Less Popular Vintage Knife Brands?

[I.N.F.K]

Like the tittle says, I'm going to stop by a couple of antique stores which I know have a decent amount of old knives that they picked up from estate sales, yard sales, donated, etc... Whenever I go they seem to love to jack up the price on popular old knife brands like Schrade, Case, Buck, etc... You know the popular brands. I'm personally looking for antique pocket knives this time, which aren't exactly my area of expertise, otherwise I wouldn't be asking. Like most of us know, it isn't hard to tell the difference between a good quality knife and a low quality knife, just from holding the knife once. I'm curious in knowing what are some of those not rare, but less known brands that I should look out for. I would appreciate any suggestions and I'm pretty sure I will post pics if I find any good knives.

 

[tltt]

Utica Cutlery Co. , Sta Sharp for Sears by Camillus, Edw Tryon, the older bone handled Imperials, Wards, etc..... are good modestly priced knives.

The easiest way to do this, is to find a copy of Levine's 3rd or 4th and look in the brand listings. Bernard includes a lot of obscure hardware store brands that were made under contract by the larger more popular makers. You can put together a very nice collection that way.

 

[I.N.F.K]

I found a Imperial Barlow I believe from the 70's if I'm not mistaken. I paid $5 for this knife, and requires a lot of TLC, but I enjoy doing that. They had a whole tray of folding knives, I probably could've made off with them all for $50. But I didn't recognize the brands, for the ones that had a brand.

 

[crom]

I look for anything with a USA stamp, then I check the condition, does blade wobble etc. Doesn't so much matter the brand. Lately I've been keeping my eye out for the Japanese Parker knives under the Eagle Brand and some other umbrella companies. These were high quality Japanese made pieces and the ones I own are sweet traditionals that tend to be tighter that my US made pieces of the same era. Kabar had their Khyber line which were imported (Japanese as well) for Kabar and really nice pieces.

 

[I.N.F.K]

This knife is the only knife that had a USA stamp on the blade. I believe one of them was a German make, because of the emblem on the handle. But the blades weren't going to come out anytime soon so I couldn't tell for sure.