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coondog108

Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
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Just bought a near mint WW2 era, 4 line, steel lined, 4 blade, engineers/utility knife--has the "u" shaped can opener. Has original & shrunken plastic handles. Were plastic handles rarely used in WW2 on utilitys? I've only seen bone stag on these. I've seen the shrinking plastic on post WW2 stuff until Delrin was used later.
 
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Sounds like Celluloid handles!
Can you post a pic for us?
 
Sounds like celluloid handles. That the first thing that came to me too Phil. I bet that they are black handles. I have seen some like that came from that time WW2. I use to work at Camillus fixing knives.
 
Yes, they are black and I suppose celluloid. Were they GI issue or post exchange or civilian? Do you know if many were produced? This is the first one I've seen in several years collecting.
 
Coondog108, are you going to keep us in the dark as far as what the knife looks like? I think have seen what you are talking about on Irv's site but how about a picture?
 
Camillus made the old #14 pattern 4 blade camp/utility knife with cellulose acetate or FG (Foster Grant) handles. Production numbers for the #14 pattern during WWII are very substantial. The U.S. Navy received 2,564,220 4 blade camp/utility knives during WWII. The #14 pattern was also made for the Army, Army Air Corps, Marines and Quartermasters. Camillus manufactured more than 14,000,000 knives during WWII and many of these were the #14 pattern.

Tom Williams
 
Very nice post on your site, Irv. It is interesting to see the famous knives in the simple drawings. The amount of knives made is a real eye opener.
 
Ed,
Thanks to Art and Tom for sending it along. The numbers are staggering arent they. Amazing what Americans can do when we set ourselves to it.
 
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