All About Pocket Knives

Hi folks
I recently inherited some knives from by late grandfather and a couple of weeks ago went through the collection. There was quite the curiosity in the batch of knives. a mini bowie knife, tang stamp Hammer Brand, with a mini sheath to match it. The sheath is stamped " THE BOWIE BANTAM" and I had never seen it before. The scales had been broken off long ago so I went ahead and cleaned up the residue - brittle plastic that disintegrated almost instantly - and made new wooden handles for it. I also stabilized the sheath a bit by gluing some strips of felt to it since it started to fall apart when handling. I treated the rest of it with leather conditioner in an attempt to stabilize the decay.

I know that Hammer Brand was part of Imperial, which then of course became Schrade so I am hoping that it is ok to post this here in this part of the site. The type of tang stamp looks to be from 1938 to 1941, which means that my grandfather likely obtained this in his youth and thus it was a toy for him. At least, I think so? I have not found too much information about this little blade and figured someone out there may know more.

Here are some pics

Before : And after the work was done on the handle. My grandfather's Pal knife from his time in the USCG is for size and scale. Closeup of the tang stamp Anyone have any feedback on this little thing, I am all ears! Thanks for your time.

You're right that it was a novelty/toy for kids. The Imperial version was the Midget Hunter...and if we're gonna hunt them, shouldn't we at least have the courtesy to call it a Little People Hunter. What would get this banned faster today, the name or the fact that it's metal and pointy?

Good job on the handle resto. The little Imperial is the first knife I bought and paid for with my own money. My oldest son has it now.

Thanks guys for the responses. I can not possibly imagine such a blade being marketed to youth today! My how times have changed. That is a superb example of a surviving knife there, neat find. I would guess my grandfather would have been about 11 or 12 when he got it, amazing he kept it his entire life.

Thanks also for the compliment about the handle. Took a few hours of work but was fun to do. I have a small display box with a few keepsake knives in it where the Bantam will now reside next to his PAL knife. Hopefully it shall remain in the family for many years to come.

Glad you are keeping them. You grandfather would be pleased.

I own a vintage Hammer Brand bowie as well. I believe these were made late 1930s-early 40s. Mine has some kind of a jigged peach handle. I am pretty good at telling between bone and plastic, but this one has confused me. It looks like jigged bone from that era and appears to be when looked closely. But it has that light feel in the hand like plastic. Yet when I knock on it lightly it feels pretty solid, like bone. Who knows? Mine did not have the sheath so cannot say what the the originals looked like.

And I have one in the standard black.The steel in these I believe is of high carbon.Tales a wicked edge.