Western W49

S

skhatzman

Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
3
I've got an old Western knife(or i think it's old because it looks old). It has Western U.S.A on one side of the hand guard and has W49 on the other. Can someone help me out on dating this knife.
thanks to all.
 
I think Camillus bought them out and is still making them under the Western label.

Just saw one online dealer selling W49s for either $74.99 or $79.99.
 
skhatzman
Are the handles laminated with large brass rivets or solid walnut with three small diameter brass pins? The solid handle construction is pre 1960. They didn't use Western Boulder on the blade until later on the W49.

Tim
 
The new ones are 420 stainless but the older ones are high carbon "Chrome V" and are great knives. I cut down the guard on one I used to own to give it a more modern appearance.
 
This is for THEAVENGER.

The handle on my western w49 has 3 1/4" brass circles on each side of the handle and it looks like real wood on both sides. is that enough information to determine if it's pre 1960.

thanks
 
It doesn't have to be pre 60 to be Chrome V. I'm not sure when the switchover to 420 took place, but probably only in the last 15 years.
 
hey, I have a pretty darn old w-49 too. The blade seems to be carbon steel, cause it is pretty tarnished. Also, it has small diameter brass circles on each side, mabye 1/2 inch. I'm not sure what you mean by laminated, though. It is solid pieces of wood with the blade tang between them. It also has
Western
Boulder, COLO, USA on the brass guard on one side and W-49 on the other.
 
Here is a fairly old (60-70s) example that also has the smaller pins.

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The markings are "Western" /"U.S.A W49"/"C" - all on the left ricaso.

n2s
 
That's my knife exactly but like i said it has Western USA on one side of the guard and W49 on the other. So the big question is what is this knife worth if i were to sell it?
 
It's not worth that much unless it's mint with the sheath - even then it wouldn't be a whole lot of money. It has a lot of value as a user however - good steel, nicely ground, stout enough. Let it serve you and you shall derive great value from it.;)
 
I have one just like the one in the picture. A buddy of mine used his W-49 in Vietnam and later gave it to me. I had the old sheathe replaced with a new handmade leather one, and the late Alex Collins polished the knife up for me. It is a treasured possession of mine.

Western was founded in about 1920. It was sold in 1984 to Coleman, who promptly looted the company of its assets. One story had it that the Coleman executives sold Western's factory building and then leased it back from the buyer at exorbitant rates. But in the meantime they had a ton of cash from this deal, which they bought BMW's with and gave themselves bonuses while planning layoffs. Sound familiar?

By 1991 Western went bankrupt. Camillus bought the rights to the name. Western knives are no longer made in Colorado, and all the old employees were scattered to the winds.
 
These western knives were originally based on the old collins bowie from world war 2. Changes were made to the guard before they were sold to the public. Case made their version with a straight guard, Im sure at some time you've probably seen these (they are still for sale).


I have a few of these. I bought my first in the mid 80's for around 50 dollars. Mine was one of the ones made when coleman owned the company for a while. If you have one of these the snap on the sheath will have "coleman western" stamped on the cap. The newer ones made by camillus are not as good quality (finish not very good). The older ones were much better quality.
 
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