Couple of knives from my childhood

[Sterculius]

My dad's wife brought over a box of stuff from their house, from my room when I was a kid. Amidst the yo-yos and Rubix cubes, were these two knives.

I recall my dad buying these at some big box sporting goods store - that is likely no longer in business today - sometime in the very late 70's or the very early 80's. He got one for me and one for him, for a couple of YMCA camping trips we went on together.

Neither blade has any marking of any kind on it, and I don't recall that these were expensive. But I don't think they were made in China, just since the US did not have the kind of trade with China in '79 or '80 that we do today. Any idea where these could have been made?

I don't know what steel they are either. Once is a blued finish and has some surface rust. The other looks more parkerized and has held up better over the years. They were both butter knife dull, so I spent a couple of hours this afternoon with coarse and fine stones freehanding them to the point where I could take them to the Sharpmaker and get at least a working edge on them. Whatever this steel is, it is hard and it has been a challenge to get sharp.

 

[Wanimator]

They are Camillus Pilot survival knife imitations I think, I have a real one and it is marked with Camillus, NY or something like that.

 

[link2derek]

Check the pommel for markings. My dad got this one (made by Camillus in NY, USA) in the mid-1980's:

 

[Sterculius]

Thanks Derek,

I did a bit more looking, under some better light, and I found a couple of things. First, if it wasn't clear from the first pic, the knives are not the same.

The top knife was mine, and the bottom was my dad's. His looks much more like your Camillus, so I took a closer look at the pommel, and there it was, ever so faint...

As best I can tell, it says Ontario 10 - 76. Then I looked all over "my" knife, and found this on the underside of the hilt:

 

[Mr. Cain]

If your dad is still around, it looks like you need to have a talk with him....lol that's too funny.

 

[Sterculius]

Yea...Gee, thanks Dad!

 

[mnblade]

I had one of those as a kid as well. As I recall, it made an outstanding paperweight.

 

[Cereal_killer]

If you have some talc powder or even flour/baby powder sprinkle it on the makings them rub it in and wipe the excess off with you'r finger, it will make it show up much better for pictures.

 

[arrowhd]

I recall owning a similar made in Japan knife back in the early 80's.