The American Pocket Knife — A Catalog Reference

What each brand offered, over time — patterns, handle materials, prices, and above all how to date a knife by its tang stamp — with every fact tied to a primary source. Built the way a definitive reference should be: the document that proves a claim is never more than a click away.

✓ Primary — read directly from the source ~ Corroborated — reliable secondary, awaiting a primary ⚑ Archival — the source is identified but off-line

The rule throughout: a primary source establishes a fact; secondary works are only leads. Every page carries its sources and a confidence flag, so you always know what proves what. The focus is American cutlery made before the Second World War.

The makers

1889–W.R. Case & Sons

America's most-collected pocket knife. The Tested XX era, and the tang-stamp chronology that dates it.

tang-stamp datingflagship

1920–1940Remington (UMC)

The gun-maker's cutlery empire — the Bullet knives, and the cleanest twenty-year dating window in the guide.

tang-stamp datingpriced · 1927

1919–1942Winchester

The other gun-maker; the #1920 Folding Hunter, and a patent that tells the Eagle-acquisition story.

tang-stamp datinggun-maker thread

1852–1931New York Knife Co.

The oldest in the guide; Walden's "Hammer Brand" and the first Boy Scout knife.

Hammer Brand datingpriced · 1910

1882–1963Cattaraugus Cutlery Co.

Little Valley, N.Y.; the Champlin/Case seedbed, the "King of the Woods," coded like Case but loose.

Case seedbeddate the knife

1902–Union Cutlery / Ka-Bar

Olean, N.Y.; the Brown family (Case cousins), the Grizzly switchblade, and a maker's KA-BAR mark.

Case cousinsmaker's mark

1902–2007Camillus Cutlery Co.

Camillus, N.Y.; the great contract cutler — the Sword Brand, and the founder's own 1897 patent.

contract cutlertang-stamp dating

1904–1946Schrade Cutlery Co.

Walden, N.Y.; the switchblade house — George Schrade's safety push-button, and a brand dated by its patents.

switchblade housedated by patents

1879–1965Robeson Cutlery Co.

Rochester & Perry, N.Y.; the own-brand maker — ShurEdge, the PocketEze construction, and a coined mark you date by.

own-brand makerShurEdge dating

~1870–1960Keen Kutter

E.C. Simmons Hardware, St. Louis; the first house brand — the name is the seller, and the priced catalog that dates the guide.

house brandpriced · 1917

1863–1960Diamond Edge

Shapleigh Hardware, St. Louis; the second house brand — Keen Kutter's older rival that absorbed it in 1940.

house brandpriced · 1910

1919–2018Queen (Queen City)

Titusville, Pa.; the breakaway that bought its bankrupt parent, Schatt & Morgan — no pre-war number, dated by tang stamp alone, its plate the parent's own catalog.

absorbed its parenttang-stamp only

1895–1933Schatt & Morgan

Gowanda & Titusville; the premium parent Queen consumed — two priced catalogs, a handle-coded number, the founder's one patent, and the Platts-plant bridge to Case.

priced · 1908the bridge node

The patterns

26 platesPocket-knife patterns, illustrated

The classic American frames on one page — the barlow, the jacks, the congress, stockman, trapper, and the rest — each drawn and labeled, with what it was for, and an honest tag on which names are period print and which are collector coinage.

field guidelabeled plates

How this guide is built

Every entry is assembled the same way, and shows its work:

Primary establishes, secondary leads. A period catalog, price list, patent, or trademark record proves a fact; collector guides and forums point the way but never stand alone. Each row carries its source and a confidence flag.
Dating by the stamp. The heart of each page is how to read a maker's tang stamps and shields over time — the chronology that pins a knife to an era — anchored on trademark registrations and dated catalogs wherever they can be found.
Public-domain documents, reproduced. Pre-1930 catalogs and all U.S. patents are public domain; where we can, the proving page image sits right on the entry.