Camillus Collectibles

textoothpk

textoothpk

BANNED
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Messages
2,386
Recent finds, that I have already been given info by CAMCO about: A great looking Camillus knife display case, which you would have found just after the second world war on your friendly local hardware store's counter. Ain't it grand? The front curved glass is very delicate, and there is a note on the back that if I break it, I can write to Camillus for another one. I think I'll just be careful with it. I really like these old cases for displaying my knives.

On the display case you can see a few older Camillus knives. On the top shelf is the only US military issued 'texas toothpick' style emergency fishing knife. On the bottom shelf is one of the boxes sent to dealers back in the day that held six knives. This one was for the civilian electrician's knife model #27.

I like knives; But in my opinion they only tell half the story. I not only want the knife, but the original catalog showing it off to the world, magazine advertisements, the display case, the dealer six-pack box in came in.

Phil

camillusdisplaycase.jpg


camilluscase.jpg
 
Very Impressive !! I too collect the boxes, ads, and all else I can find on my favorites.....Makes a complete collection, and a well rounded story of the knife.
 
Same here. Often the knife only tells a part of the story. The other stuff tells a lot about the knives, and about the company that made them, and how they were marketed to the buying public. It puts a nice knife in context historically. For many of the knives I collect, having the packaging and papers (and dated ads) is the only good clue as to when it was made, when they made a particular production change. The knife pattern itself might be said to have been made from 1946 through 1973, but clues given in the collectables can narrow the production timeframe to a few years, or even months in some cases. And besides that, the cool factor is way up there!:cool:

Nice display Phil! :thumbup:

Codger
 
Very nice Phil. That is a great display piece.
I should've known you would have that extra cool Toothpick...:thumbup: :D

Thanks for sharing.

Bill
 
Thanks for the comments, guys. Nice to see interest about Camillus knives.

Here is another knife that is shown in the display; A 'Cornwall', made by Camillus (according to my BRL#4), called the 'Billy' knife, circa 1930s. In the original box. Bought on ebay this week for a lousy couple of bucks. CAMCO tells me it is the #26 pattern, same as used for the Lone Ranger knives. I have a Cornwall toothpick as well, someplace around here. I am guessing this knife was for young boys, .. although going through the 'boys knives' section of my BRL4, I don't see anything like it. Yeah, I know, the cracked ice handles broken, the knife probably not worth what little I paid for it, but still, original box, after all these years??

Phil


billyknife.jpg
 
A "Billy" knife! Now that is cool! I need one to go with my Gene Autry "Your Pal Always" wristwatch! I like the old cheap kids knives, and have pics of some tableware sets like Hopalong Cassidy and such. That one would indeed be rare with the box!

Codger
 
acwire, the display case was made just after the war. Hey, how are you doing with the paracord I sent to you? Done a knife handle yet? Show us if you have.

Also shown in the case is another knife marketed towards younger guys, a little ivory color handled hunting knife. I have given two of these away to kids, aged about 8 or ten. They will lose them anyway so what the heck. Has a neat guard that will open cans and bottles. This one lays in wait of the next kid who needs a first sheath knife.

Obviously, by what I show off here, I don't think a knife needs to be valuable or rare to be a historically interesting collectible. Poking aorund the long history of Camillus can be very intriguing. Anybody got any old ones to show off here???

Phil
 
Old? no, not yet. My oldest Camillus is the Sears Roebuck and Company 100th Anniversary issue huge trapper from 1986. I have no idea of the non-sfo Camillus name and number for this pattern, but it is a very well made knife, excellent F&F and W&T. These still come up on the market occasionally, and for not much money considering what it is.


Codger
 
Here is an Office Knife I picked up a few years ago...

106k2nq.jpg


I don't really know how old it is...it has a 3 line stamp. Maybe early 80's?

Bill
 
El Lobo-The office knife was a model #295 and these were last made during the early 1980's. The handles were hot stamped at the Camillus factory.

The champagne pattern was a popular item for giveaways by liquor companies. These premium knives were made with Nu-pearl or Sea-pearl handles and were hot stamped.

Tom Williams
 
I had a great discovery today. We are cleaning out the house that my family lived in during the 1950's and 1960's and we found several old knives including 2 Daniel Boone (CAMCO brand) fixed blade knives and a Davy Crockett knife with a rabbit's foot (actually a rabbit's foot skeleton). All three knives were brand new.

Tom Williams
 
Pictures! We won't believe you without pictures! (not really, but we would like to see them!);)

Codger
 
Here are a couple nice Camillus celluloids. They're not really old, but I believe they are discontinued.

107m45z.jpg


Bill
 
Good info and great knives. This thread will rival some of the 'show off' threads we do in the Schrade forum.

Nice, Lobo. The Tortoiseshell and Abalone celluloids by Camillus were extra nice, and only available for a short time. I like to give those away as gifts. Makes me appear much more generous than I am!

Camillus used the Tortoiseshell cell on the Remington bullet repro, the 'Mariner'. Shown here along with a Camillus abalone peanut, and a #450 camp knife as illustrated in the flyer.

The knives are resting on a sixties vintage (I think) CAMCO ad flyer. This is cool, in my opinion. At the time, the competition in this grade of knife (competitively priced, shall we say) was probably mainly from Imperial and their tin shell, hollow handled knives. The catalog makes a point of mentioning that these are 'solid', in the description of the handles and bolsters. I thought this was interesting, and maybe (unlikely) some of you would find the names used for the handle materials to be entertaining: 'Solid Pastag', 'Solid Black Rogers-board', 'Onyx', 'Solid Red', 'Maize Proxyin', 'Brown (and Maize) Marble', 'Solid Nu Pearl'.

Phil

Camco.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top