Photos Western Boulder Colo Pat. No. 1967479 — Factory or Professional Rehandle?

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Bear Creek Iron and Steel

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Feb 14, 2026
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Hey everybody, good morning! I am new to this site so bear with me. I am looking for information on a knife that I recently purchased that is I’m pretty sure a re-handle. I know that western made composite handled knives, but I don’t think this one falls in that category. It’s too specific and some of you may have even seen this knife before. I’m just trying to get an idea if anybody knows who might have done the work or even a longer shot is if the knife was actually factory made?
 
Unquestionably a rehandle.
Western in Colorado used leather washers ("L" series), fiber and aluminum washers ("F"/"Black Beauty" series) and wood usually Walnut(?) or Rosewood(?) ("W" series).
They never made any with a handle that fancy.
The patent is for the split tang.
From the blade profile, I would guess the knife started as one of the 66's. Likely the L66 or W66.
Since it has the patent, I think it predates the "F" series.

A beautiful one of a kind Western. Congrats. 😇👍
 
afishhunter said:
Unquestionably a rehandle.
Western in Colorado used leather washers ("L" series), fiber and aluminum washers ("F"/"Black Beauty" series) and wood usually Walnut(?) or Rosewood(?) ("W" series).
They never made any with a handle that fancy.
The patent is for the split tang.
From the blade profile, I would guess the knife started as one of the 66's. Likely the L66 or W66.
Since it has the patent, I think it predates the "F" series.

A beautiful one of a kind Western. Congrats. 😇👍
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I've never seen the letter designations explained before. Thanks!
 
Ace Rimmer said:
I've never seen the letter designations explained before. Thanks!
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A letter after the model number is the date code
"A" was 1977 "B" 1978 "C" 1979, and so on. (for example "L66 D" and "062 D" are a L66 sheath knife, and an 062 two blade slip joint Folding Hunter, made in 1980. I have both. 😁👍 Sadly, I do not have access to my L66. ☹️😭)

I beleive they dropped the date code with "J" (1986), during the Coleman era (1984-1992).
Camillus bought Western in 1992. Camillus went under in 2007. I don't know who owns the Camillus and Western brands now. I believe both have been made offshore since 2007.
I do know Taylor-Schrade did not buy the Camillus brands and the intillectual properties of Camillus, so there hasn't been a connection between Camillus and Schrade since 2004, when Imperial-Schrade went bellyup.
 
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afishhunter said:
Unquestionably a rehandle.
Western in Colorado used leather washers ("L" series), fiber and aluminum washers ("F"/"Black Beauty" series) and wood usually Walnut(?) or Rosewood(?) ("W" series).
They never made any with a handle that fancy.
The patent is for the split tang.
From the blade profile, I would guess the knife started as one of the 66's. Likely the L66 or W66.
Since it has the patent, I think it predates the "F" series.

A beautiful one of a kind Western. Congrats. 😇👍
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the positive response! When I first saw it I figured it was a rehandled blade. And honestly thought it was ugly. But it just kept growing on me and I was asking my son if he thought it would be a good add to the collection and he loved it! So we decided to get it. Exorbitantly priced or not. But I was so impressed with the quality of the rehandle that I was curious who did it, and recently have started seeing them, pop up for sale and was talking to one of the sellers, and he said that it was a former employee of western who bought up a bunch of their remaining stock and was putting these knives together. I don’t know how true that is, and I’m looking for some verification as to who it might be because whoever it is does a magnificent job. You had said you really like it. Congrats.OP in a previous comment. Forgive me for being a newbie what does OP mean on purchase?
 
Bear Creek Iron and Steel said:
Thanks so much for the positive response! When I first saw it I figured it was a rehandled blade. And honestly thought it was ugly. But it just kept growing on me and I was asking my son if he thought it would be a good add to the collection and he loved it! So we decided to get it. Exorbitantly priced or not. But I was so impressed with the quality of the rehandle that I was curious who did it, and recently have started seeing them, pop up for sale and was talking to one of the sellers, and he said that it was a former employee of western who bought up a bunch of their remaining stock and was putting these knives together. I don’t know how true that is, and I’m looking for some verification as to who it might be because whoever it is does a magnificent job. You had said you really like it. Congrats.OP in a previous comment. Forgive me for being a newbie what does OP mean on purchase?
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You're "Forgiven" ... tho there be nothing to forgive. 😁👍
In forums "OP" = "Original Poster". 🙂
 
afishhunter said:
Sorry. I don't have a clue who it was.
I just tried tagging (@ user name without a space) the gent who was our resident Western expert.
I "thought" if anyone might know, it would be him.
Sadly, it appears he is no longer a member.
Using "search" did not bring him up either. There are only 2 current members who's user name srarts with "z". None with "zz", which his name did. ☹️
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zzyzzogeton is the man , and I'm pretty sure he's still a recently active member.
 
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