Thrifty Thursday... Cheap Traditional Knives

GT kindly gave me this little imperial a number of years ago and it wound up misplaced for awhile after I stopped wearing it as a neck pendant.
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A couple days ago I found it , and decided to re-cover it in some scraps of stag.
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I have never really looked into it, but these had to have originally been a prize of some kind.
I'm guessing it was in a Cracker jacks box, a gumball prize machine, or was a carnival prize if not all 3 at one time or another.
 
Hickory n steel said:
GT kindly gave me this little imperial a number of years ago and it wound up misplaced for awhile after I stopped wearing it as a neck pendant.
View attachment 3097442
A couple days ago I found it , and decided to re-cover it in some scraps of stag.
View attachment 3097446
View attachment 3097449

I have never really looked into it, but these had to have originally been a prize of some kind.
I'm guessing it was in a Cracker jacks box, a gumball prize machine, or was a carnival prize if not all 3 at one time or another.
Click to expand...
Another possibility is it was commonly used on a Prince Albert pockwatch chain's off-side leg, on "not Church" days, back when men customarallly wore a waistcoat. Since it wasn't/isn't a clamshell knife, it may be from before c.1950-1955, when the waistcoat fell out of mens everyday wear fasion.
The two leg Prince Albert watch chain was popular among both blue collar tradesmen, laborers, farmers and white collar workers.

It looks great wearing stag. Great job. 😁👍
 
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afishhunter said:
Another possibility is it was commonly used on a Prince Albert pockwatch chain's off-side leg, on "not Church" days, back when men customarallly wore a waistcoat. Since it wasn't/isn't a clamshell knife, it may be from before c.1950-1955, when the waistcoat fell out of mens everyday wear fasion.
The two leg Prince Albert watch chain was popular among both blue collar tradesmen, laborers, and farmers and white collar workers.

It looks great wearing stag. Great job. 😁👍
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Thanks, it definitely deserved better.

I think it's from the 50's but can't confirm because it doesn't have a conventional Imperial tang stamp , it's just marked with USA and the patent number for their shell handle construction.
It was obviously made after their shell construction was patented in 1942 even though it didn't utilize that construction, I'm guessing that's because there were little shell construction knives made with this blade.


I actually have 2 other mini Imperials with the same blade which are little tie clip knives made for Sears CRAFTSMAN in the 60's ( 60's era crown logo ), and those being from the 60's are why I believe this one is 50's.
They do actually use a stamped steel shell on the front and a bare liner with incorporated clip on the back.
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Technically this could be as late as '74 when the crown logo was discontinued, but there was a later glittery gold version to come after these.
 
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Hickory n steel said:
GT kindly gave me this little imperial a number of years ago and it wound up misplaced for awhile after I stopped wearing it as a neck pendant.
View attachment 3097442
A couple days ago I found it , and decided to re-cover it in some scraps of stag.
View attachment 3097446
View attachment 3097449

I have never really looked into it, but these had to have originally been a prize of some kind.
I'm guessing it was in a Cracker jacks box, a gumball prize machine, or was a carnival prize if not all 3 at one time or another.
Click to expand...
Very cool.
 
Hickory n steel said:
GT kindly gave me this little imperial a number of years ago and it wound up misplaced for awhile after I stopped wearing it as a neck pendant.
View attachment 3097442
A couple days ago I found it , and decided to re-cover it in some scraps of stag.
View attachment 3097446
View attachment 3097449

I have never really looked into it, but these had to have originally been a prize of some kind.
I'm guessing it was in a Cracker jacks box, a gumball prize machine, or was a carnival prize if not all 3 at one time or another.
Click to expand...
That little guy looks sensational in stag!! :cool::cool::thumbsup:
(If it had stag covers when I got it, I probably never would have sent it to you! 😁)

Hickory n steel said:
...

I actually have 2 other mini Imperials with the same blade which are little tie clip knives made for Sears CRAFTSMAN in the 60's ( 60's era crown logo ), and those being from the 60's are why I believe this one is 50's.
They do actually use a stamped steel shell on the front and a bare liner with incorporated clip on the back.
View attachment 3097555
View attachment 3097556

Technically this could be as late as '74 when the crown logo was discontinued, but there was a later glittery gold version to come after these.
Click to expand...
Those tie clip knives are VERY cool! :thumbsup::thumbsup::cool:
I used to look for ones like that when I was still working and would occasionally wear a tie (visits to local middle and high schools, tests in my own classes, weddings and funerals, etc.). I never found one, but I ended up using a Victorinox Money Clip model as a tie clasp.
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- GT
 
Starting on the first Thursday of February 2026, I've been posting 8 budget knives I bought myself for Christmas/birthday last December. I'll post 1 knife each Thursday for 8 weeks. This is the third of those knives, a Rough Ryder denim micarta Halfhawk with T10 carbon blades.
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- GT
 
Pt-Luso said:
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Beautiful bone on that Barlow, José! :thumbsup::thumbsup::cool:
I can't read the tang stamp; who made the knife?

joeradza said:
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How do you like that knife, Alan? The checkered bone on that Marble's series really appeals to me, but I don't recall hearing much about the quality of the knives.

Speaking of Marble's and quality, here's the 4th of a series of 8 knives I got as Christmas/birthday gifts last December that I'm posting in this thread during February and March. I have NO complaints about this white bone Marble's work knife (a small sodbuster style).
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- GT
 
5K Qs said:
How do you like that knife, Alan?
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It’s everything I want in a pocketknife. The quality is there. The lock release is smooth and easy. It’s sharp. The only nitpick is I can do without the blade etch but that’s not a big deal. It’s the ideal size and it’s not so expensive as to stop me from using it as needed. Whenever I can’t decide what to carry, if I grab it I’m satisfied. I’m carrying it now with my Moki. In fact, I like it enough that I searched today to see if it came in other covers. Nope!
 
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