamp. "Hugo Koller Solingen Germany" If anyone has any info on this brand I like to hear what you think. Thanks,

Bob

I think those handles are GORGEOUS!!! Good quality knife too!

IM

[gino]

Nice horn handled knife.
The Hugo Koller Co. was started in 1861 and is still in business today. (Goins)

[gringo]

Here's a little german Howard bros I picked up..
guess it's worth the dollar I paid for it

what a beauty.

[gino]

Picked these up today
2 US Conettas Military knives

Apreciate any info anyone has on these.

[cattaraugus57]

nice find Gino!

(from knifenotes)....Conetta and Bren-Dan

Some interesting info on Bren-Dan and Conetta. I stopped by the Bren - Dan address today just to check it out as I was passing through Stamford. It is still open and operating much to my surprise. I spoke with Pete Conetta the owner and an employee there since 1950. He remembered making the knives and bayonets quite well. Another employee there, Mike Sabia also worked for them at the time as a tool and die maker who also worked on the cutlery. Sadly they couldn't find anything such as paper work or old blue prints but Pete promised he would look for them in the attic. They did have a bag of old plastic grips and a bag of old leather washers for the Conetta Mark 2 Knives. That was about it for any old parts laying around. Pete had a bayonet there in his desk for use as a letter opener. It was a Bren-Dan M4. The Conetta address is directly across the street. I took some photos of the current location and tooling that they used in the making of the knives and bayonets. I toured the facility with them and they showed me some of the old grinding equipment used for the making of the bayonets. They had an example of the Conetta Mark 2 blade with the strange shaped leather handle and the M7 guard and butt that a fellow collector had sent to him. Pete stated they did NOT make them. "The blades were all sold to a fellow in New Jersey" during a closing sale when they shut down the Conetta plant across the street. This I already knew as the "NJ" place is SARCO who has sold these knives through the Shotgun News for many years. The original name of the company was Conetta Tool and Die Inc. The owner was Louis Conetta and his brother Anthony also worked for him. Somehow through the telling of the old story I had often heard it seems that Anthony was the original owner, not true. Financial difficulty shut down Conetta Tool and Die Inc. and the large factory. Bren-Dan was kept in the family as it was a different corporation. The name Bren-Dan was a contraction of the names of Louis Conetta's first two children Brenda and Daniel. He also had a third son Anthony who was born after the Bren-Dan name was already in existence. Louis died several years ago. They were not affiliated with J&D Tool Co. who also made bayonets and which is located just a few miles away. Pete knew of them as they had the same inspector come out from the govt to check on the items they were making. The strange part was the inspector was based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and he was a sailor. Could it be that Conetta and Bren-Dan had a contract with the Navy Department (Marines) and that is the reason we could not locate records on them at Rock Island? Makes one think. Conetta started in business in 1946 and Bren-Dan sometime in the middle 1960's. They couldn't remember the exact dates. They also told me the inspector used to laugh that the bayonets being made by Bren-Dan were obsolete and wouldn't fit anything in the current US arsenal. He used to laugh at how they were "getting over" on the govt. Again makes me think the bayonets (M4's) were going to the S. Vietnamese govt. or some other Asian country we were giving aid to and that might be the reason that Rock Island did not have records on them? From the labeling found on a few Conetta boxes it equates to a Marine Corps contract and part number so that theory is valid. Below is a sample of the writing on a circa 1969 bayonet box produced by Conetta.

1005-716-0944BAYONET, KNIFE M-41 EACHDA-11-199-AMC-724 (W)A - 3/69

All these years of hearing about the Conetta and Bren-Dan connection and not really paying much attention to it, all it would have taken to check it out was to call them up and ask. Sometimes I really miss out on the easy ones!

[gino]

Thanks Catt for all the info, I really Apreciate it.

[cattaraugus57]

Not a problem Gino...
also found this.

This brings us up to the knives made by Conetta. The Conetta Manufacturing Company of Stamford, Conn. was a large machine shop owned by Mr. Louis Conetta. Mr. Conetta obtained a government contract under the name of Dynetics Corp for the M7 bayonet in 1966. This led to another contract for the Knife, Combat, MIL-K-20277c as it was then called. We do not know the number of Conetta knives delivered but by the numbers now seen it was not an overly large contract. The knives themselves conform to the basic specification set in 1962 with the Parkerized steel parts and the coated and treated handles and scabbards. They were well made knives for a company that did not make knives. As can be observed on many Conetta knives the machine marks are on some of the blades. A conversation I had a few years ago with Pete Conetta at the Bren-Dan plant in Stamford brought back many memories of producing the knives and bayonets in that period. Inspectors came up from Brooklyn to check on the items being made. It was a running joke in the plant that they were making M4 bayonets, the rifle for which, the M1 Carbine, had been obsolete for many years! No doubt those M4 bayonets were headed for Vietnam and the South Vietnamese Army which favored the Carbine for the lightweight and mild recoil. Pete did recall that they made the knives and bayonets over several years so we can conclude that additional contracts were let over several years of production. He also showed me a cabinet that was filled with leather washers for knife handles. The leather was treated which still carried the smell and dark in color but not black, an effect of the treatment not a dye. On 5/10/70 Camillus wrote up a new production card to conform to the MIL-K-20277d specifications in which they included an additional line stating “All leather washers dyed black��? and a color was added, “Standard Black Shade No. 111.��? This is the first indication of a possible distinct coloring change that we know took place. The early “Ox-Blood��? knives were at some point changed to a real black in color, the knives as well as the scabbards. We can see that Camillus changed to a black color in 1970 from this production card yet the knives continued in the Ox-Blood color. The color was to conform to a black “chip��? color chart that was written into the specifications. The first date on a scabbard being black is from one I purchased in the wrap. It is dated 1979 and had an Ox-Blood handle but a black scabbard. Not scientific but it sets the 1979 date as the latest it could have been. The thread in the scabbard was also changed to nylon on the MIL-K-20277e specification dated 10/17/74 but by this time most of the manufacturers had already made this switch. It should be noted that it was not a specification change but on February 1, 1974 the “N.Y.��? was dropped from the Camillus stamping on the blade. Mr. Dean Wallace, VP of Engineering at Camillus at the time, put this change into effect. I am often asked this question by collectors looking to place a knife in the Vietnam era. Well it depends on your thoughts on what is the proper Vietnam era to begin with. The beginning could be construed as 1945 by many when the OSS dropped in men or it could be when military assistance was given to the French in the 1950’s or when military assistance in the form of advisors went in there overtly in 1961. The ending is a little more clear cut but still has shades of gray, August 1975 as the end or when US main forces were pulled out and the POW’s returned in 1973? I will not debate you on this point, only tell you when the stamping was changed, you make your own conclusion.

[johnnierotten]

Catt....that's some great info.

[cattaraugus57]

Thanks guys...glad to do it..

[gino]

Thanks again Catt, this info is great because since both my knives handles and scabbards are ox blood and not black it tells me I have a couple early ones.
Thanks
Gino

[just in case]

Geno, those are cool !

[268bull]

This isn't typically the type of knife that I'm drawn to, however I discovered it as I was putting back a metal, nickel plated cigarette case while at an estate sale this afternoon. It was tucked away between a pair of speakers. A quick look at the knife showed it was a Schrade 15 OT. It looks like my sharpfinger's bigger brother. I'd seen enough, payed for it and was out of there. It is missing the shield, and while the blade wasn't pitted, it did show signs of starting to rust. A number of dark spots from being kept in a cool environment, and not having coated the blade with a light coat of oil. Got home and applied a bit of elbow grease, and the knife looks not to bad. I also believe the knife has never been sharpened . Bull

[RobesonsRme.com]

I'm new to this discussion, so give me a little leeway.

In the KnifeNotes excerpt posted by CATT57, it stated the old Conetta blades were sold to a man from New Jersey and then states, "the "NJ" place is SARCO who has sold these knives through the Shotgun News for many years."

The only SARCO of which I'm aware is Sargent Company, founded by Jim Sargent and now owned and operated by his son. SARCO is now and always has been, in Florence, Alabama.

I'm only pointing this out because the KnifeNotes article seems to imply that SARCO took the Conetta blades and made and sold what would have been essentially counterfeit Conetta Mark II's.

Someone help me out here. Was there another SARCO located in New Jersey?

Charlie Noyes

[gino]

Got this GEC American elk muskrat yesterday from Jerry (JWS) thanks Jerry!