Western Knives

[cramsey3006]

What kind of steel were Western brand knives? Some were carbon and some were stainless, I think. I picked up an old Western at the flea market today with a leather handle and steel guard, and round steel pommel for $10. The handle is about shot (it's falling apart) and it needs some definite TLC overall, but it's still solid. The blade is around 1/8" thick and about 6" long. It's got to be carbon steel, as there's some rust and the whole blade has a pretty dark patina to it. The blade looks like a mini version of the large Field Knife, more or less, while the handle resembles the good old Kabar.

 

[Bobby Craig]

11111

 

[cramsey3006]

I never see any of them around here. Lots of old knives, but never any Westerns. I figured the blade is worth $10, at least, as a blank.

 

[knarfeng]

What kind of steel were Western brand knives? Some were carbon and some were stainless, I think. I picked up an old Western at the flea market today with a leather handle and steel guard, and round steel pommel for $10. The handle is about shot (it's falling apart) and it needs some definite TLC overall, but it's still solid. The blade is around 1/8" thick and about 6" long. It's got to be carbon steel, as there's some rust and the whole blade has a pretty dark patina to it. The blade looks like a mini version of the large Field Knife, more or less, while the handle resembles the good old Kabar.

Depends on how old.
Camillus bought Western in 1991 and marketed knives under that name. Those blades were 440A and 1095. Camillus went belly-up in 2007.

Prior to that, I do not know. I would guess that older Western stainless blades would be 440A or 420HC, either alloy hardened to ~55. I have no information about the non-stainless.

 

[cramsey3006]

I've found out that this a Western "Shark" military knife from WWII. The handle pretty much disintegrated the rest of the way from handling it last night. Other than that, it's in pretty good shapre. I'm going to ebay it for a collector to have. I don't collect military stuff, and I don't want to alter the knife any more than it has (since the handle broke to pieces). Who knows where this knife has served or what it has done? Maybe someone who can give it the TLC it needs will get it.

 

[krankkall]

The older Western fixed blade knives (made in Boulder, Co.), used carbon steel.
Coleman bought out Western in, I'm pretty sure, 1977.
The quality of Western knives declined under Coleman ownership, but came back up somewhat, when Camillus bought the Western name.

Steve