Old Italian scout knife

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Franciscomv

Joined
Feb 7, 2005
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I came across this knife while shopping for used books, the price was rather low so I bought it. I haven't been able to find anything about the maker. The tang just reads "Maniago" and "37". It needs a bit of work but still has lots of life left in it.

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Is the square cutout in the caplifter/screwdriver blade for a portable fuel or oxygen tank?
Nice scout knife. Looks to be in decent low use condition.
Fantastic catch. 😁👍
 
I agree with Arathol about the square hole in the screwdriver. They are often referred to as Prest-O-Lite wrenches for the company that made the carbide lamps for cars. Such lights were commonly used in the early 1900's before electrical lights became more viable.

There are quite a few knives with such wrenches. Although it is a bit odd that many were called "scout" knives, and some were advertised as such, there were some that were advertised as "car" or "automobile" knives. Below are some excerpts from a 1926 Schrade catalog.

As far as the maker of the knife posted, I have no idea. There were many knife makers in Maniago in the early 1900's, and they weren't all concerned with posterity, so they didn't mark their knives to identify the makers. My guess is that "37" is probably the model number.

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Here's a dedicated Prest-O-Lite wrench-

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A few other examples of knives with Prest-O-Lite wrenches-

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Thanks for the interesting information about the function of the square hole on one of the tools. This kind of knowledge is invaluable in the future as people may simply not know what something is for. Indeed, many of the processes or skill used in Traditional knife making and other artisan trades may have already been lost to the pit of time.

One thing that's rather amusing, charming, is the bullish anachronistic aspect of Traditional knife patterns :) Keeping an implement for adjusting valves on carbide lamps on cars when they vanished well over a century ago. Well, I suppose hikers may have kept up with carbide lamps as they likely burnt longer than early battery lamps (torches/flashlights) , maybe they had them in pits (mines) but rather dangerous? Then if you think about it, knives retaining hoof picks when the horse became displaced by the motor engine, you can of course use them to unpick knots on your Clipper ship ;) All part of the charm and ingenuity of Traditional knives mind. :thumbsup:

A very nice find from the OP as well, no doubt the numerous immigrants from Italy led to importation of Italian knives to Argentina.
 
Old Hunter said:
Nobody can remember everything. I think I have forgotten as much as I know.
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True, we do forget. I guess it is "ok" so long as we don't forget more than we know ... starting with the most recent ... no "biggie" if you forget, say, your junior high and high school locker numbers and their lock combinations after 5 to 10 years. 😇
 
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