BSA Scout Knives

This is the standard Case 45 pattern with yellow delrin handles. It too is very well made. If you take a long look at it and the AG Russell, they look like the same knife except for the scales and the main blade. AG would have a different grind with his special specs. I'll bet they were all made by Camillus back then.
 
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you can find these used if you look around---- Camillus
 
My Ulster Scout is a five blade but has the phillips like the lunchbox Camillus rather than the one posted above. It has swinden keys so we know it's a Schrade Ulster. Or do we? Do either of the Camillus above have swinden keys? And yeah I forgot about Camillus making Scouts, among others, for Case. I guess Case never really had their own Scout until that little abomination posted above.
 
Well I am pleased to report that I scored a Camillus Cub Scout knife off the auction site. From the pics it looks solid. I am going to enjoy cleaning it up and putting and edge on it. Man, there are a lot of crazy prices on the auction site. I saw some crungy ones like I got fir 30-40-50 plus. There was a bnib Camillus for less than some of the vintage ones.
 
And the Cub has arrived. Camillus, 70s tang stamp. In better shape than I expected. What a little tank of a knife. I guess I havent handled one since Scouts. Although smaller and I haven't dug out my ulster for direct comparison, the construction seems to put the ulster to shame. One thing, this has the smaller bottle opener and it is really stubby, makes it almost a nail breaker. Any story behind the longer and shorter ones? Also any tips on ooching the liner lock over?
 



Here is a crappy pic. Another thing, I haven't been able to to sharpen a carbon steel knife that didn't have at least a decent factory edge on it. This one came with no real edge. I didn't even look at it, but bang just 10 minutes later, wicked. I wonder if Camillus ran these soft? It esges up like an old timer.
 
I'm an Eagle Scout and have been involved with Scouting for almost 50 years. I have a confession to make.

I've never had a BSA-branded knife that I wanted to carry and use for my main EDC. Never. I've owned dozens of them over the years and I've broken many of them. Many more were abandoned because they wouldn't hold an edge for longer than 5 minutes. I'm sure a lot of this was due to "youthful enthusiasm", but this less-than-stellar performance changed the way I viewed knives for the rest of my life. Honestly, when I was younger, I believed that all knives needed to be sharpened every day to keep a useful edge on them.

With the advancements in metallurgy and ergonomics in the past few years - can't BSA commission a better quality Scout knife? Surely we owe it to our younger generation to give them the option of a high-quality tool that will outlast their time in Scouting.

Prepared. For Life.

TedP
 
Interesting TedP. I am an Eagle as well. I guess I have never taken a very critical view of Scout knives. Whatever my EDC is I am a fiddler and probably cardboard or leg strop whatever knife it is at least once a week whether it needs it ir not. I have no recollection of being irritated with the edge holding of my Scout, but I was 12-14 and had developed the frequent touch up habit. I have typically been careful with my knives which I guess keeps them from being regarded as hard uae. Did do a lot of whittling with it and didn't notice bad edge loss.
 
MarkPinTx said:
And the Cub has arrived. Camillus, 70s tang stamp.
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Congratulations! It looks great! Just finished restoring the edge on the one that just came to me in the mail. This guy is a very happy camper.

That is an interesting observation, TedP. When I did my Cub-to-Eagle journey in the late 80's to mid 90's, many of the scouts in my troop did not carry the traditional camp knife pattern. I recall lots of Swiss Army knives and cheap tacticals & knock-offs. The old style ones were just not cool enough, it seemed. I didn't carry one either, for that matter. Most of the time it was a Vic or Spyderco or (don't laugh) a Sharp brand lockback from K-Mart that my grandfather gave me. That was really a good knife. It probably made a good souvenir for someone hiking behind me in the mountains of Virginia. But I digress...

When I taught fingercarving woodcarving at Scout summer camp, I used a Camillus whittler like the second one in the photo. It was probably the most carried and used BSA branded knife that I owned. Carried that one for a long time. I never found it lacking.

But I do agree that BSA needs to think about how they brand and market their knives. I remember seeing the red-scaled SAK look-alike knives in my day and they were not impressive. The current offshore offerings don't seem any better, from what I've heard. Clearly, they're aiming for a price point that allows them to make money on licensing while keeping them affordable for scouts. This is a noble effort, but, you know, the dog that chases two rabbits catches neither. Not sure what I'd do in their shoes. At least they have the Victorinox models. They're acceptable.

But, I admit a soft spot for Camillus and, fortunately, in the days when I was a Scout, most of what I remember being sold at the Scout Shop was made by them and was on par with the other major manufacturers. Some of the Imperials and Ulsters I have seen did not appear as nice.

Anyway, here's a pic of some BSA branded knives (except the last two) from my humble collection. A better pic will be forthcoming. The little Cub Scout knife is in my pocket right now, and man, is it nice :)

scouts.jpg
 
300Bucks said:
Ok, You Eagle Scouts both young and old, Buck makes it official, you can get a 500 Duke folder with special engraving showing the honor of your award. They had produced them in a un-official manner before. They also state they hope to do more official models in the future...... 300
http://www.buckknives.com/index.cfm?event=view.newsMedia&contentID=282
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I've got one of the engraved Dukes and it's superb! This suggestion that there might be more in the future is great news. Here might be the answer for scouts and scouters who want something officially-branded that is better than the offshore offerings and more affordable than the commemorative Case line.
 
In my time in Scouts, from the late late 70s until the mid 80s, Camillus made only the Cub and Whittler. I don't recall if the Whittler was split back spring, but otherwise a fine example of a balloon whittler. The others were Ulster and Western (fixed, which you didn't see many of). I looked into the Duke, but haven't dug up the paperwork. Buck makes a good affordable sliojoint, I would love to see them try a Scout.
 
I will register one complains about the Cub. The bottle opener is a wwe little thing, which makes little difference as to its function as a bottle opener, but makes it mighty hard to open. I noted some with a long bottle opener, which looks nicer and now I know is probably easier to open. Both the awl and opener (same spring) lie pretty low.


Is the long bottle opener a Camillus or Imperial or someone else?
 
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