All About Pocket Knives

Yesterday, I posted these pictures on the Repair and Restoration Forum. I know nothing about Cattaraugus knives, so I scrolled thru this forum to see if I could find out something about this knife. I found nothing. However, I did read that numerous parts became available when the company went out of business. I'm wondering now if this knife might have been made using a Cattaraugus stamped guard, since that is the only marking on the knife. Any thoughts or other information about the knife would be appreciated. Jerry Johnson

Looked in some reference books, I have nothing on Catt fixed blades.

1930s, made by Kinfolks for Catt. I have had them with five different guard stamps, all made by Kinfolks. In fact a pretty nice example came on the bay tonight marked Kinfolks. Kinfolks made the fixed blade knives for Catt from 1926-WW2 and maybe a couple years later. The catalogs from the early post war era are difficult to find as references, but Kinfolks definitely made all the fixed blades for Case 1926-1932 and Catt 1926-1941.

I finally found a photo of the Kinfolks knife that is very similar to my Cattaraugus. The Kinfolks' is an Outers pattern 1661. I still have not found anything specific about the Cattaraugus other than what has been provided here. Thank you for the information.

Jerry Johnson

The Kinfolks outers number is 6161 and the only similarities to your knife are that it is a small fixed blade with jigged bone handles. The blades and handles have different shapes, and the outers is a self-guard. Here is the Kinfolks identical to yours on ebay: https://ebay.us/rM1Rtf . There were no leftover parts in the closed Catt factory from pre-war fixed blade knives since they were all made at the Kinfolks factory. The Kinfolks factory is/was only about a quarter mile from the Catt factory but they were different entities. The pattern of yours was an ingenious way to make a knife that could be marketed by different companies without having to stamp a large amount of blades with different marks, all they had to do was use the same blade and use different marked cheap fold-over nickel guards. Some in this pattern will also be found with celluloid handle scales, I have one marked Eames on the guard with onyx celluloid scales besides the Catt, Case, and Kinfolks bone ones in my collection. These were low end hunting knives aimed at youths, but they are nice to look at and function well.

Thank you for correcting me on the Kinfolks' number, Gunsil. Also, thank you for the additional information. Is this a common knife, or scarce? I have not seen a Catt one in my online search. Just curious. I will probably give this one to one of my grandsons.

Jerry

I'd go with fairly common rather than scarce or common, I have had a couple of the Catt versions, see them once in a while at shows or on ebay. There are a lot more scarce and a lot more common Catt hunters, they are indeed a "cute" little knife.

Thank you again, Gunsil, for providing all this information about this Catt. I am not a collector, but I always like to learn about the older knives I have.

Jerry Johnson

I love the handle and matching sheath!