Kent/Camillus Jack...

IVANKERLEY

IVANKERLEY

Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
2,397
hey all,
picked this kent up recently anybody know the time period camillus made knives under the kent moniker, i believe i read they made them for Woolworths.
What would you guys call this pattern?
nice little knife though, walks and talks with halfstops, handle has a crack but nothing that will keep it from the pocket, and i picked it up fairly cheap, kinda nice since the camillus prices have gone crazy as of late. I spend my time searching for the contract brands in hopes of finding treasure :)
thanks
ivan
KENT.jpg
 
Hi Ivan! Nice find. If the handle material is contemporary with the Camillus made Dunlap knives produced for Sears, it would date from the late 1930's thru the early 1940's. Tom Dunlap had Camillus make an entire line of pocket knives under teh Dunlap branding with this handle material, "buck horn-type", but discontinued it because he discovered the flammability. It is evidently a variation of pyraline, celluloid. I would think that production of the civillian knives was also interrupted by the war.

Your knife is called, in the 1939 Sears sales training manual, a two-bladed jack. Modern collectors tend to invent more descriptive names to identify features like the bolsters and blading. You might find a knife exactly like yours but with a spear master blade in place of the clip blade. Also made at that time was a Turkish clip and a sabre clip.

You might also find Kent branded knives with this handle material in other patterns. I have, with Dunlap markings, the four blade outing (Scout) knife, two blade jack, three blade farmer's stock knife, and a two blade Texas jack with spear on one end and clip on the other.

I am pretty certain that Tom WIlliams can tell us more and add corrections if I have gotten some dates or other details wrong.

Codger
 
I have been pretty much limiting my ebay watching to the Camillus contract brands simply because the prices have gotten too rich for my blood in most cases (Camillus prices that is). I was a little surprised that i picked it up so cheap and its a nice little knife even with the handle issue.
And here i thought i was done buying Cell handle knives:rolleyes:
thanks again Codger!
Ivan
 
Camillus made the KENT brand knives for F.W. Woolworths from 1931 through 1955.

Tom Williams
 
Any idea of the timeframe in which these particular style cell handles were used?

Michael
 
CAMCO said:
Camillus made the KENT brand knives for F.W. Woolworths from 1931 through 1955.

Tom Williams
Click to expand...

excellent thanks for the info, ive been carrying it since i got it.
The jigging on the handle is different (a little ugly) than any of the other camillus i have most of the dark coloring is gone from the reverse scale, so is it a safe bet they are celluloid??? It would be interesting to find out how the look was achieved on these knives, i'm used to seeing the fancier (swirled, tortoise, etc) celluloid as opposed to these faux stag
all in all the knife was a bargain, lets hope the old camillus easy open i got coming is this good:)
thanks guys
ivan
 
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