Help IDing a pocket knife found MDing a CCC camp.

[Vladio]

We were metal detecting a CCC camp this past weekend. The CCC men were stationed at the park from 1931-1941. We found this pocket knife but I think it's not from that era. The handle that's left looks like plastic but I guess it could be Bakelite but I don't have much experience with it. It's not like its a big deal either way but I'd like to know about how old it is. Without any identifying marks I assume that might not be possible though.

 

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[BosnMate]

Bakelite, the first plastic, was invented in 1907 and by the mid 20's there were several factories producing the stuff. In the picture the handle appears to be Bakelite to me, and I'd think it would fit right in with the CCC era. Lots of military stuff, ear phones, pistol grips, stuff like that was Bakelite in WWII. My swag says a CCC guy lost his knife.

 

[FeS2]

Bakelite or jigged bone? Did the knife have two blades? If so and both hinged from the same end then it was a barlow type or trapper, which doesn't tell you much. But neither barlows nor trappers typically have bolsters at both ends the way your knife does.

Better knives had nickel-silver bolsters, and brass liners. Here the bolsters are are totally rusted and the liner looks rusty too, which means it was not a high quality knife -- compatible with being lost at a CCC camp.

With that cut out for opening the blades the knife has a distinctive shape. The specific model and make may be identifiable. This site, Roseantiquetools, has old catalogs for download, including the Keen Cutter catalog; Keen Cutter had hundreds of models of pocket knife sold at hardware stores. Also, the folks at BladeForum might identify it.

Tell you a story. When I was a tyke in the mid 1950s, a man who was running sheep on the farm [name of Johnny Dobbs, a good man with livestock] leaned on the car while talking to my granddad. To keep me quiet, he whittled a little boat for me while he was standing there talking. I seem to remember he dropped his knife into the stock tank next to the car where I floated the boat. Several years later the metal tank was dry and I found a knife in it, blade extended, covered with rust, blades frozen. I got it and kept it. Maybe 20 years later I soaked the knife in oil and some years after that loosened the rusty blades. Years later in the late 1980s I sanded the rust off the blades so it could be carried and used. Wicked sharp and has good snap! All lettering was gone but from the shape of the longest blade and the distinctive yellow plastic handle, it looks like a Keen Cutter. Your knife is too far gone for use but it still tells a story of lives lived at that camp.

 

[Mekong Mike]

If you can open the blade you will see the makers mark at the hilt. It should give you the company name. Even most knives today have the makers info there.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

not bakelite...derlin...could be a number of manufactures...sand down the tang stamp...
this photo is of an IMPERIAL



more photos here: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=27655

 

[ctalmadg]

Rochester, NY had Robeson Cutlery. They produced lots of different pocket knives. Some similar to that.

 

[FeS2]

Secret Canyon found it. But is the handle (the scales) delrin? Was Delrin around before 1950? If that is delrin then it was not lost in the 1930s.

The knife design does it seems go back to the 1930s. See Vintage 1936 ? 1952 Imperial Easy Open Bone Jack Knife | Pocket Knife Reviews and Information for example, though that Imperial knife had a unstained bone scales, nickel silver bolsters and brass liners. So that's not the same model but similar.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

that knife design goes back to one of the first folding knives...you will find similar designs back to the 1840's{even earlier}...only the materials changed...the designs are classic.

scales on a knife are the mag wheels of today...
almost every material created has been used on knives at one time...first bone, antler, ivory, woods of all types...ebony being a favorite....then the synthetics came along...

the scales may be hard rubber also...or celluloid..but, cell degrades and causes damage to metal... I don't see that type of damage to the knife.