All About Pocket Knives

Been trying to find some info on this knife, haven't done so well, yet. So, come to the source....anyone familiar with this knife? 4-line Congress, white bone, fluted bolsters, Sword brand. Don't have much else. ???

Camillus of course, pre-WWII. I don't know when they introduced the Sword Brand but the rat-tail bolster tells me it's probably pre or very early 1930. What a nice one to have.

The only crazy thing is the 1000 stamped on the tang. As far as I know, Camillus didn't have pattern numbers for their knives prior to 1946. That is something for an expert to address.

.....here we go again!!......every time something like this comes up, the only scource I've got is goin's....."sword brand" dates back to 1906, the 4 line stamp on all blades dates it 1919-1941...........????????......... ..................

Couple of points. First, Camillus did have pattern numbers pre-WWII I believe, however, they rarely stamped them on the knives. I own 5 with a pattern number stamped, 2 that I have seen with pattern number stamps but that aren't stamped on my examples, and an undetermined number that I have seen with pattern numbers stamped but which I do not own an example of and therefore did not keep a record of, your example being one. Having said all of that over 90% of the pre-WWII knives I've seen do not have pattern numbers stamped.

Secondly, I believe that your handle material is a synthetic, similar to those used on quite a few knives before the war. Almost like the "Indian Stag" Camillus used later on, however, more prone to cracking especially around the pins. I do not recall seeing it deteriorate other than the minor pin cracking. You often see it used on Camillus contract knives e.g. Dunlap.

Nice old knife

JMO

Thanks Mark. Now that you mention it, it does look like that hard plastic. I only have one example to compare it to and it's not as pocket worn as Mike's knife. More cracked though. You don't happen to know of any examples of that plastic from after WWII do you?

I only own two with that handle material one a Sword Brand and another a Dunlap contract knife. I believe that they are both pre-WWII. I do believe that they used a different material after the war, however, I haven't specifically considered it and therefore am quite prone to being incorrect

By the way, great old 72 clone and etch

That's a lot more than I knew 1/2 hr ago, thanks much. On closer inspection (dang the aging eyes) I'd agree that's probably plastic, as opposed to white bone. Nice to have a ballpark estimate for the date---first half of the last century sounds good to me

jerryd6818 wrote:Thanks Mark. Now that you mention it, it does look like that hard plastic. I only have one example to compare it to and it's not as pocket worn as Mike's knife. More cracked though. You don't happen to know of any examples of that plastic from after WWII do you?

....wow!!!!, jerry. didn't know you had one of these!!!......i'll swap you some .44-40 ammo for that one!!!!.......... ....................

Here is one marked Dunlap with a similar handle material (the tang stamp is "High Carbon Steel USA):

Made for Sears. Wow, Mark, that's a honey. That saber ground spear main lights my fire. Love it.

I, too, really like that long pull spear....a LOT