All About Pocket Knives

Just acquired a German eye stockman. Was wondering about the age and value. It has a shield banner with the eye and Solingen. The main blade has an etching that has "Surgical Steel, Premium Quality, Hammer Forged" with the eye symbol on each end of the etching. The main blade has the eye symbol over Germany, with Rustless on the back. Both other blades are only marked Rustless. It is 4 1/4" closed. I don' believe it has been sharpened. There are a couple minute tarnished spots on the back.

thanks,

Charlie

Hey Charlie, Ray of Sweetwater Knives ( Paladin ) is the Best Authority I know of on this subject and if you do a search in this forum there's a good chance the info is closer than you think. It gets Tricky from what I understand. Lots of overlapping and changing back and forth through the years. To save Ray a lot of typing I have an excerpt from him explaining it in another forum but I'll cut and paste it just to make sure it is here on AAPK. If he has any new info to add or can clarify anything I'm sure he'll be around before too long.
I hope this is alright with everyone
~
Ray says ~~ It is very frustrating trying to date Eye Brands. Neither Goins nor Levine is any help.
The only accurate info I have found is an article authored by Joe Dobbs and it appeared in Knife World in August, 1983 and again in the Best of Knife World, 1993. It obviously does nothing on the newer Eyes but it does have good info on the older ones.
It kinda boils down to a combination of stamps and shields.
The straight line stamp is the oldest and most desirable. It was used up through 1965, though not exclusively. It shared time with the logo stamp with C. SCHLIEPER around the curved upper part of the Eye logo and this one was used into the early 1970s.
Then, in the mid to late 1970s until 1981 they used the Eye Logo (over) GERMANY. There is a gap there I cannot explain.
In 1981, they returned to the C. SCHLIEPER (over) the Eye Logo.
As to the shields, the earliest was a plain badge-type or federal. I have to admit, I am not sure of the difference in the two, if there is any.
In the early 1970s, they went to the logo (over) SOLINGEN. Clarence Risner told me that the round shield came into use in the late 1980s. I emailed James Marek, a jobber for the Cruse family who controlled all Eye Brand distribution at the time with this same question. The reply follows: From James Marek, a jobber for Cruse during the early days who keeps records on everything: The round shield was first introduced in November, 1983 on the #815 pattern (4 1/4", large spear, gut hook, saw and corkscrew on back). All stag patterns began having the round shield in January, 1984, except Baby Lima DSL. Glad to help.
What this all goes to show is that aging Eye Brands is a perilous or maybe tricky proposition. These all overlap to accomodate existing supplies and it is not a specific process.
I did not intend to get so wound up but it's hard to get it out in a few words.

Ray

One thing I failed to mention is that pattern numbers on the tang stamps first appeared in 1979.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Ray is a great fella and I sure hope I'm not doing the wrong thing or in the wrong way…

reddirtater

if the handles are brown bone; probably made in late 70s. these models were some of the best eyes produced & i,ve found the eye stainless to be excellent edge holders, better than most stainless being made in this time period.--HiPower brown bone may have gone back to the 60s

thanks for the replies. MOst helpful information. Yes, it is a brown bone with shield, 4 1/4" closed.
I showed it to a knife dealer and he said it was a 3 eye knife. Does this sound right?

There's two in the etched logo, and one on the main blade close to the bolster.


Charlie

YepYep that's what the call a 3 eye… I'm looking for one of those… Mine is almost wore out. Is yours the long slim serpentine stockman with a plain shield?
I have a 3 eye copperhead I'm about to put on the bay and a couple stag whittlers…I'm really really looking to replace my old 3 eye slim serp stockman with another of the same…

Charlie,

As they say "All that's old is new again": there are a lot of newer Eyes out there with some of the old attributes (shields, etches, etc.)
Some of the newer ones have different jigging on the bone as well.
A picture would help.

Thanks,

red dirt i believe that stag stock was introduced in stag around 1979 0r 80's. they wholesaled for 28.00 & i believe had recessed tangs. certainly one of the most desirable modern eyes. paladin can pin it down for sure

Will try to post some pics.



Charlie

charlie note the recessed tangs---a great knife. HiPower paladin must be out of town

I sure was hoping to find one of these…. This is a hard one to replace. I got it from an 83 year old Machinist from Texas (Eye Brand Country) about 5 years ago. A fella caught me off guard at the swap after buying a couple oldies but goodies users from me and ended up buying the knife in my pocket to go along with the others… I was hungry and I'm still not quite sure how he managed to do that. He owned it for about a year and a couple months before I managed to trade him back out of it with a couple WWII risqué/nudie knives hehe I hated to give the girls up (all 4 of them) but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do when it comes to gettin his knife back after making a bad decision… I have a hunch this one goes back past the 60's. When I gave it to that fella it still had some of the etch but he traded it back to me with ZERO etch left….. I learned my lesson