Office Knife

El Lobo

El Lobo

Joined
Sep 6, 2002
Messages
2,462
Hello all, this question is about a traditional pattern.....

Please stop laughing:D

I wondered if anyone could tell me when Camillus stopped making the white handled "Office Knife"? I picked one up for fun at a gun show, and haven't been able to find out much about it, other than a picture of it on pg.183 in Ritchie and Stewart's Collector's Guide.

Any information would be appreciated.

Bill

Now back to the regular discussion. :D
 
I have one of the Camillus blue handled office knives.........Camillus Cuda Maxx. Sure makes the people in my office jump!!:eek: :cool: ;)
 
OK, OK,
I'm sure that anyone of normal office duties carries at least a BK7, or maybe a BK9. But what about the old days? When did the "Office Knife" drop out of the line?

Still trying.
Bill

Edited for spelling :rolleyes:
 
Camillus ceased making the 2 blade Office knife (Model #295) during the 1980's. This knife features polished spey and spear blades and ivory propionate handles that were hot-stamped "Office Knife".

Tom Williams
Camillus Cutlery Co.
 
Thank you, Tom.

Is propionate another word for plastic/composition? :confused:

Anyway, this one has a 3 line stamp....
CAMILLUS
NEW YORK
U S A

Were they all made with that stamp at the end?

Thanks again,

Bill
 
I thought propionate was something you find in the bottom of a bee hive ;) .
Seriously, I don't know.
W.A.
 
Thanks for bringing this back up.......
Tom, any more information about the Office Knife?

Bill :confused:
 
Bill,
The last office knives that we made during the 1980's did have the same tang stamp that you mentioned in an earlier BladeForums post.
I am looking for additional information about the composition of the handle material.

Tom Williams
Camillus Cutlery Co.
 
Bill,

I have one of those myself. Great knife indeed. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time about 20 years ago or so, a small local hardware store was going out of business after many many years and everything left in the store was 75% off. I made a bee line to the Camillus knife display case. I bought 9 knives that day, a muskrat, a stockman, tuxedo pen, and some others, all MINT and all from the display front. The ones wired to the velvet behind the glass, not the ones in the boxes inside the back of the case. The ones wired to the display were about 10 years old back then! A real find, and all mint. I never paid more than $11.00 for any one of them, and I hit the guides when I got home and saw some were booking for $90.00 back then. Anyways, I was fortunate enough to get me one of those office knives you are speaking of, still one of my favorites in my collection today.

They just don't make them like they used to. It's crying shame too, with all the history and talent behind Camillus, you'd think they'd be on the same playing field as Case and Queen, and focus more on the bone handled traditional patterns and less on these tactical BK Cuda whatevers. Adolf Kastor and Charles Sherwood would be rolling over in their graves. Let's see some bone whittlers. Just don't get it...
 
I also wish that Camillus would not forsake the knife, as a tool, for the "Tactical Only Crowd." I like all kinds of knives, but I know what is "Hot" is what runs the show. I just think we can keep the KNIFE alive if we don't scare all the "I'm soooooo PC" crowd off with tacticals..

Whatever.

Bill
 
For those of you who may think I'm putting down Camillus, I'm doing just the contrary my Camillus toting friends, I am rather paying them a compliment because I know what Camillus is capable of and what they are founded on. Camillus lead the way at one time. I'd just like to see them get serious about making pocket knives again, and produce some high end traditional patterned material like they used to. Where I come from, BK means Burger King, and the only Cuda I'm interested in ever owning is an AAR with a 426 hemi. Nuff said...

Dan
 
Good thread, MumblyPeg and Bill.

Office knives are cool. I saw a collection at a knife show that a woman had put together. Very impressive. Queen makes the only current office knife I am aware of, and it is beautiful, but expensive due to it's exotic handle material.

Phil
 
Hey Phil,
Nice to see you here.

One of the things I found interesting about Office knives, was the apparent intent to use the spey blade as an eraser, to "scratch" off mistakes, I guess. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be too much use for a castration blade in the office setting, does there? :)

Bill
(leaving himself WIDE open for zingers). :footinmou
 
Bill,

Yes that is exactly what the "eraser" blade was intended for indeed. During the golden days, all the major players made office knives, handles were usually of ivory. I guess we can blame "White Out" for their demise :p . As mentioned in a previous post, Queen has brought back the office knife with handles of "Mammoth Ivory". My Camillus office knife has imitation ivory handles, some sort of white composition such as you had asked about in your initial post. My guide reads; "Genuine White Grain Handle" whatever that is?

Dan
 
For erasing, the blade has to be very sharp to scrape ink off without hurting the paper much, when I took technical drawing in highschool we couldn´t use white paint so a good blade came in handy, the spey is good because the big belly lets you hold the knife at a convenient angle to the paper, also a proper spey is ground thin and tempered hard so it takes and holds a good edge.
 
New photo for old topic ;)

0_a33f2_22991763_XL.jpg
 
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