File work on old Camillus

[sgt.strawberry]

I've mentioned in this forum or another one here that I recently retired from the US army after 30 years. During that time, I collected knives, concentrating on as mint as possible ones, with the original box and paperwork. I oiled them up as I picked them up, sent them home, and am finally cataloging and organizing them. One Camillus in particular caught my eye this morning. It is a mint model 83, a little serpentine whittler, I'd say, with etching on the clip blade: "Camillus deluxe". It is the filework on the top of the steel liner that catches the eye, besides the obvious quality of the knife. Has those great old brown handles that also adorned the Frontiers by imperial. Was this file work done on all 'Deluxe' models? And about what year was this little knive produced?

thanks for your help,
Strawberry

 

[CAMCO]

Camillus made several DeLuxe knives with the fancy file work on the linings (At Camillus we called them milled linings and if my memory is correct we had a machine that performed this operation that assured constincency). The model #83 was offered for quite a few years
and the easiest way to determine your knife's age is to count the number of pins visible on each handle. Three pins indicates that your knife was made during the early or mid 1970's or prior. Knives made after this have only one pin showing because the later knives have studs molded into the handles to fasten them to the linings. Ussually milled linings are found on earlier knives. If you e-mail me your postal mailing address, I will send you coies of our older catalogs showing the model #83 knife.
Tom Williams
Camillus Cutlery Co.

 

[sgt.strawberry]

Thank you very much! Yes, of course, looking closely at the little knife, this 'file work' was certainly done by a machine. I'll email you my address and take you up on your offer.