SEARS KNIFE WORLD

[Campbellclanman]

Keep 'em mobile Cal!! Thank you for sharing some of your amazing collection my friend.

I have a few Sears Cattle Knives, some with quite different set-ups which I will share at a later stage, a couple that are in very nice user condition like this and others that are quite tidy, but what gets me is the quality of the build of these Knives, Camillus really hit it out of the Park with their Sta-Sharp range - although you did see a few Sta-Sharps that weren't as fancy and flash as the bigger percentage of the Sta-Sharps that were always at the top of the pages in Sears Catalog pages.

Albert Baer was the integral part of Camillus's relationship with Sears - but as trouble brewed - it soon hit the roof with Albert leaving Camillus, and shortly after purchasing Ulster Knives, and wouldn't you know it........ it didn't take long for the Craftsman series to appear ( Craftsman was a Brand name that Sears purchased before hand).
Ulster Knives were part of Craftsman's introduction, Ulsters made Knives at that time were given rights using Sears Owned Brand "Chrome Vanadium".

It was now Craftsman Chrome Vanadium vs Craftsman Sta-Sharp.

At times its just darned hard to spot the difference in these Knives of this era, the Bone was the same- the knives looked the same-but they weren't to the keen eye.
The Orange Bone colouring of this Ulster built Knife staggers me- it's just plain gorgeous - the Knife is a well built Cattle Knife, sports the Ulster Punch and the FORGED USA Tang stamp -yet another Sears Brand name.

Edit: Read the tang Stamp right

The other Cattle sports the more "normal Bone"- but is no less attractive than it's Brother - just fantastic Knives

 

[Campbellclanman]

A nice High Carbon Steel ( Camillus ) Two bladed Jack, hard to imagine this Knife being so old and looking so good, having living a very blessed life with very little use!

The Bone really comes to life is nice Natural Sunlight, I like this knife a lot!

Mark side again with different lighting.....

 

[Campbellclanman]

Just to break things up a bit here, I was pleased to be able to grab this Wilbert Kitchen / Butchers Knife, Man this thing is a Beauty!

Early Sears, this is a 100 + year old knife here sporting beautiful Cocobolo Handles, nicely Styled Blade and nice Grind + sharp Swage work and Pewter Bolsters, a big Heavy Knife with little wear - glad to have this in with my Sears group.....

A better shot of the Blade that makes me appreciate this Knife very much...

 

[screened porch]

d to have this in with my Sears group.....

That's a great knife to have in any group.
Or all by itself.

The shape of the blade and the guardlessness remind me of a Colonial that I won't post here.

 

[screened porch]

I think I paid $5 for that Camillus stockman. I think a lot of people who aren't dead yet don't remember that Craftsman wasn't always a Chinese name.

There's a nice distal taper on the FB.

 

[redsparrow]

I believe this Camillus made 303 clone is covered in ageing rosewood, rich and dark.

 

[Sventhelumberjack]

I only have these 2, both with the "High Carbon Steel" tang stamps. The camp knife has the "Craftsman Sta-Sharp" etch and is also etched "Chrome Plated" and "9548". Both have the spiral punch, but only the cattle knife has the stamp "Spiral Punch" marked on the tang of the punch.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Thank you Jer for your contributions- yet another who has quite a few Sears Knives stashed away!

Redsparrow- aren't they a good looking Knife! Great shot of yours- thank you!

Sventhelumberjack - what beauties those two are as well, Camillus really turned it on at that time didn't they! I am sure I won't be the only one who likes those two my friend

 

[Campbellclanman]

As we have seen Cal seems to have invented the time machine- but he isn't sharing - but we are lucky enough Cal shares photos of his loot - thank you Cal, so back in post # 153 Cal shared his beloved three Bladed Serpentine Stockman- man those are incredibly built Knives and very nice quality.
Both ulster and Camillus supplied these Knives to Sears, and both were outstanding, here is a 1940 Camillus version, etching intact "STA-SHARP ( over) SENATOR 9474 , High Carbon Steel Tang stamp, very nicely coined liners, polished inside liners - a real high class knife when it was released, it has carbon stains now but man.... this Knife still is a very nice Knife.
Sears sales pitch for this Knife was that this Knife had self Lubricating Sprigs for easy Opening - now normally seeing this add I would have thought perhaps they had the same system as Robeson did on their Top Line Brass Shielded Perma-lube system, but I cannot see or heard of anything like that associated to this particular Knife.
You could have purchased this for $1.69 in 1940.

 

[pearl2291]

Really a great interesting thread with so many wonderful pics. Here are a couple that I have that I think fit.

#9515 Cattle Knife with Jigged Plastic Handles. Still super snappy and a very well put together piece:

2OT Just a classic that I am fortunate to have acquired:

 

[Campbellclanman]

Scott - Great Post - nice Stockman / Cattle knife - and Oh man- my grail! awesome 2OT Craftsman - wow, thank you for sharing!

 

[pearl2291]

Scott - Great Post - nice Stockman / Cattle knife - and Oh man- my grail! awesome 2OT Craftsman - wow, thank you for sharing!

Thanks. As I noted I am lucky to have found the 2OT. This thread and many of your posts have defiantly brought my attention to the awesome history of the Sears/Craftsman offerings.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Thank you kind Sir

Here is another nice conditioned Craftsman Knife, I really like this Knife, from what I can see ( so far) is that this knife first appeared in the 1957 Sears Catalog.

Some carbon spotting on the openers, this 9467 Utility Camper Knife has the Ulster Imperial Patented Belt Clasp, very nice Bone and overall a nice part of my Sears family of knives.
Main Blade has the Etch of CRAFTSMAN 9467.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Taking a wee step back into Composite material Handled Knives,
Here is quite a cool Cattle Knife, It sports the Dunlap Shield, yet no Dunlap Tang Stamp, but rather Camillus's High Carbon Steel U.S.A Stamp, it also features the Camillus Spiral Punch, so it has all the good stuff cloaked in the more economical package clothing of Dunlap.
this Knife has been used a lot- but thankfully has no grinding marks or anything silly like that and has been looked after.

Shown down at the bottom of the 1940 page - there were no Composites at the top- just gorgeous Bone examples.
As you can see the clear coating is delaminating from the base colouring of the Handle Celluloid material- but is not gassing out.

It's just interesting to see the value of the Knife that one could choose in 1940 and the life expectancy you would get for
$0.49 cents, advertised as second only to Sta-Sharp Knives with Hi Carbon Steel Blades and accurately tempered Springs.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Here is another interesting man made Composite, a SFO made Knife - with the Craftsman U.S.A Tang Stamp, yet this Knife has obviously been ordered as a SFO for SEA BOARD STEEL COMPANY OF AMERICA INC. as it is etched on the Camillus Mani Clip point, also features Camillus's Non Spiral Punch and what I like to call the "Snub Nose" Spey Blade of Camillus.

So when I see this Knife I wonder- did Sears supply "their" Knives to the Sea Board Steel of America? or, did Albert Baer receive permission to supply the Sea Board with Craftsman Knives?
I bought this knife because of that very question...

Our good friend Dan in post #57 put up his Sears Craftsman Knife- a Black handled Jig Composite handle which would have been marketed as having simulated Bone Stag etc. Dan's doe not have the Sea Board Etching.

 

[marantz]

Wow, so many beautiful and interesting Sears and Craftsman knives. I think I only have one Craftsman knife, a Schrade made large stockman with white delrin scales.

 

[Campbellclanman]

Thank you Marantz, well if you wanted a knife that could do just about anything- you got it Love the Swage on that Clip Point

A couple more of the Delrin knives from Sears- the marketing of Sears always threw some curve balls at you, we all here in Traditionals would call this Knife Handle material - as we did with the complete Camillus and Schrade Family of Knives DELRIN, but Sears came out with Staglon as a name of the Delrin as well, and since I saw that I have seen some of the Packaging on Schrade Knives with Delrin Handles advertised as Staglon- so it's really interesting all these wee quirks.

Both these are from the 60's, both Craftsman Knives.

This first big boy 5 Bladed Camper / Utility Knife is from 1966, it has everthing you would ever need in a knife, I could only imagine going camping and suddenly realising - NO KNIFE !! Then imagine finding this tucked away in your kit - man you would be over the Moon! I like this Knife!

Another Camp / Utility Knife, this too from the 60's - perfect Knife to be kept in the Car Consul - or your Grandchild's first knife! Then again a knife to dive into the hard work and not worry about a wee scratch on the Knife!

 

[Campbellclanman]

I will be staying with the composite Knives for a short while, but lets have a break and see some outstanding colour in Bone handled Knives, and some of these are amazingly built!

So bringing in some Nice Bone handled Knives for this short spell in Composite Knives, One of reasons why Neal and I wanted to concentrate on Composite Knives is that when you see the magnificence of these Bone handled knives and how Grand they were / are, actually seeing Composite handled Knives shown alongside instead of way down the page is what we really wanted a part of the Sears Article in Knife Magazine to share - along with Neal's amazing research on the early Sears History etc. May seem small, but the shift was big when you look at details of Knife manufacturing and Marketing.

I have mentioned in the past a tip of the Hat to one of our Mods here in Bladeforums- That is Codger, he has an immense amount of knowledge, and no one can really look into the Sears History without Thanking Codger very much for getting many people up to speed on a lot of the Sears Knives, so thank you kind Sir for everything you have done and continue to do for us here.

While I am giving thanks, I must pass on thanks to a friend of many here who has passed and that is Roland, that guy had as many Knives as we have pebbles in a stone driveway - Oh man! I have purchased quite a few Knives off Roland, and thankful to have known him and grateful in many ways.

A wee while ago, I shared with you this two Bladed Jack, you can be forgiven in thinking that it is just a plain ol' Two bladed Knife, but the knife is a wonderfully built Knife for Sears by Camillus, sporting lovely Bone handles.
This one here....

So I thought I would bring in it's bigger brother, a three bladed Jack that is in very nice condition, hope you like viewing these two Sears Examples.

 

[black mamba]

Wonderful cattle knife, Duncan! Just look at that spey!

 

[Campbellclanman]

Thank you Jeff matey, I have made mention of the slight differences that pop up in blade shapes between the Camillus and Ulster Knives- Camillus make this absolutely stunning Spey - you can see why I call it the "Snub Nose Spey", you will never see an Ulster with one quite like this one. Man I love these Knives!