Camillus Makes?

J

james alfred

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Sep 27, 2009
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Can anyone tell me if Camillus made knives with the names Klein and Proto on them? The Klein knife is a TL-29 Electricians knife and the Proto is a Hawk Bill. Besides the TL-29 marked Klein, I also have a 3 bladed TL-29 that is marked Klein & Son. It looks exactly like the other TL-29 Klein knife except it has an extra sheeps foot blade to go with the spear and screw driver blade. I appreciate any help you may have. Thank you.
 
On the Kleins---Maybe, maybe not! CAMCO might know how to tell any tell tail signs. Camillus made stuff for lots of other makers and brands and only a PRO can tell the differences.
 
Thanks coondog. The Klein TL-29 matches perfectly with a Camillus pattern 27, which is a TL-29 electricians knife, when set side by side. The handles and blades lengths as well as grinds are exactly the same. You have to open the blades to tell one from the other. The 3 bladed Klein & Son TL-29 I have looks a little different from the Camillus 27 pattern. The Proto hawk bill looks like the Camillus pattern 1 hawk bill except the Proto hawk bill has a saber grind on the mark side of the carbon steel blade. That's what drew my attention to the knife at first. I got it because of that plus, I didn't have a hawk bill with the Proto name tang stamp in my hawk bill collection. Thanks for the help so far.
 
Tom Williams (CAMCO) told me that Camillus did make the Klein TL-29s.

I don't know for sure about the Proto hawkbill, but I would imagine that they made that one as well. I have two different issues of Proto TL-29s that have the Camillus tang stamps. In fact I think I have a copy of a Proto S-card for the TL-29. I don't know for sure about the hawkbill, but that would be my guess.

Dale
 
Unless the kniofe is extremely old, I don't recall making a hawkbill with a sabre grind.
 
james alfred said:
Can anyone tell me if Camillus made knives with the names Klein and Proto on them? The Klein knife is a TL-29 Electricians knife and the Proto is a Hawk Bill. Besides the TL-29 marked Klein, I also have a 3 bladed TL-29 that is marked Klein & Son. It looks exactly like the other TL-29 Klein knife except it has an extra sheeps foot blade to go with the spear and screw driver blade. I appreciate any help you may have. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Klein has been selling electrician's knives since forever. Klein is the premier tool supplier for electricians and have been for a century. I have a three-bladed Klein knife that I carried when I worked as an electrician in the 70's. My boss gave it to me used. Mine has spear, screwdriver, and hawkbill blades and is still in my pouch, so it still gets used occasionally. Klein still sells electrician knives.
http://www.mytoolstore.com/klein/kln12.html

I think that at least part of the time Camillus was making Klein's electricians knives, but cannot provide a definitive answer.
 
I have a Colonial 3 blade electricians knife (new, purchased within last 3 years) that looks exactly like the Klein 3 blade.
 
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