Is this an original box for a Kamp King?

PocketKnifeJimmy

PocketKnifeJimmy

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Aug 4, 2013
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So, while perusing the local flea market this morning, I came across this Imperial Kamp King. I have wanted to add one into the collection for quite some time. They are kind'a known as almost an essential have for anybody that collects such do-dads as pocketknives.
Anyhow, although I have encountered many of them here and there, they are usually not anywhere near the condition I would prefer them to be in. So, I have held out... Well, until buying this one today. It's tang stamp places it in the 1950's to late 1980's range, (it likely being closer to the 1980's of that range). It's an unused specimen, showing just a few tiny clues of simple aging while likely stored away somewhere for a few decades.
The gentleman that sold me the knife, mentioned that the box was original for it, but since it has no labels to confirm it, I do not know if that is factual. For $20, I felt is was certainly worth the price of admission, original box or not, so now it's mine.
It's not a big deal, but I would like to know if the box is what it originally came with from the factory. It is perfectly sized to the knife itself. It also has little red crowns printed all over it, (on what is otherwise a silver colored box).
If someone can clue me in on this box' originality, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks in advance :)


 
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Greetings! That's definitely an Imperial knife box. They were used for a number of different models so I'd say with a good deal of certainty that it came with your knife. Great find!!

Eric
 
Well, I got myself home from being out and about, and pretty much went right to giving my new acquisition another inspection and wipe down. I used a soft clean cloth, a soft bristle toothbrush, and some mineral oil to clean out the dried factory oil or grease that had almost hardened on and around the blade tang areas. That hardening substance was causing a tight/sluggish opening and closing of the blades, but now she opens and closes perfectly, (with good authority). The wipe down that I did afterwards, brought out the simple beauty of this once incredibly inexpensive disposable pocketknife.
These were obviously never meant to be collectible items, but rather they were knives that you spent little money on, performed the basic tasks that a multi blade pocket knife of it's type were meant to do, and when they served their purpose for some reasonable time and maybe gave up the ghost, you would simply replace it. It was not thought of as a family heirloom pocketknife that had all sorts of extra hands on craftsmanship. It was not a knife that would give the owner a sense of major pride about it's quality construction and/or artistic features. But, this is what the most collectible items usually are, items meant for use until they either went caput, or something better came along to make the item obsolete, (which would then often mean that the item would be tossed away).
Because of all that, the Kamp King pocketknife, while still commonly found out there because of it's high production numbers, are usually found in pretty rough shape. A lot of that has to do with their simplified construction, (having a thin plastic coating on hollow shell construction handle scales). There is also the fact that carbon steel has a enemy cancer called rust, and unless cared for and kept in decent air quality, this disease wrecks havoc on them. These knives having been so cheap to begin with, and often owned by little boys, (and to a lesser extent, little girls), were less likely to be pampered as a more expensive pocketknife may have been. Their prices simply made these knives some of, if not the most expendable/disposable pocketknives available in their day, (while still being decent tools for their occasional tasks).
Yup, a Kamp King specimen has finally made it into my collection, representing it's type in almost original mint condition glory!

 
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Great job, it looks like a new knife!

Eric
 
ea42 said:
Great job, it looks like a new knife!

Eric
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Thanks! I really do enjoy finding such minty representations of the sorts of objects I collect. When I first seen it on the gentleman's table, I immediately picked it up as to prevent somebody else snatching it. But, I then had to ask how much he wanted. I mean, I knew I wanted it, but there is still a limit to which I will go for it's payment. If he would have said $25 or less, it was going to be mine, (he actually asking $20 for it), but if he would have said $30 or more, nope, I would not have bitten. At $20 it was a very fair deal, at least to my way of thinking, because of it's unused and minty condition. The box being original was left out of my equation, since I simply was not sure if he was correct on that part of it. You verifying that it was indeed a box type used by Imperial, and then searching and finding some other knives online with the same type of boxes for other vintage Imperial knives, is just icing on the cake for my $20 purchase fee.
I thank you again, Sir, for answering my question concerning the box :)
 
sitflyer said:
Lucky find, congrats! Agree with you on how common underappreciated items become collectable years later. That knife is like a time capsule of a bygone era...:thumbsup::cool:
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Thanks!
After my doing a little bit of online researching, it seems my newly acquired Kamp King specimen was likely manufactured during the 1960's. So, if I guess it to have been made right in the middle of that decade, (1965), it places it as being around 55 years old. Initially I was thinking it was more like a 1980's vintage, but my research pleasantly proved me incorrect on that guess, (it being 15 to 20 years older than I thought it was).

What helped me in my distinguishing it from other decades of manufacture, are four things...

*It having a patent number on the can opener.

*Where placement of the can opener is.

*It having 3 brass liners.

*It's USA tang stamp, which helps because the later ones were made by Imperial in Ireland, and mine has a Rhode Island USA stamp.

This is one of the greatest enjoyments of my collecting hobby, the researching and learning :)
 
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Your lucky to get one that was sold in a box. I remember those often being sold without a box. They would be fastened to a cardboard display, with elastic bands. Usually set by the cash register of the local hardware store. The display would have a price printed on it. $1.99, or maybe $2.99. You would walk up, say I want one of those, give the store owner your money, he would pull one off of the display and hand it to you, and you would run out with a new knife in your pocket to replace the one you had lost.

O.B.
 
Old Biker said:
Your lucky to get one that was sold in a box. I remember those often being sold without a box. They would be fastened to a cardboard display, with elastic bands. Usually set by the cash register of the local hardware store. The display would have a price printed on it. $1.99, or maybe $2.99. You would walk up, say I want one of those, give the store owner your money, he would pull one off of the display and hand it to you, and you would run out with a new knife in your pocket to replace the one you had lost.

O.B.
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Yes, Sir, I sure do remember those cardboard knife displays. I remember seeing them in my hometown's local Five & Dime store, and just like you said, right up by the cash register. I can't remember what the prices were back then, (during the early to mid 1970's when I was a little boy), but those amounts you stated are likely about what they were then too :)
What's so funny about shell handled knives is, they always seemed toyish/mickey mousey to me, even back then when I was a little kid, but they were nonetheless real knives with real functional steel blades. Back then we all had pocket knives of one sort or another, and nobody thought anything of it. Not the case today, for sure!
 
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I had one when I was around 11 or 12 and they sold it to me right off of a cardboard display board for I think less than $2 at the Western Auto store in the small town I grew up in. Would have been around '73? as I recall, so I did'nt get a box. I used it and abused it even after the shell handles came loose and fell off. in fact I liked it better because it was less weight in the pocket.
 
Very nice piece of Americana! Thanks for sharing the photo's, first Imperial box I've ever seen (as already noted, all I saw new were on display cards or in blister packs). OH
 
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