Share your pictures of obscure knives!

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
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While I have no interest in collecting obscure knives, I love to see examples from cutlery firms, or maybe knives made by well known firms for other companies/events etc. Nineteenth to early twentieth century special factory orders, if you will. Reading Knife World, Levines Guides, and plenty of other knife books and periodicals, I have come to appreciate the "unknown" knife companies. I found a two blade jack, with thick ebony covers, from an obscure company in Philadelphia at a gun show last year. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name, although I shared photos and info here last year. Anyway, this knife had a swedge, long pull, spear point blade, and most of the pen blade left. Except for the super thick scales, which might have been warped due to age, this knife was near perfect for me. Half stops were barely there, but this knife had done it's fair share of work and was deserving of a nice respite.

What defines obscure? I'm sure our very own signore Campagna has at least one example from companies most of us deem obscure.

Please share pictures and maybe a bit of history on examples of these obscure companies knives. Maybe an example of an obscure pattern from a well known company. Factory or custom (obscure makers, or those that made only a few slipjoints etc). Vintage or current, fixed or folding, any country.
 
Here's a pearl serpentine, found while surfing the web one sleepless night.



I was meant to find this knife, wanting a proper gent's knife but thinking most of them too small. This one is 3 1/2" closed. The clincher was the tang stamp.



I asked around in the Bernard Levine subforum, and was able to dig up a little info. It's a model 253. A sales catalog from 1910-20 has illustrations of knives bearing this tang mark. However, another member believes this knife to be post-WWII, the indicator being the lack of a shield.
 
Here's a beautiful old Camillus that shouldn't exist. this pattern was military issue for WW2, produced between '41 and '46. But the tang stamps date this particular knife back much further than that. Was it simply a very old blade from a previous pattern. Or did Camillus design and produce this pattern early on, and later convinced the military to use that spec during WW2? Who knows? But it's a cool old curiosity, and I haven't seen another with these stampings.

Either way, it must have been the inspiration for GEC's #15 pattern, as it is eerily similar.

c7chEPfl.jpg

XUZ8aOol.jpg

XXQJ8Gol.jpg

RGQoiTGl.jpg
 
Buzzbait said:
Here's a beautiful old Camillus that shouldn't exist. this pattern was military issue for WW2, produced between '41 and '46. But the tang stamps date this particular knife back much further than that. Was it simply a very old blade from a previous pattern. Or did Camillus design and produce this pattern early on, and later convinced the military to use that spec during WW2? Who knows? But it's a cool old curiosity, and I haven't seen another with these stampings.

Either way, it must have been the inspiration for GEC's #15 pattern, as it is eerily similar.

c7chEPfl.jpg

XUZ8aOol.jpg

XXQJ8Gol.jpg

RGQoiTGl.jpg
Click to expand...
I have the same knife with the same tang stamp, but mine has a caplifter. Same main blade. A Radio Jack I suppose. I had Markesharp recover mine with Cocobolo.
 
Camillus really did a great job on them. This one was given to my father-in-law as a birthday present . It's one of his favorites to carry.
 
Here is a nice pearl pen knife with tip bolsters. Hukill Hunter, Pittsburgh.
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Buzzbait said:
Here's a beautiful old Camillus that shouldn't exist. this pattern was military issue for WW2, produced between '41 and '46. But the tang stamps date this particular knife back much further than that. Was it simply a very old blade from a previous pattern. Or did Camillus design and produce this pattern early on, and later convinced the military to use that spec during WW2? Who knows? But it's a cool old curiosity, and I haven't seen another with these stampings.

Either way, it must have been the inspiration for GEC's #15 pattern, as it is eerily similar.

http://i.imgur.com/c7chEPfl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/XUZ8aOol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/XXQJ8Gol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RGQoiTGl.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice knife. Have you looked for the pattern in old catalogs? Camillus (and many others) made easy open knives long before the government contract. If you are interested in the history, look through old Camillus catalogs. You will find similar knives and possibly even this exact pattern number. It's just a matter of looking through a lot of old catalogs.
 
supratentorial said:
Nice knife. Have you looked for the pattern in old catalogs? Camillus (and many others) made easy open knives long before the government contract. If you are interested in the history, look through old Camillus catalogs. You will find similar knives and possibly even this exact pattern number. It's just a matter of looking through a lot of old catalogs.
Click to expand...
Yep. I've looked through the old online catalogs, and Military specs. I've even posted it on the Camillus forum. The combination of that particular tang stamp, stamped pattern number, blade configuration, and the pattern itself is just an oddity. A mystery whose answer has been lost to time and sketchy record keeping.
 
I love the less common ones...

A1 Levering Congress, don't see many of these
IMG_0107.jpg


A REAL oddball I've been meaning to post in Levin'es forum...

J.S Holler & sons "The Towner Brand" and... is it an early electrician, or just a broken spear point? Quite the long secondary blade to accompany a spear.

%24_57%20%284%29.jpeg


"Staco Solingen" Scout knife

IMG_0005.jpg
 
Here is an old jack marked Lenox Cutlery Co.
I did some digging, posted it here and found (with much help from Codger64) Lenox was an import company based in New York which had knives made in Germany prior to WW1. No way to know which German cutler made it.

 
Buzzbait said:
Here's a beautiful old Camillus that shouldn't exist. this pattern was military issue for WW2, produced between '41 and '46. But the tang stamps date this particular knife back much further than that. Was it simply a very old blade from a previous pattern. Or did Camillus design and produce this pattern early on, and later convinced the military to use that spec during WW2? Who knows? But it's a cool old curiosity, and I haven't seen another with these stampings.

Either way, it must have been the inspiration for GEC's #15 pattern, as it is eerily similar.

c7chEPfl.jpg

XUZ8aOol.jpg

XXQJ8Gol.jpg

RGQoiTGl.jpg
Click to expand...

Yours is similar to one I have ...
 
Buzzbait said:
Here's a beautiful old Camillus that shouldn't exist. this pattern was military issue for WW2, produced between '41 and '46. But the tang stamps date this particular knife back much further than that. Was it simply a very old blade from a previous pattern. Or did Camillus design and produce this pattern early on, and later convinced the military to use that spec during WW2? Who knows? But it's a cool old curiosity, and I haven't seen another with these stampings.

Either way, it must have been the inspiration for GEC's #15 pattern, as it is eerily similar.

c7chEPfl.jpg

XUZ8aOol.jpg

XXQJ8Gol.jpg

RGQoiTGl.jpg
Click to expand...

Camillus used older blades on newer models. Nice knives however.

Mike
 
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