Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

Knives without tang stamps or not in the books?

Over the years I've come across a few knives that have no tang stamps or tang stamps I couldn't find in the modest collection of price/identification guides that I have on hand. Here are 2 or 3 examples. I'd be interested in hearing and/or seeing any others iKC members might have in their collections.

The first 2 are identical except the first one has a shield that says Central Shoe Company. Neither is tang stamped and I can't find any record of the shoe company. My guess is that they were made by either Imperial or Camillus, but I'm not sure why they weren't stamped. The third knife is stamped FIENSTAHL which I've learned means Fine Steel in German. This mark isn't in any of the books I have, but from bit and piecing info from different sources it seems to come down to this. Many German cutlers felt compelled to furnish knives to the military post WWI through WWII, but didn't want these knives to be linked directly to them. So, the "FIENSTAHL" stamp was adopted as a generic way of marking the knives. One collector I showed the knife to suggested that the handles may have been meant to represent the Berlin Wall. (?) If anyone knows more about any of these knives, feel free to chime in. Or, if you have any knives in your collection that are a bit of a mystery, I'd love to see 'em. Rob

Views: 410

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of iKnife Collector to add comments!

Join iKnife Collector

Comment by Rob Gregg on December 5, 2010 at 9:59
Thanks Trent, will do. Utica could surely be in the running for those first 2, the jigging is a bit off from the rough black Imperials and Camillus knives I have. I never really considered Utica. Good lead, thanks. As far as the "FIENSTAHL" stamping, that was actually 1 of the suggestions I found while cruising the BRL pages. Not from BRL directly, but one of the other commentators. I think the knife they were discussing was a fixed blade, but had a similar stamping. Not sure I buy into it completely either, Rob
Comment by Trent Rock on December 4, 2010 at 23:46
Here is the link
Bernard Levine's Knife Collecting & Identification Moderated by...

Forgot to fill i the html blanks...hehehhee
Comment by Trent Rock on December 4, 2010 at 23:44
Many German cutlers felt compelled to furnish knives to the military post WWI through WWII, but didn't want these knives to be linked directly to them. So, the "FIENSTAHL" stamp was adopted as a generic way of marking the knives
I'm not so sure I believe that

You should post the pics and questions on BRL's subforum===>


Read the rules at top 1st ;)
Might need better pics

I top knife has a Utica Cutlery feel to me
Something about the jigging and handle material...

White River Knives

Visit Lee' s Cutlery

KNIFE AUCTIONS

KNIFE MAGAZINE!!!

tsaknives.com

JSR Sports!

Click to visit

© 2024   Created by Jan Carter.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service