Blade steel in John Primble knives

W

willis

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Apr 14, 2002
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The old ones and the one I got in 2000.The one I have is a 4 blade Stockman and main clip blade has the Goods of Honor shield and they are highly polished.Thanks

Knife in question and Primble razor hone
 
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Concerning the old ones...
Could be straight carbon steel.
But, alloy steel was also commonly used. (carbon steel with small additions of various alloying elements to improve the properties, similar to Case CV or KaBar 1095 CroVan.)
 
What Knarfeng said was correct.

Hard to know a whole lot more about the old Primbles, they used quite a few different manufacturers to make their knives.

Some of the ones used are:

George Wostenholm Cutlery
Roberson
H. Boker
Schrade
Schrade-Walden
Camillus
Case...(only "Baby Doctor" patterns very early on)
Queen

Currently Blue Grass Cutlery owns the name and has contracted new John Primbles from overseas.

I own seven of the old ones and the blades are all carbon steel or alloy carbon steel, not stainless steel - in other words they will patina.

and a little more Primble history from Bernard Levine:

"John Primble" was originally the premium private brand of the Louisville, Kentucky, wholesale hardware distributor Belknap Hardware Co.

Belknap was founded about 1840. In about 1890 Belknap first began to use the brand JOHN PRIMBLE, INDIA STEEL WORKS on its premium quality cutlery. This brand continued in use until about 1940.

After World War II, in 1947, Belknap began to use the brand JOHN PRIMBLE on its premium grade cutlery. PRIMBLE knives were made for Belknap by such firms as Boker, Camillus, Utica, and Schrade-Walden. This PRIMBLE brand continued in use until Belknap went out of business in 1985.

When Belknap closed, its Primble and Blue Grass brands were purchased by Roy Scott, then of Ohio, who founded Blue Grass Cutlery Company. He also acquired the rights to sell WINCHESTER brand knives.

Since that time, Blue Grass has made a specialty of selling traditional pattern pocketknives made with traditional materials to a high standard of quality. These knives have proven to be very popular with collectors. They offer an opportunity to own fine traditional pocketknives at a fraction of the cost of antiques.
 
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That knife has Camillus written all over it and made with the same tooling. What steel Primble contracted Camillus to make their blades out of might vary.
 
Thanks for all the info and I should have said the blades used to be highly polished before it was used to cut stuff.
 
This sweet Primble pattern was made for both the Primble marks so I imagine it was made from both simple carbon and also alloyed carbon. This one is alloyed IMO, it actually feels like 440c when I run it along my fine stone.
This one came out of Duncans collection, thanks Duncan.

Best regards

Robin
 
Pipeman said:
This sweet Primble pattern was made for both the Primble marks so I imagine it was made from both simple carbon and also alloyed carbon. This one is alloyed IMO, it actually feels like 440c when I run it along my fine stone.
This one came out of Duncans collection, thanks Duncan.
Click to expand...

That is a beauty Robin - Duncan is a gentleman !!
 
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