What's up with this?

[garddogg56]

Does this belong in Camillus thread?Camillus shield. Western USA+tang, WTX on reverse side Frankenstein knife? On purpose?End of production? What says you

[cody6268]

End of production. I think the handles originated with Remington. I have seen them with Zombie shield as well, I guess for a line that never made it.

As a John Deere fan, I've always loved those scales.

[XX Case XX]

I have one similar to yours...

__________
Mike

[Vit_213]

Frankenstein knife?

IMHO yes

I have seen them with Zombie shield as well

Here it is

[garddogg56]

Nice guys but the kicker here is the Western SS blade with a carbon secondary blade also the WTX on the other side of the tang.

[Vit_213]

Frankenstein knife with DWTX4 blade ( http://www.camillusknives.ru/western/te ... 4_en.shtml )

[XX Case XX]

Nice guys but the kicker here is the Western SS blade with a carbon secondary blade also the WTX on the other side of the tang.

I think it's probably the most obvious explanation. Someone had that knife and it had a broken blade. He swapped it out with one from a Western knife and it worked. That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

___________
Mike

[garddogg56]

Did Camillus have any collaboration with Western? Thanx Vit that thread pretty much answers that question and more

[gsmith7158]

Did Camillus have any collaboration with Western?

I'm pretty sure they made Western there before the end.

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Didn't Camillus buy and essentially dismantle Western in 1991?

[orvet]

I will try to cover all the questions raised here without making this too long – – –

Camillus was making the Remington knives as well as the Western knives when they closed down in 2007. Camillus owned Western completely. They bought it in 1991.

Tom Williams, the late Camillus historian and AAPK member, told me that when Remington ordered a new pattern, and after the run of their pattern was finished, Camillus would keep the tooling for that pattern unless Remington had specifically paid for the tooling so that they owned it and no one else could use it. If Camillus had paid the cost for all the dies, tooling, etc. for the new pattern then they owned it and they could do with it whatever they wished including produce their own knives of an identical pattern.

Tom told me that the cost to tool up for a new pattern could run in the neighborhood of $10,000. If Remington wanted something unique that would be brand exclusive for them they would pay for the tooling. However, if they didn't pay for the tooling then you could almost count on Camillus producing the same knife under their brand name or as an SFO for some other company like Sears or SMKW.


I know there are many Camillus and Remingtons built on the same frame and even with the same blades. I know some of the Camillus and some of the Westerns are built on the same frames, the muskrat is an example. A couple years ago Phil, (tree farmer), needed new blades for a Camillus muskrat. I didn't have many Camillus blades but I did have plenty of Western blades and they fit perfectly. The Camillus blades however will NOT fit a Western knife made in Boulder Colorado, they were entirely two different companies. You have probably noticed some of the last knives that Camillus made had the tang stamp etched on the tang were obviously a tang stamp had been ground off. The reason there are so many knives like that is because Camillus would produce a pattern with the Remington tang stamp, another variation with a Western tang stamp, a third variation with the Camillus tang stamp and perhaps even a SFO for someone like Moore Maker.
When you have multiple variations using essentially the same blades it's fairly easy to grind the name off and etch another name on when you run short of blades with your name on them.
When you are a close knit company with the family atmosphere like Camillus and you are struggling to fill orders without any help from the board members, (owners), you do what you can to keep the company afloat as long as you can because it's your livelihood and your neighbors livelihood too.

[garddogg56]

Thanx Dale

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Excellent Dale!

I have a confession to make: I have owned & carried small Buck pen knives (300 series) for decades, and it wasn't until I recently started buying some Camillus knives and began researching the impact of Camillus on the pocket knife market that I learned that Camillus made many of the 300 series for Buck!

I lived a very sheltered life before AAPK...