Old Hammer Brand knife

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Katlery

Joined
Dec 28, 2020
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Hi! Completely 100% new here but I picked up this old knife today from a thrift store for $3, tried to find a date somewhere and found a patent number on one of the blades that I searched up and found it was issued in 1942 and found the stamp for Hammer Brand on one of the other blades. Can anyone tell me more about it at all? I’d love to learn more about its history!! I included a link to photos of the knife as well as a link to the patent image that's the match to the knife. Thanks in advance to anyone who responds! History on items like these is always so fascinating to me.
https://imgur.com/a/XXYcFnS
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/45/b5/8a/75d003870b1ec6/US2281782-drawings-page-1.png
 
I get a blank gray screen for the Imgur link.

The patent drawing is for the shell construction. (If you look at the ends of the knife, you'll see a couple clips holding the sides on)

Hammer Brand made a good knife. IMHO, better than Imperial.

Shell construction was used on inexpensive knives. It cost less than real bolsters and cover materials; less labor. That said, they used the same blades as the more expensive knives with pinned construction.
Based on the shell construction, your knife was made after Imperial Schrade obtained NYKC and Hammer Brand, in the 1930's. (Hammer Brand was originally a sub-brand of New York Knife Company) Imperial Schrade held the patent.

The blades are probably (properly heat treated and tempered) 1095 carbon steel. The original edge bevel was probably 10 degrees per side. Back then, pocket and hunting knives were generally sharpened to 10 DPS/20 degrees inclusive. Axes/Hatchets, and other chopping tools were 15 DPS/30 degrees inclusive. Previous owners may have sharpened it to a different angle, of course

Even without seeing the knife, I'd say "You made a nice score." :)

Welcome to the Forums.:D
 
Arathol said:
Hammer Brand was (is) a name used by Imperial starting in 1936 on cheap shell handle knives.
Click to expand...
Some Imperial Schrade (USA) Hammer Brand knives had real bolsters and pinned construction. Most were shell construction, though, same as the Imperial.
Prior to Imperial Schrade ownership, Hammer Brand was a sub brand of New York Knife Company, and had real bolsters and pinned construction.
 
Here's the image of the knife in question:

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Welcome Katlery!

This is an old Imperial trick knife but the handles are likely similar to what yours once looked like (they were available in a large variety of colors):

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.jpg

Eric
 
Last edited:
ea42 said:
Here's the image of the knife in question:

View attachment 1481516

Welcome Katlery!

This is an old Imperial trick knife but the handles are likely similar to what yours once looked like (they were available in a large variety of colors):

View attachment 1481521

Eric
Click to expand...
Thank you for posting a photo from the link!! Not sure why it isn’t working for some people. That’s cool to see what it could’ve originally looked like, I wasn’t sure if there was some sort of original coloring or if it had always been just plain metal.
 
Hammer and Imperial knives can be very good knives. Here's a pair, one of each, both very heavy, solid, knives. Most people only have experience with the later, somewhat shoddy Imperials, so they've never seemed to get the collector interest.

P5NVQJi.jpg
 
Katlery said:
History on items like these is always so fascinating to me.
Click to expand...
Be careful, I'm 5 years into my history lesson about good old knives ;) There are literally dozens of different colors that your knife could have looked like. The Imperial "Hammer Brand" were "cheap" knives back in the day but the "bones" of the knife were put together very good. Usually the blades maintain their "snap" and they hold a nice sharp edge.

What made them "cheap" is the construction of the handles, instead of having to pin on jigged/stag bone or a nice wood handle like the more pricey knives at the time, it is easier and less expensive to have a one piece side (the shell handle) that snaps into place. These one piece sides generally had a celluloid plastic wrap cover that would be applied to the shell handle and then they would be snapped into place. This made it easy to have a vast variety of colors and patterns. The one I show below is from the same company that made your knife, just a little older. You can see on the end of the colored portion that there is a gap and you can see this is the edge of the celluloid wrap. I could actually peel off this red color wrap and then it would like your knife with the all metal shell being exposed. If you Google "Hammer Brand Pocket Knife" and scroll through the pictures you can see the variety of colors and patterns that Imperial made in the past. It's pretty cool :cool:

Below is a great informative video that shows how they are put together. The guy mentions the wrap is an enamel paint, which may be correct for the Kamp King knife he is working with, but I was always under the impression that it was celluloid or other plastic composition wrap.


IMPCELL-1Ba.jpg IMPCELL-1C.jpg
 
Here's two of my nicer looking shell handle knives... the green one is really hard to tell it is not a real solid material, these were made by Richard's out of Sheffield, England. :thumbsup: If you look at the end of the knife bolster, you can see the little tab that let's you know it is definitely a shell handle knife.

RICH-1B.JPG
 
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