Camillus Army Post Exchange Resale Knife from WWII

Thanks for that info. I was thinking more post war production. I think it would have sold.

Those dimpled stainless handles have always been my favorite. For some strange reason.
 
I just won one of these on ebay this evening.
sellers pics


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Well now that the thread has been bumped I'll ad mine. I found it in the bottom of a big wooden bowl of knives in an antique shop. The covers are wood,but have been stained black from old oil. It was full of black gunk that smelled of old motor oil, I think that's why the covers are so black. Walk'n'talk is very nice on this one.
 
sac troop said:
Camillus did receive an initial order for these knives, (over 100,000) late in the summer of 1945. While they were collecting the special parts and tooling to start production the two bombs were dropped on Japan, the War ended and the Government canceled the order. Camillus first run of this type knife was made in 1949. Very small run from everything we can tell. They then produced the knife continuously from 1957 to 2006.
Of all the knives Camillus made the pattern 1760 had the most number produced with the model TL-29 type knife coming a close second.
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I hate to quote a post from a few months ago,but would like to ask a question. The 1949 order was for the 2 blade post exchange knife? Then the '57-'06 "Demo Knife" with 4 blades came later? The reason I ask is it really hard to find information on the PX knife, and I've only seen a few examples pictured. The PX knife I have dosen't have a model number stamped anywhere, but its certainly different from the 1760. The PX knife seems to be fairly rare, I can find 1760's just about anywhere but cant even find many pics online of the PX knife. What few pics or info you find using Google usually leads to threads here on BF. Thanks
 
Misplaced Hillbilly said:
The 1949 order was for the 2 blade post exchange knife?
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I'm not sure which knife you may be referring to here. When I think of Camillus 1949, I think of a very small run of knives made that where very similar in appearance to some knives that were being made by the "Imperial Knife Associated Companies" under the brand name Kingston and another little known company that marked their knives "Stevenson" towards the end of WW2, (44,45).
The knife you pictured above is a knife pictured in Camillus's first post-WW2 catalog on a page in the back of the catalog showing a variety of knives they made during the war.
There is no model number given and the description is "Army Post Exchange Resale Knife".
The catalog is numbered 46 and is often called the 1946 catalog, some say it was being distributed by the end of the year 1945, I don't know I wasn't there, to be sure it is the first catalog printed by them after the war.
It's at the least hard to come up with much good conclusive information on pocket knives made for the U.S. during WW2 in general. I don't know anyone who has been able to find extensive detailed information regarding Post Exchange and Navy Stores knives. What information that is out there seems to be mostly small bits and pieces.
Unfortunately that doesn't prevent people from trying to fill in the blanks with out much if anything in the way of hard evidence.
If you have any more specific questions I'll be happy to share what if anything I've run across about them.
Also you can look at an on line copy of the 46 Camillus catalog by visiting (Collector's of Camillus) on the web, and checking out their posted catalogs. The WW2 knife page is 34.
 
S sac troop
Thanks for the answer, I was a little confused about which knife you was referring to. When I first found the PX resale knife I tried doing some research on it. It was almost like it didn't exist, like you say bits and pieces of information. Googling "Camillus radio jack" results in almost 99% of hits for the tl29. Finally I seen a pic of the catalog page your referring to, and followed the link to a thread here on Blade Forums. I really enjoy mine,although I dont carry it often for fear of loosing it. I have no idea of actual value, I have no intention of getting rid of it. I enjoy it because it isnt that common,and I found it neglected and full of old grease and motor oil in an antique shop. It was in a big wooden bowl of other knives,mostly junk. Seemed nobody wanted it because it was just a dirty old pocketknife.
 
I've yet to come across one. All the pictures others post all the examples have wood scales. The picture/drawing in the Camillus catalog suggests one with jigged scales, either plastic or maybe bone.
Does your knife have a 4-line tang stamp or 3?
 
sac troop said:
Camillus did receive an initial order for these knives, (over 100,000) late in the summer of 1945. While they were collecting the special parts and tooling to start production the two bombs were dropped on Japan, the War ended and the Government canceled the order. Camillus first run of this type knife was made in 1949. Very small run from everything we can tell. They then produced the knife continuously from 1957 to 2006.
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Interesting, especially since they show the knife in the 1946 catalog as a knife "that went to war."
 
acourvil said:
Interesting, especially since they show the knife in the 1946 catalog as a knife "that went to war."
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I think we might be getting confused with different knives here.
The knife I was referring to in the part you quoted from me was a 4-bladed knife with metal scales that Camillus didn't get a chance to actually produce.
That knife doesn't appear in the Camillus 46 Catalog, while the two bladed post exchange knife we're talking about in the original post for this thread does.
 
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