Timeline for Camillus Electrician's Knife

acourvil

acourvil

Joined
Dec 2, 2006
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Does anyone know what the timeline was for Camiilus electrician knives (inc. TL-29)? I have examples going back to the 4-line one blade days, but I'm guessing there would have been others going back to earlier times. Does anyone have more information about the timeline for this category of Camillus knives? Or know of a source that I could research?
 
Mr. Williams (CAMCO) here on the forum can tell you. In fact, it probably has already been posted. Search TL-29 and see.

Codger
 
Thanks. I did a few searches but didn't see it. I did see the great thread that you did on electrician's knives, and have a copy of it stashed away for reference.
 
Electrician's knives were also made during WWI. Camillus made the electician's knives for the U.S. military and civilian sales for over 90 years. This was the #57 pattern.

Tom Williams
 
Thanks. So it sounds like there should be some with 4 line markings on both blades and maybe some with 3 line markings. I'll add those to my wish list :)

Here are pics of a few that I have:

Cam76.jpg
Cam60.jpg
Cam46.jpg
Cam41b.jpg
Cam41.jpg
 
Does anyone know the years that steel and brass linerlocks were used on these knives? Or more sepcifically, what years steel was used, since brass was used most of the time. I assume that it is in the WW2 years, as I believe the reason was the shortage of materials.
 
During WWII brass was sometimes in short supply, so Camillus made many military knives with steel linings.

Tom Williams
 
Thanks. So it sounds like it was intermittant based on what was available, rather than any specific period?
 
acourvil,
The first electrician's knife with the black handles (only 1 pin showing on each handle) utilizes "studs" to attach the handles to the linings. The studs are molded into the handles and extend through the linings to secure the handles. Camillus introduced this design in the early 1970's and made millions of knives with this feature.

All the other knives have pinned-on covers.

Tom Williams
 
Thanks. I was assuming that the one-pin handles happened around 1976, but I don't have any way of verifying that (although I do have a knife that came out of a box marked March 1977 that has the one-pin handles). The question I was asking above was related to the lock for the screwdriver blade. I have samples of knives with the 4 line marking, one of which has a brass lock; the others have white metal (steel?) locks. I was just wondering if the brass lock tied it to a specific time period, although I recognize that it's the kind of material substitution that might not be tracked.
 
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