Please Help ID This Inherited Knife

[les.b]

Here's my official Navy issued Camillus;

Jim, that brings back memories. I still have (somewhere) mine from my time as a Navy ET. I was issued mine in 1965...I know its still around somewhere...along with useful things like a pin straightener for vacuum tubes!!

Seriously, that is a great family artifact, BWZ!!!

Best Regards, Les

 

[pawngal]

That silver metal piece is call a shield. Not positive but that one I believe is call Empire. I'll see if I can find any more info in some of the old knife books around here. Oh, it serves no useful purpose. Some makers can be id'd by the shield.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Was going through my late FIL's photos this morning and found some nice pics of his father's life as an electrician among others. I'll be scanning many of these old photos to share with family, but until then, I thought I'd post this one of the knife's original owner, the beloved Grandpa George and his grandsons. The younger one with the big grin on the right is my husband.

 

[bigwheelzip]

That silver metal piece is call a shield. Not positive but that one I believe is call Empire. I'll see if I can find any more info in some of the old knife books around here. Oh, it serves no useful purpose. Some makers can be id'd by the shield.

Thank you. I've been looking and still only see the one WWI example of that shield on that knife.

I just found a photo on a knife forum thread about the oldest of the TL-29 pattern, and the one with this shield was at the top of the stack. No date though.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

The M. H. Cole books are the Gold Standard for us old school Military Knife Collectors.
Cole Book III, P 121 shows 5 Electrician Knives and one that’s actually a Jack Knife.
All have shields and read different spellings of Signal Corps.
Shrade not shown!
Besides the usual suspects, there’s a Miller Bros!
Who? I never heard of them!
Later down the road, a number of makers including Shrade built the TL-29s.
And a few of these including Shrade put metal shields on their TL-29s.
I don’t recall that I ever saw any with a shield.
The ones I can recall seeing all had TL-29 on the handle.
And I have owned-seen a fair number of these knives!

 

[Dakotakid]

I have a tl 29 with the name boeker on the skinning blade with the number 92129 on the back of that blade ?

 

[Dakotakid]

correction---!!--the right spelling is boker on the blade for postin #26 sorry bout that !!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

No problemo, Dakotakid.
How bout some pictures both sides, blades open.
Does it say where it was made?
Like does it say H Boker by any chance?

 

[bigwheelzip]

The M. H. Cole books are the Gold Standard for us old school Military Knife Collectors.
Cole Book III, P 121 shows 5 Electrician Knives and one that’s actually a Jack Knife.
All have shields and read different spellings of Signal Corps.
Shrade not shown!
Besides the usual suspects, there’s a Miller Bros!
Who? I never heard of them!
Later down the road, a number of makers including Shrade built the TL-29s.
And a few of these including Shrade put metal shields on their TL-29s.
I don’t recall that I ever saw any with a shield.
The ones I can recall seeing all had TL-29 on the handle.
And I have owned-seen a fair number of these knives!

There are several articles on different forums that suggest my knife is pre-WWII, having in common the smaller blade size, and shield.

This from a knife forum (mine is on top):

Here are five of the early TL-29/Lineman's/Electrician's/Radio knives ...

From top to botom:
Scharade Cutlery Co.
Empire
Cattaraugus
Remington
Ulster

 

[bigwheelzip]

Bingo!!!

Thanks to all of the pieces of the puzzle you kind folks supplied, I put together a search string that found the knife in the 1930 Schrade catalog supplement.

We greatly appreciate your assistance discovering the history of our little family treasure. Y'all are the best!

I saw the price list for these. They sold at the time for twelve dollars a dozen, inflation adjusted to 176 dollars today.

 

[pawngal]

Excellent find on the catalog page!

 

[Gunhacker]

I know its still around somewhere...along with useful things like a pin straightener for vacuum tubes!!

My apologies in advance for this thread drift, but the comment about the pin straightener hit close to home.

My Dad did TV/Radio repairs in the 50's... he learned it through the G.I. Bill after WWII, I still have his portable vacuum tube tester and his tube caddy, still filled with various boxes of RCA tubes.

Brought back some great memories of Dad and his workshop.