All About Pocket Knives

I just gave this Colonial Prov. USA stamped Stockman, I guess, a little cleaning. The single blade end has a patent stamp on it with the # 3,317,996 on it. The knife is 3 and 5/8" closed. Any idea of age and history of this knife? What about value? I have not found much at all about these. Possible hardware store knife.

Howdy, the knife was probably made from 1940-1960 give or take 5 or 10 years. Most Colonials are recognised as being inexpensive knives. They made everything from small watch fob knives to medium size stock knives like yours and larger "coke" bottle knives and some fixed blade hunting knives. Your particular knife is a good one though many don`t know it because they were so well known for "cheap" knives that few bother taking a closer look at them. Yours probably has 3 separate backsprings, and 4 liners(usually steel though I have a couple with brass liners) making it a pretty solid knife. The steel is good early USA carbon steel that will take and hold a nice edge. While it`s not a collector`s dream it`s a nice little carry knife and will put up with a lot of use and abuse. Monetary value would be in the $10 range if in very good to excellent condition unless it would have features that were unordinary and rare.

Bob

Thanks Bob. Your description was spot on. Once again, I have everything I need to put the family history and the knife description with the knife so someone can have it in the future. Thanks again. These pocket knives are going to be appreciated by the family for generations.

It`s a pleasure sharing information and you are very welcome. I`m glad that you will be keeping your knives in the family for the future. It`s good to know that future generations will be keeping the USA knife history alive and well.

Bob