WWII Steel pocket knife*** Knife, Pocket, General Purpose

[Misfit 45]

The Camillus MIL-K 818 knives were made from 1957 to 2006. (There is a very rare one made and dated 1949) I do not collect these. My stainless pocket knife collection is limited to any with brass liners; WWII, "Ulster 48", although I would not mind getting a nice Camillus 1957 or the 1949. I think the 1949 will be permanently outside my realistic budget parameters.

Marv

[Misfit 45]

Hi Folks,

Interestingly enough, I just found a much better smooth handled Kingston/US 45 pocket knife than the one that I posted in post #18. I’d like to compare it to my checkered handled Kingston/US 45, to see if the similarities warrant a second look at the possibility that these are not just “parts knives” that were thrown together for commercial sales after the war. Having seen a few of these, there seems to be a few unique features that are common to both knives.

 

 

[Misfit 45]

The most obvious similarity is the clevis markings which are identical, with Kingston on one side and U.S. 45 on the other.

 

 

[Misfit 45]

Here's the Kingston side.

[Misfit 45]

In addition, the narrow screwdriver, without the lift pin stud, is the same on each knife. This is a feature that sets the Kingston 45 apart from the more common Kingston general purpose knife.

 

 

[Misfit 45]

The can opener, the hole punch and the screw driver on each knife are virtually identical.

 

 

 

[Misfit 45]

Here's the hole punch on each knife.

[Misfit 45]

The main blade on the smooth handle knife is marked “USA”, while the main blade on the checkered handled knife is marked “Made in USA”.

 

However, my first smooth handled knife, in post #18, is also marked “Made in USA”.

 

In post #20, Bellumbill’s smooth knife is marked “USA”.

 

The main blade on the smooth handled knife has a “full belly” shape, while the checkered knife has more of a straight edge, however, that may be due to the knife having been sharpened.

 

 

[Misfit 45]

So, how did these smooth scaled knives get produced in the first place? I would not think that these scales were just accidentally left un-checkered.

These pocket knives with smooth scales, are not without precedence since the earliest prototypes had smooth scales. Maybe Kingston had a bunch left over from the prototypes, and just added them to the mix. In any event, other than the scales themselves, these two knives have too many similarities to ignore.

I would like to suggest that since these Kingston/US 45 knives have so many distinctive features in common, I would think that the smooth and checkered Kingston/US 45 knives were made concurrently, but with no conclusive documentation to that effect, the mystery remains unsolved. Any thoughts?

Marv

 

Thanks Dustin, for the vintage photo

 

 

[dave grunt]

I have a " U.S. MARINE CORPS " utility knife marked CRAFTSMAN ( underlined ) on the main blade. No other markings than those two. It has a non-beveled unmarked can opener, no assist on the screwdriver and they are both on the same side. The craftsman is extremely faint. I will try to post a picture of the blade. Has anyone heard of a craftsman made Marine utility knife? It does have the brass on the bottom. If anyone has any info, I would be interested in hearing their thoughts. Thank you in advance. Dave

[sactroop]

This doesn't sound unusual. I've got some pictures I saved of a post-war Ulster-48 with a very clear "Craftsman" etch on the main blade.

Also at the end of WW2 several companies took knives that appear to have been leftover stock when the Government contracts were cancelled and sold them to the Boy Scouts of America. In many cases these knives had also been blade etched with the Boy Scout information. From what I've run across this went on at least until 1947, but it may have been longer. One of the images I saw was of a United States Marine Corps Kingston with the Boy Scouts blade etch.

[dave grunt]

sactroop thank you very much for the info. Dave

[12A54]

Here's a pretty rare Kingston - used by General of the Army George C. Marshall (and on display at the Marshall Museum in Lexington, VA):

 

 

[Misfit 45]

That is spectacular! One of a kind!

Marv

[sactroop]

I know we finally moved some threads dealing specifically with the Camillus 1949 version of these knives and pinned them.

Bringing this thread back up, reminds me that we have quite a few threads about the more general subject of the metal utility knives through out the time period from WW2 to the near present also.

Some of those threads are packed with unique and insightful information. At the same time they tend to ask five new questions for every question that seems to be answered.

I just got done digging thru the archives for the thread that Dustin started about 3 years ago showing us the contents of the Army's WW2 Infantry Board Report on the study of standardizing a pocket knife for general use by service personal. I found it on page 11 finally.

I'm proposing that we might consider collecting together at least some of these threads and possibly even creating a new category under the "Edged Weapons Reference" subform. Or maybe I'm just being selfish and lazy today.

[ZeroAlpha]

I picked this one up at a recent gun and knife show.  Brass & steel construction.  Appears that blades underwent bluing.  No markings other than "Can Opener  Pat Pend".  

[ffuries]

What was the reason for the deletion of the pin on the screwdriver blade in 1973?

 

I know when we would get new knives in from supply, we'd get some with the pin, some with just the divot for the pin and later some with no divot.

 

In the field we didn't know this (And I came in the USAF in Jan 1986), and at one base we were originally told the ones with only the divot (No pin) were defective and so we pulled every example out of service from our Aircrew Life Support equipment, and gave them to our aircrews. 

 

Some years later it was explained to us at another base that the story was BS and that the pin was deleted. The manufacturer used up the stock of blades with pins, then the ones with the pin divot until all were gone, and the new made blanks had no divot.

 

 

Mike
TSgt, USAF Retired
Jan 86 - Sept 08
Aircrew Life Support
"Your Life Is Our Business"
(122X0, 1T1X1, 1P0X1)
NRA Life Member

[Misfit 45]

I can't tell you what the official reason the lift pin was deleted, but what I know is during the development of the General Purpose knife (Army) and the Utility knife (Marines), the desire of the signal corps guys and other electrical guys was to have a Lock back blade on the screw driver just like the blade on the TL-29 knife.  As a compromise, the knife was supposedly designed with a stronger spring to help prevent the screw driver from folding closed while it was being used. This original thought was  to totally replace the TL-29.  Since the stronger spring was used, it needed a lift stud to make it easier to open.  In reality, the spring did not seem too much stronger and really did not need the extra help to open the screw driver. I suspect that the military realized it was not needed and eliminated.it.

Marv

[The Rooster]

I had a thing for the WW2 knives like these a couple years back. Im wondering now how I ever missed this post.

Great collection Misfit 45 !!

 

[John Sr.]

I know this is an older thread, but I wanted to ask if the knife pictured is considered a MIL-K knife? Was this a military knife or just a knife put together after the war to use up parts? I have seen these with 3 blades or 2 blades and a punch. Some I have seen with a rang stamp only marked USA (not Made In USA), but most I have seen are unmarked. And, I have never seen one with a bail. I have a thing for the MIL-K knives, but can’t find any info on these. 
Thanks for any help,

John

 

 

[Misfit 45]

I believe Camillus stopped production of these in 2006.  Now quite sure though.

Marv

[John Sr.]

1 minute ago, Misfit 45 said:

I believe Camillus stopped production of these in 2006.  Now quite sure though.

Marv

Thank you, I didn’t even know Camillus made these. Thanks again.

[sactroop]

John Sr.  I believe your knife was most likely made from parts of more than one knife, and probably not in a factory.  I have one like yours with the same spay blade that you have in your example.  With my knife instead of the pen knife blade I still have the plan awl blade along with the original spear blade that was used in the MIL-K knives.

I've never seen a spay blade used in any MIL-K production knife and it isn't in the specifications.

Mine has been a handy little knife.

[Misfit 45]

QUOTE: I believe Camillus stopped production of these in 2006.  Now quite sure though.

Marv

The above quote I made is out of place in the forum...I was responding to a question on post #23 which asked about the Camillus steel knives.

 

The main presentation of this long post was about the WWII knives made by Kingston and Stevenson.  Camillus ran a long string of these from 1957 to 2006, with a tiny batch in 1949.

Marv

[Frank Trzaska]

On 8/29/2024 at 5:02 PM, John Sr. said:

I know this is an older thread, but I wanted to ask if the knife pictured is considered a MIL-K knife? Was this a military knife or just a knife put together after the war to use up parts? I have seen these with 3 blades or 2 blades and a punch. Some I have seen with a rang stamp only marked USA (not Made In USA), but most I have seen are unmarked. And, I have never seen one with a bail. I have a thing for the MIL-K knives, but can’t find any info on these. 
Thanks for any help,

John

 

 

 

I believe these were made during WW II but not for the military. 

 

During WW II civilian knife production was stopped. This became an issue as many industries used knives, including farmers. The cutlery companies were allowed to make knives in 8 or 10 pre war patterns and this is one of them. This is a classic cattleman's knife with the spear, spey and pen knife blades. These were sold through hardware stores and feed houses. I would "guess" these were sold post war as well as the availability of bone was sparse at that point.

 

I have not seen a Camillus marked version. All I have seen were from the Kingston joint venture with no name or USA marked blades only.