Western Bowie W49 Identification!!!!!

M

maxyboy12

Joined
Jul 2, 2013
Messages
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I have a Western Bowie knife that my father gave me years ago. It started my knife addiction:D but it is marked WESTERN U.S.A. W49 I on the blade, and I was just looking for a little information on it (I.e. year it was made and whether or not it was still being made by Western Knife Company or Coleman/Camillus at that point) Need help!!!! Any information would be great!
 
Thanks GIRLYmann! I am aware of much of the history of the Western Bowie knife company and how the w49s were originally made for the special forces but what I cannot seem to find is wat year the model I was made. That is really the one question I have about the knife.
 
That helps narrow it down! At least I know the knife was made between 1977 and 1980, thanks for the help!
 
Western started putting the year letter on their knives in 1977 with an "A". 1978 was "B" and so on. When Coleman bought Western in 1984, they continued the practice, up through M. When Camillus bought Western from Coleman in 1991, they dropped the practice.

An "I" version would be from 1985, the year after Coleman took over.

Here's a link to a thread where I put everything I know about the W49 in my answer to the post.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1072453-Western-Bowie-any-info-appreciated

And here's another link to an earlier thread with info on the W49's history. Info changes as details pop up.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/941103-Western-W49-Bowie
 
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Thanks zzyzzogeton! Is that a bad thing that it is not a Western Knife but a Coleman instead? Because it still seems like an amazing knife.
 
I don't consider it to be bad. I obviously don't know everything about these (or any other Western), just what I've picked up here on BF and other forums, but I think the knives were still being made at Western's Longmont, Colorado factory after Coleman bought the company, so they were being made by the same people on the same equipment using the same materials. I think I read somewhere that when Camillus bought the name in 1991, they moved production to the Camillus factory in New York.

The quality out of there was also good. I know the steel was good enough that a guy I know won the Texas state knife throwing contest using a modified Coleman W49 a couple of years ago and his fiancee won the women's title this year using a similarly modified Camillus version.
 
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I just scored a copy of Harvey Platts' "The Knife Makers Who Went West" from 1978. 203 pages of Case and Western Cutlery history from the time they were in the east through the move west to Boulder Colorado and after. It is supposed to have catalog pages showing the available knives from before WW2 through 1979. I hope that there will be enough detail for me to identify the order of tang and guard stamp introduction on the W49s and other models as well. Obviously, 1977 on is easy. It's the 30s to 76 that is sometimes enigmatic.

When it comes in, I'll post any definitive info on the older W49s that I can glean out of the book.
 
Well, Rats!!!!

Got the book in and while it is just chock full of all kinds of interesting information, the only 2 pictures of the W49 are from catalog reprints and the tang stamps are generic. Just the word "WESTERN".

One interesting item -- The model number for Western's version of the Case V-44 was Bx54.
 
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