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Electrician (TL-29) knife question

P

PythonDR

Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
195
My father, who worked for the phone company, often carried one of these knives; I've seen lots of them pictured in this forum. I have a question about a feature of the secondary blade: what's the semicircular cut-out for? Most of the TL-29 pattern knives have one, but I've seen pics where there are two (and I think I saw one knife that had three.)

What's it for, and why would you need more than one?
 
The one I'm familiar with has one on top of the screwdriver and one on the bottom. The one on top was a cut out to make it easier to get to the nail nick of the other blade. The one on the bottom was sharpened and my guess is that it was for stripping cable.

But I don't know for certain. Hopefully someone else does.
 
They are/were available upon request to those of us that were serving in the Navy and Marines in the flight squadrons.The TL-29 was considered a somewhat "diposable" item (quickly and readily provided upon reqest). We found them to be rather useful. (stripping wire, a convenient slotted screwdriver, a drop-point knife blade when needed). I never saw one with more than two blades, but lots of sailors in the hangars had more than one on hand (in the event one blade broke).

I believe that the Government had/has a contract with seveal manufacturers, one being Colonial.

I hope this was informative and helpful.
 
As has been said, it is for stripping insulation. The cutout keeps the wire from sliding down the blade as easily, and strips more insulation than a straight edge would from around the wire. The cutout on top allows access to the main blade's nail nick. Never seen one with more than two cutouts, but I'm sure there's a reason. It could be to better accommodate a smaller sized wire.



No pics in the thread yet so I had to include my terrible shot of my Rough Rider electrician in amber bone. Excellent knife, just needs a bottle opener added!
 
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