All About Pocket Knives

Here's a couple of early arched stamped Colonial scouts.
The vertical "SCOUT" shield is what sold that knife to me. Unusual to say the least!

These are VERY WELL BUILT knives!

....... Joe

Joe I've got one just like the top one in your first picture. I'll agree it's a well made knife and I too was taken by the unusual shield.

Well, there's a scout I've never seen................very cool Joe!

That is pretty cool Joe! Does the compass function properly? Isn't it affected by the metal of the blades?

No Mike, unfortunately that knife will get ya lost in the woods quickly! Better look for the moss on the trees.

As long as the blades ARE NOT magnetic, it doesn't effect the little compasses.
They seem to hold up pretty well - most all the knives I have with them work!!!

...... Joe

Very interesting knives both for the shield and the compass. Nice acquisitions.

I love those old scouts! I collect scouts and camp utilities. Gotta get more Colonials though. Enjoyed the pics.

Hey nice scout's Joe; I just saw this post. Very old and somewhat rare..Solid N.S. bolster's,
The curved shape blade can opener is also a dead give away to it's age. I going to say early 40's for sure. Joe, in that big box of toys I sent you there were some bails in there! Perfect for that one that's bail -less!! Is that even a word? Check that box and just squeeze on with a pliers!
Bobby P...

Got 1 more to show off... it's NOT A SCOUT but shares the same multi blade frame.
Guess it falls more into the camp/utility knife category. This one is a very early
advertising knife. For those who have read Roberts book, you will know that Colonial
saw the advertising market place early in the knife making business - and they continued
making ad knives up til the end.

This one is advertising "Golden Age Beverages." I have not researched the company.
Most ad knives were give away type promotions and this is an "upper end" quality knife.

To be able to give this knife away - the beverage company must have had a healthy
advertising budget!

Condition of this knife is dang near unused!!!!

(hay Bobby, thanks for the tip on the bail for the scout - no doubt there's a NOS bail
in the parts you sent! )

..... Joe

Man Joe!! Where the hell are you finding these things!!! VEEEEERRRYY RARE old # 12 Colonial Camp Knife! There is always one or two things on old knives that are a dead giveaway to their age. This knife has been stored in a cool, dry place for a long time! The condition of the Celluloid is almost PERFECT! As many of you are aware of is the Celluloid is such an unstable material as it is, if not stored correctly, it will shrink, twist, bend, discolor. I've even seen it pull a strong rivet right up from the liner! This knife was CLEARLY taken very good care of. One more giveaway Joe is from what I can see, it has steel assembly rivets in the bolster's. This knife has got to date back to mid to late 30's!
I just wanted to mention one more thing Joe. Most of the advertiseing knives were not all giveaways! Through the years many large corporations would have their company logo's printed on some very high end knives that they would give the employees as Christmas gifts and even a bonus at the end of the year. Like I mention in my book, we sold the large and small fruit knives, # 701 and # 601, with the permanent hot die stamp to Dole Banana and Dole Pinnapple! They bought between 10 and 30 thousand of these every year for 30 years!! Chivas Regal bought our money clip # MC-47, with Chivas Regal stamped on a solid brass front side, and a highly polished plain back. Here again, THOUSANDS per year for YEARS! So you see, advertiseing was a huge part of Embassy for a long time!