All About Pocket Knives

Both blades are stamped : E.C. Simmons
Keen Kutter
in the keystone
Any info would be cool esp. when it was made and by who.
thanks, jason

i am fairly sure it was made between 1923 and 1940 in a joint venture between simmons and winchester

E.C. Simmons was one of the largest chain of hardware companies in the U.S. They contracted many of their knives most notably from Walden Knife Co, a company eventually purchased by Simmons. They also imported cheaper knives including the Hornet branded knives. They merged with Winchester and as I understand it all of their knife production was subsumed under Winchester's control, with the E.C. Simmons Keen Kutter brand produced on Walden and Winchester equiment. Simmons was the marketing arm and Winchester became the manufacturing arm.

Simmons went out of business in c. 1940, however, the Keen Kutter brand lasted in various forms until the '60's (?) and there are still knives being produced with the Keen Kutter name on them.

Your knife appears to be a three backspring cattle knife, a great old pattern.

After posting this I read a thread a little farther down "Simmons Hardware..", it has a nice little paragraph about E.C. Simmons.

Here ya go.

I'm suprised though. Goins dosn't mix E.C. Simmons with Keen Kutter. Just Simmons Hardware Co.

Thank ya fellas for the info .

I am sure that Walden Knife Co made your knife. Here is a similar one from Walden 3 spring salesman's knife.

Tradeya ! lol . Thats a sweety. Love that pattern.

FRJ wrote:Here ya go.

I'm suprised though. Goins dosn't mix E.C. Simmons with Keen Kutter. Just Simmons Hardware Co.

I wonder if the "1939 Columbia" as shown in your pictures would be the same tang im looking for information on this knife?

Better pic of tang

It could be. Good luck with it and welcome here.

Very interesting pictures of your Simmons Keen Kutter knife. I noticed that the blade layout is different than the one I have, which is very similar 3 spring design. On mine the master blade is alone on one end and the spey and awl are together on the other end. This one was originally bone handled but there was only one small piece of bone left on the front, so it was rehandled in rosewood.

Very nice old knife and pattern!
Looking through Sellens book on Keen Kutters, I believe your knife is a K73848 1/4. Sellens says that particular model was in the catalogs from 1914 right through to 1941. Should be 3 1/2" in length? Blowing up the second picture in the original post, I think I can see the faint remnants of the start of a pattern number stamp? Looks like the stamp was slightly too far to the side of the blade and the K is only half there, followed by a 7? Your knife was made during the EC Simmons era, so prior to 1940, however, I don't believe it was too long prior to 1940.
I have to go out on a limb and disagree with galvanic1882 concerning the manufacturer, I believe your knife was made by Camillus. Three indicators, that I have learned from the posts of msteele6 in the Keen Kutter thread, point towards it being Camillus made: the tang stamp has the little "ears" at the top of the keystone logo, the spey blade has a clipped off point which is typical of Camillus, and lastly, if it is even there and not a figment of my imagination, the K at the start of the pattern number stamp is an indication of Camillus manufacture.
I have included a photo of the K73848 1/4 from a 1930 catalog reprint. The knife in the catalog reprint was likely made by Winchester as the spey blade is typical of Winchester spey blades (also information I learned from the posts of msteele6).
Very nice Walden knife, Mike!
Interesting speculation on the Columbia connection, GaryPoe.
Dan

OK, just noticed, this thread was started in 2011.
Dan