fishing in the dark

[rberg65]

recently purchased a #25 fishermans luck knife . well do you know the handles glow in the dark pretty cool ,do all the fisherman's?

 

[IVANKERLEY]

recently purchased a #25 fishermans luck knife . well do you know the handles glow in the dark pretty cool ,do all the fisherman's?

had no idea, how old is the knife i have a single blade (#5 i believe) nobody could give me a date on it
never thought to see if the thing glows in the dark, sounds cool. I'll check mine tonight.
You should post a picture of the new purchase
ivan

 

[rberg65]

not kidding this knife glows bright it is from the 70's not sure how to post pictures but i'll try to figure it out.

 

[IVANKERLEY]

dont think mine glows wonder if that was a newer handle material, dunno i think mine is celluloid, whats the tang look like on yours.
ivan

 

[Codger_64]

The knife in question sounds like a "Spook" knife from the early fifties. Another made with the same glow in the dark cover materials was the "Camp-Glo", a standard scout pattern knife.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122196&highlight=spook

I'll see if I can find my catalog illustrations of the displays of these knives.

Codger

 

[Codger_64]

From the 1951 Camco catalog. Now, just so you know, "spook" had a different connotation back then.

Codger

 

[GreatScout]

The dick tracy ad is dated 1950. I've examined quite a few of these and I am amazed they all still 'glowed in the dark'.

Not all Camcos were made with the glow handles. So some fishknives lite up, others stay dark. These are kinda fun.

Original price on the Camco 627 Spook toothpick? In 1950 Price to a jobber was $5.40 a dozen. Price to a dealer was $6.00 a doz. Price to Consumer was 98 cents. Bear in mind that at the time a Camillus brand toothpick would cost about $2.00. Quite a sum back then, a man might have worked an hour or two for that. So you can see that the Camcos filled a huge need.

All the above informational paperwork was provided by CAMCO himself. This is the kinda knife related stuff I like. Not the mindless little details of production and piddling minor model changes, nor tang stamp details or silly handle variations;; Rather I get into the relationship between the people--- knife buyers, makers--- and the steel cutting tools themselves. What made Camcos and the old Imperial Hammer tin shell handled knives so popular? The colorful-ness? The neat marketing of imaginative stand up counter cards. Who bought them? A weekend fisherman or once a year hunter or a kid who'd saved his paperroute money?

Collecting means different things to everyone, I know.

 

[2brothers]

Weren't the watch companies using a radioactive material
to make the numbers glow at night? Radium wasn't it?
I hope they didn't use the same stuff.
But I think they quit using it by 1950.
WWII was the last time they used it I think.

mike