Need information for my knife

[darktundra]

Hello.
I recently acquired a knife as a gift and I have been trying to find information on it ever since. It is a Camillus knife, model 41. I am guessing it was made as a tourist item for the Grand Canyon. I would really like to know the year and what the materials used to make the handle are. They are black on both ends with a pink material in the middle. The backside has a wood-like material which looks synthetic. Logic would tell me that if it was made for the Grand Canyon then the stones/gems on the handle would possibly come from the area but I have no facts to support this assumption. If anyone can give me some help, I would greatly appreciate. I have pics but can't figure out how to post them here. You can find them at the thread on kinfeforum.com at the following link: http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?fid/23/tid/868085/pid/2019696/post/last/#LAST

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Welcome to Bladeforums!

I've moved this from the General Knife Dscussion to our Camillus Collector's Forum for you.

 

[darktundra]

Thank you very much.

 

[Phil Gibbs]

This was a knife that was done by Santa Fe Stoneworks for the Grand Canyon gift shop.
Camillus was a part owner of Santa Fe Stoneworks,
Probably done late 80s to mid 90s.

By the way, it is a bad idea to open both blades on a shared spring at the same time; it can damage the spring!

 

[darktundra]

Do you have any idea as to what the handle is made of?

 

[qualman]

Based on the photo I would guess black onyx, silver and mother of pearl.

 

[Phil Gibbs]

Do you have any idea as to what the handle is made of?

Black section is Jet, nickel silver strips & Mother of Pearl.
Other side is a wood handle.

 

[OldKnife007]

I liked the Black jet and the Santa Fe Signature diagonal stripes so much that I had this CP76 boot knife rehandled by Santa Fe about 10 years ago. It's black jet (jewelry grade of coal??), mother of pearl, silver.

 

[Trent Rock]

Black section is Jet, nickel silver strips & Mother of Pearl.
Other side is a wood handle.

I never understood the SFKW part about customizing ONE handle side
I would pay extra to have BOTH sides "customized"

 

[Phil Gibbs]

I never understood the SFKW part about customizing ONE handle side
I would pay extra to have BOTH sides "customized"

I agree with you Trent.
Many do pay extra for "Double Sided".

 

[orca8589]

black jet (jewelry grade of coal??)

Nope. Jet is one of my favorite rocks. (I used to be a rock collecting geek. ) Jet is Lignite, specifically a wood from a particular type of pre-historic pine tree; hard Jet is petrified in salt water, soft Jet is from being petrified in fresh water. Sometime, if you look closely, you can see the grain of the wood it started out as.

Coal (Anthracite) is plain old plant matter. In some cases, where coal is very hard, it has been polished up & used in place of Jet, but IIRC coal is more brittle. Apparently, in Victorian times, hard rubber was polished up and passed off as Jet in jewelry.

Oldknife: Great old knife,. It gives me some ideas for a couple of Camillus blanks I have here.

thx - cpr

 

[OldKnife007]

Thank you for the education about the Jet, Mr. Orca.

My knife is the same on both sides. Not something I carry often, but a pleasure to have with me when I do.

 

[darktundra]

One question about the knife pictured. You have said that the center section is Mother of Pearl. But I was looking at Sante Fe Stoneworks site tonight and they have a light purple gem called Charoite, similar to the purple color on the knife. Could the center section be this instead of Mother of Pearl?

 

[RickR]

The Mother of Pearl is the "white" colored part of the cover.