Need help with Pocket Knife

[bvannada]

Found this last tonight using my Fisher F2, rang up as a mid 70's dime signal. It was located near a tree in my front yard. House was built in 1940. Only mark I can tell is the sheriff's looking badge on it, the blades are rusted in. Super stoked as this is my first pocket knife find. Any help would be much appreciated. The knife is roughly 4 inches.:

 

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[Alamosmoon]

I am very excited for you. I know the feeling, as last year I found a similar one. Yours appears even older. I found mine on a property whose last use was a boy scout camp from the 40's and 50's.

 

[Alamosmoon]

Perhaps where you are digging could be a former campsite? Did you find anything else around it?

 

[bvannada]

Awesome, I found a couple of older foreign coins relatively close one was a 1939 Franc and the other was a 1953 Austria coin. I have found several wheaties in my back yard as well. Seems like after every rain new things surface. I have been ove that same exact spot a hundred time and never got a hit where the knife was. Super excited to find out info on it.

 

[osage express]

The Shield Tells a Story - More on Estimating the Age of Boker Knives - iKnife Collector give this a try.nice find

 

[Erik in NJ]

What kind of detector are you using?

Awesome, I found a couple of older foreign coins relatively close one was a 1939 Franc and the other was a 1953 Austria coin. I have found several wheaties in my back yard as well. Seems like after every rain new things surface. I have been ove that same exact spot a hundred time and never got a hit where the knife was. Super excited to find out info on it.

 

[bvannada]

Fisher F2

 

[Old_Okie]

Looks like and old Imperial brand shield to me.

 

[Gonehunting]

looks like several to me.. about the only way is to look at the tang stamp.. Imperial, older Bokers, Winchester(some varieties), Schatt and Morgan Cutlery, and Frary Clark to name a few.. Westerns look similar but are missing the tip in the top part of the shield..

 

[bvannada]

What is the tang stamp and where is it located? Good info, would the blade have the maker on it? If so is it possible to clean the rust off enough to lift the blade or would that risk breaking it. Any recommendations on that or would it be best to leave it alone.

 

[bonepicker]

I was thinking Keen Cutter. Many knives had that similar crest on them. I think I have heard people call them boy scout knives.

 

[Ant]

They say that it is very difficult to date jack knifes. Here's some of the ones that I kept:

 

[gunsil]

I have said this before and I'll say it again here. There is NO way to tell a knife's maker by the shape of the knife, and absolutely NO way to tell anything about it's history by the shield unless the shield has a maker's name or model on it which some do. There are a few unusual shields which were used by only a few companies, but the federal shield on your knife was used by hundreds of companies. For anyone to say it's a Keen Kutter or anything else is just idle speculation without being able to read the stamping on the blades. It is NOT a boy scout knife, they will have boy scout shields on them. If your knife has two blades it would be called a serpentine jack or sometimes a premium jack. The scales (handle covers) are celluloid which has been used for over a hundred years, so that is little help for ID purposes except for the fact that it appears to be glitter celluloid which was not used before 1900, but was popular in the 1930s. Rusted out pocket knives are some of the more common relic type finds out there, many, many thousands, likely millions were lost over the years, but sadly once they are too rusted to read the maker's marks most are unidentifiable. I don't know why some folks go gaga over finding them, I guess it's the old "one man's trash is another man's treasure" business.

 

[bvannada]

Thanks for everyone's info.