4 blade dunlap questions

IVANKERLEY

IVANKERLEY

Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
2,397
anybody have any pictures of one of these, interested in the scales mostly
this knife is a 4 blade Dunlap with a spiral punch, i think these were celluloid black and red swirl, as you can see by the crappy pict the scales look melted and the other side is worse. Wonder if anybody had a color pict? any reference would be appreciated
thanks
ivan

100_0779.jpg
 
Yas.

But I don't have a Dunlap with the color scales you described. Before the Dunlap brand disappeared for good, they did used several different colors and textures of plastics (cell is a plastic). I have Dunlaps with jigged bone appearing handles, and several different cell color variations.

One of the interesting things about most cell is that it was purchased in sheets and there was a lot of color/pattern variation across the sheet. Appearances of individual knives made from the same sheet could vary widely.

The Dunlap knives seem to have pretty well disappeared from the Sears lineup after WWII as their (Camillus) records show year-to-year falling off of sales to Sears until finally in the late 1940's, no sales at all.

CAMILLUS CUTLERY COMPANY December 22, 1948


SEARS. ROEBUCK & CO. SALES

Year Dollars
1931 $13,413.36
1932 25,634.28
1933 83,215.16
1934 97,119.06
1935 126,360.16
1936 127,536.96
1937 117,138.25
1938 146,752.33
1939 142,924,38
1940 187,572.02
1941 217,727.09
1942 99,614.94
1943 147,174.51
1944 254,618.76
1945 154,527.06
1946 345,358.42
1947 6,980.49
1948 None


Did they (Sears) quit selling knives? Noooo... they changed manufacturer sources buying more and more from Baer's Ulster. This was in part due to a nasty little turf war/smear campaign engaged in by Mr. Kastor. Dunlap was not amused.

Camillus really only came back into the Sears product lineup to any degree with Baer's aquisition of the remaining Camillus stock in 1963. And even then Camillus did not regain a significant share of the Sears trade until the early/mid 1980's when Baer turned his attention to other markets such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart. Then he began sourcing Sears knives more and more through Camillus.

Actually, Camillus was at times used as an "extra assembly line" by Baer. Just when I think I have a good handle on the patterns ISC had assembled for them at Camillus, another pops up.

Codger
 
i just knew you would have info:D
i'm thinking i might rehandle the knife, since they are completely shot and it only has meaning to me, the knife is solid still snaps, so it would be done to carry, masecraft has different man made materials for scales, hence the request for a picture, just something similar maybe, dunno
i dont see many dunlaps or sta-sharps anywhere, so safe to assume its pre WW2? Can the cell actually melt? the little box i got had a bunch of knives and most had reddish black substance all over them, made cleaning them a real pain. :mad:
Thanks anyway
ivan
 
1938-1942 according to John Goins, but I believe you could broaden that a tad on each end.

Baer, in his memoirs, took credit for convincing Tom Dunlap to use his own name on that line of mid-quality knives. When Baer left Camillus in late 1940, Dunlap was one of the first customers lined up at his door. Well... Frank Kethcart representing Dunlap and Sears. It wasn't long after the war that Kethcart quit Sears and went to work for Baer. I believe his firs assignment was the Vulcan Safety Razor operation in Maplewood, N.J.

At any rate, logic says that Baer, with his newly acquired Ulster, chose to make Sears knives under a mark which did not relate directly back to his previous employment at Camillus. So several marks, old and new were likely used post war. Camillus continued to supply Sears during the war with knives suitable for agriculture and trades, one of the prime exemptions to the wartime restrictions on the use of "stratigic materials" for civillian knife manufacture.

Thus, post WWII the Craftsman name appeared on knives whereas previously it had only been used on tools. Interestingly, many tools will be found bearing the Dunlap name as well. Attempts to get info on this from both Sears and Sears tool collectors has been pretty well fruitless. The company is concerned with today, not yesterday, and the collectors don't consider knives to be tools.

Codger
 
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