Unmarked Quality Knives

Tanker 1/66

Tanker 1/66

Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,217
I picked this knife up in a bundle of knives. I didn't think much about it and it laid in my random knife bag. The other day I picked it up and felt it. Wow this thing really has a nice feel to it I thought. Then I started to look at the build quality which is excellent. I decided to check out the steel so I put a hair popping edge on it and took it out to the burn pile. I beat up on some cured oak and batoned a very small diameter oak branch. The edge didn't chip or roll and stayed shaving sharp. Good steel in my book. I'm wondering how such a high quality knife which has the look of a production knife has no markings???
https://www.flickr.com/photos/153781516@N05/
 
Knife was made by Cardinal Cutlery in the 1950s, maybe into the early 1960s. Some were guard marked and some just had the name lightly etched on the blade which wore off with wear. They were cheap knives but they did put out one official BSA and one official GSA hunting knife. Steel is decent but the aluminum guard and pommel are cheap and there are no spacers in the handle cutting costs again. The blade grinds were never nice and clear, even a mint condition one doesn't have the quality feel of a KA-BAR or Case knife of the same era.
 
You are a Wealth of knowledge as always. Thanks Gene. It's most definitely not Kabar quality but it did surprise me.
 
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