All About Pocket Knives

They certainly aren't the best quality knives ever made, but I've recently developed an interest in collecting Japanese Sabre brand knives and decided to share what I have learned here. They are cheap and common, so they make a good affordable knife for a young collector or a collector on a tight budget. Sabre was a brand owned by Cole National Corporation, a company based in Ohio that dealt in a number of different markets. For a number of years Cole even owned Ka-Bar. The Sabre brand can be found on knives made all over the world, including Germany, Japan, USA, Pakistan, and Hong Kong. I've focused on the Japanese line as it seems to have been the most popular and longest lived of them. They were affordable knives, ones to give away, or to throw in a tool box or tackle box and not worry about. The Japanese made Sabres came in a variety of patterns and used a standard pattern number system. The earliest knives had no pattern numbers stamped on them but would fit into the standard system used later. Next, patterns began to be marked using a simple two digit number, and finally a three digit number. The three digit pattern numbers are all the same as the two digit, except with a "6" preceding the two digit number. For example, a "29" Large Barlow became a "629" Large Barlow, with no change in the actual knife. Sixes tend to look like fives on certain bad/damaged stamps they used. Japanese Sabres changed in material and manufacture through the years. They began with carbon steel blades, nickel silver bolsters, brass pins/liners and bone handles, and evolved to using all stainless blades and fittings and plastic handles.

An tentative pattern number list:

23 FIXED BLADE HUNTER
601 BARLOW WITH SHEEPSFOOT MAIN BLADE
603 BARLOW WITH CLIP MAIN BLADE
605 SMALL SERPENTINE JACK
608 MELON TESTER
610 SERPENTINE PEN
614 TRAPPER
615 PEANUT
617 TRAPPER
619 (19-B) SCOUT
620 SLIM TRAPPER
624 FISH KNIFE
629 LARGE BARLOW
630 STOCKMAN
631 FIXED BLADE “ORIGINAL BOWIE KNIFE”
632 PEANUT
633 PEANUT BAREHEAD
635 LINESMAN
638 SMALL STOCKMAN
642 EQUAL END PEN
644 LARGE STOCKMAN
645 HAWKBILL
646 EQUAL END PEN
648 PEANUT
665 SERPENTINE JACK
675 SERPENTINE JACK
676 CONGRESS
677 MELON TESTER
678 SMALL SERPENTINE JACK
679 SERPENTINE JACK
??? THREE BLADE PEANUT
??? TWO BLADE REGULAR JACK KNIFE
VARIOUS PATTERNS WERE AVAILABLE IN STAINLESS SCALES FOR ADVERTISING AND ENGRAVING

As I manage to find these knives for my collection I will update the list with lengths and someday perhaps add photos of each.

I have a #8 Melon Tester and a #677 Melon Tester. Both with faux pearl handles.

Great info and collection!!!
I've always wondered who and when about Sabre knives!

jerryd6818 wrote:I have a #8 Melon Tester and a #677 Melon Tester. Both with faux pearl handles.

Jerry6818, that is the first I've seen with a single digit pattern number, however that makes sense as that pattern is later referred to as a 608. Nice ones, interesting that they had the variations on the melon testers that they did, being that many companies didn't make a single type let alone different kinds.




TripleF Scott, thank you my friend, and thank you for all your contributions in helping me put it together!

Phil, here's another one for you. I have a #2205 made in Japan 3¼" Monarch jack and didn't know it's related to the Sabre stamp until I got this #205 Delrin® handled 3¼" Sabre Monarch. Another reason I had to have it was it's made in USA. With Carbon blades, N/S bolsters and brass liners it's actually a very nice little knife.

Any clue who made USA Sabres?

Jigging looks like Schrade/Ulster to me. Opinions??

I agree, that appears to be an Ulster product. I've seen that Ulster seems to have made earlier USA Sabres and Colonial some of the latter ones. Sabre, Monarch, and American Knife Co were all used by Cole National and all three can be seen mixed and matched on knives. They also owned the Ka-Bar and Khyber trademarks for a while and mixed those trademarks with Sabre sometimes as well.

Phil, thanks for doing all that research. Saves me from having to do it.

You're most welcome! Here is a Colonial made Sabre I got from TripleF for comparison.

For my own edification, what is it about the knife that tells you it was made by Colonial?

Specifically there is an identical knife to this one in their Ranger series, but more generally it has the patent semi-hollow bolster/solid handle combination they used. Those bolsters were thick stamped steel that was then plated, much easier to see in person that photos, but it has a distinctive look and sometimes show scratches through the plating.

Here is a Ranger stamped one http://pocketknivesblog.com/vintage-col ... knife-usa/

Here is the bolster patent that shows it better than I can describe it http://www.google.com/patents/US3317996

The Patent Attorneys cracked me up. I just picked up a Sabre 605 this morning. I think that's going to be it for the Sabres. Besides when the Sabre and the Imperial get here my folder for the 3¼" knives will be full.

I got 3 and they are fine Knifes .

Here's mine Yet another one of the knives given to me from my grandpa.

I've never tried a Sabre, but I hear they're pretty good. They're known as "Japanese Kabars" as the same company that owned Kabar owned Sabre.

Here are two that I have, a fruit knife, with bone handles, marked, on the blade, Sabre - Japan - 614. A Two blade, with pearl scales, and emblem marked Sabre, the blade is marked, American Knife Co.- Japan. It is unused, and really kind of pretty. I don't know what type of Sabre it is? Might have more Sabre brand around in my stuff, I'm just getting it gathered together, and listing it.
Sut Tatersaul

Got 2 and they do good work.

in the mid 60s to early to mid seventies ?-is when I noticed--sabre brand japan knives-(may not have been japan early)= when you walked in Woolworth- T.G.&Y-ect. stores one of the first thing I saw was- YOUR CHOICE-99 cents-on display were many patterns of sabre brand knives...bone handle large to small...at some time it was your choice-1.99 - then 4.99 then GONE--marketed by cole national

The first knife I owned was a Sabre that I bought from the Katz drug store for $1.49. They had no reservations about selling a knife to a boy in grade school. Later I bought a Kabar from the hardware store and, well...

A friend gave me a duplicate of that Kabar and now I'm thinking about that Sabre.

my only Japanese Sabre a 644 large stockman,love this knife as got bags of character,my only other sabre is a Barlow from Ireland

I just picked up the brother to Paul’s, but it has no numbers at all. Guess I got an old one.
I paid $8 Cdn, so I’m happy. At least, I got a knife with a lot of usefulness left in it.

When I first started collecting knives, before I knew of the many many different brands that existed throughout the years, I would go around looking for Sabre and Colonial knives. Not sure what it was that drew me to those two brands but I'll always have a soft spot for them. Something about the reminder of that time period when I first started to develop an interest in knife collecting.. Here's a few of the them that I purchased around that time..

michaelspayth,
There was a feller at the flea market yesterday that probably had a dozen "Sabre" brand knives. He wanted way too much for them but at least he had the start of a good collection. I just struck me as odd for there to be that many in one pile.
Treefarmer