Blue Steel Brand Knives?

abbyonheyward · #1 10-23-2020, 08:30 PM

Looking to tap into the broad knowledge base of the folks here. I recently won an on-line auction for a fixed blade skinning knife. The brand is Blue Steel. It’s in the style of several popular knife makers from the 1930s-1960’s like Western, Case, K-Bar, Marbles, Welkut, etc. The knife appears to be forged from high carbon steel. It has an upswept blade similar to the Western L-88 and W-88. It has a stacked leather handle, aluminum pommel and a brass guard. The ricasso is stamped “Blue Steel” on one side and 973-11 1/2-L on the other side. I believe that 973 is the model number and that the “L” is indicative of the leather handle. My wild guess is that the knife is from the 1950’s. A few on-line searches reveal two other models of Blue Steel knives, the 974 and 978, which have significantly different blade profiles. I’m not sure if there are additional models, or not. I have been unable to determine if Blue Steel was a company that manufactured knives or if it was a brand of knife produced by one of the larger knife companies of the day. Can anyone here share anything at all about Blue Steel knives? Anyone have an old catalog or pamphlet pertaining to the brand? Any and all information that you can share about Blue Steel knives (links, photos, etc.) would be appreciated. Thanks!

Golphin · #2 10-23-2020, 09:04 PM

Never seen one and have not seen a company with that name either. I don't think any of the old school knife companies would have sold that knife without their trademark on it though.

Marshwheeling · #3 10-24-2020, 04:44 AM

That knife has a couple of different associations. First, it looks a lot like a Marble’s Woodcraft pattern produced by the old Marble’s knives of Gladstone Michigan. Second, “blue steel” suggests a range of steels produced by Hitachi favored for cutlery, among other uses. A bit of cursory googling did not turn up any connection.

My first thought was that perhaps this knife is a Japanese clone of the Marble’s pattern, using Hitachi steel, but that is pure speculation. If the search engines don’t produce anything for you, you could try the Bernard Levine knife identification thread a Bladeforums.com