37927 Vol. 27 o. 4 April 2001

2.00www.knifeworld.com

This is the first vanation of the Ulster Mountain Knife. The Phillips driver islocated on the end of the baiL The first model used two back springs in itsdesign. Note the shield, grooved bolsters, sheep foot main blade, spey bladeand the old style can opener blade.

also has sharp edges whichcan ut or snag anythingtho comrs in contact withit, Thi design did not lenditself to 51' cI in manufllc­turing assembly liS specialcare had to bl! tak n to alignthe screwdriver to thescrew. There was also theproblem of the screwdriverslipping off the screw hendwhich meant lost tim or adamaged proclUct.

In 1930 Henry F. Phillipsfrom Portland, Oregon,dcsignl!ll n serr\\' with n dif­ferent head, the Phillipshead screw. The designmade it easier to align ascrew driver with the headof the crew. The incrensedsurface area on the headinsured positive contact of

Continued on page -I

Screwing With Pocketknivesby Dennis EllingsenIn thl) beginning th ro

was the slotted hend ~crrw.

This WllS II "minus," both indesign and in actual use.Then came the Phillips'head screw. This was ""plus," both in design and inactual use. Or, if this does­n't make sense, look at thescrews from the top view;and you can't hell' but notethat one is a minus sign lindthe other' is a plus sign

The standard sloltedscrew hen,1 h,," manyadvantages as wrllas mllnydisadvantages. A crewrlriv­er placed in the slot can slipfrom the head of this screw,and ther is no good way tocenter the screw or toinsure that the screw can bedriven straight. The head

BOIIOm: The Ihird variation vatie. in Iht! 111ft! of the.{.fdy can oJHner Ihut ,.,flS (irsl .ubmi/tW (or apaltlnt on 11101/44. Tllis modd also hall plain bolltettand tile "U.s." mark Cfln still be fOund on tilt! buiL

Top: The lIecond Ilflrialion hall the Phillips dri.,~r fill« 'I"/.araltl blfld#: thut hauing to have three bach¥I'rings 10 accommmtate (llf Ihe bladn netl(ltld Thi,model (Uffett from the prcviQl(ll in the "'1" oflhe eli/'.tyle main blmlf', .hUII foot .mall bl/H/e (lnd the lackofu .Meld. The "U.S." murk i. uB//(llly on the bail.

Page 4 Knife World

Co"rinu~d (rom JXI/{~ 1the driver and alllO placedthe cenler of fOra! dlTl~dly

in line with the llCr('w,whith would give bettercontrol of the placement ofthe IICteW This .1110 inllurl"d1'1 acrew ..·ould be drive" inlItrllighl Thill Wall II plull inmanufacturing, 8JI a powerdriver could easily locatethe head of the screw; andwhen it was fully !Il'llted.cam itself out of the SCIl)W

head. This is due to the factthntthe Phillips driver cnnbo designed with taperedtype wings that prevent itfrom over driving the lIcrew.Bott(lm line wall speed lindnceuracy in the manufactur.ing proceBll, which lendsitself to the auembly line

World War II requ1tl'dspeed of manufatturingQuality needed to be ~in­

tllined; and when a screwwu needed, the Phillipshead screw was a good con·sideration in product. manu·facturing. <Note that moat

April 2001

military firesrms weredesigned WIthout the neroof a SCIl)W, 110 a flCt'twdrin'rwas not required to disman­tle or dean thf'llC firearms.)

During WWII the mili­tary had a need for lInowskill Thl'!!\C wert' u5Cd bythl' Mount.'lin Troop 10thdh'ision. The ski bmdinJ!5were attached 10 the wood·en skis with 1ICt'tW1I ThePhillips head screw allowedfor speed in assembly, dri·ving the screws straight,llmooth heads for no snag­ging and the uS(' of powerlools to Ilssemble the prod·UCI. But the problem oftightcninJl or replf\cing thePhilliPfl h('/ld lICrew in thefield did require a lIpecialIICIl)W driver. What betterway to oITer th,. I.GoI to thetroops than a pocket knifethat had this I.GoI incorpo­rated in it? Mind you, thiswould not be the main toolused but would be a fieldemergency tool or a jUlIt in

Conllnuw. on PQI~ 5

April 2001 Knife World Pnge l'i

Thi. fourlh vuriaUon could be military ur eommudoL The unique feature hereia the placement ofIhe eon opener on the main blad#: end. Thia 0/.0 e;rptoina whyIh#: mhin blod#: ho.·0 long nail nlelo a. the blade i. hard to open localed behindthe can of'#;n#:r.

cutting, lfulled only for thillpurpose One ia nlwaysencouraged to keeR. thi!blade shArp The potketkmfe alllO had n IIhicld onthe bone handles, whichlIuggesotll this product wuan earl)' dl'velopmentdl'!!ign, Shieldll had no fune·tion durmg war use andwere a "'llllte of resource!!The knife wr.s .IM! smallerin si:te than mO!t utilityknivl'!! of this time. Thiswould h~lp when earryingthe knife and eonllCrvingapace. It ahould slso benoted that the bolstel1!l onthe early llpecimens haY(! agTooved line on them asopposed to lster madeknives that had plain bol­sterll.1he line wall cosmeticand served no other pur-

Conllnuw on page 6

GENUINEMOTHER ()F

\

PEARL" HANDLES!

••

blade! SubsC<]uent changesin thill pocket knife u~d

thrcc aprings.I have referred to the

carry ring liS a ball Themilitary callll it n devis. BUlth~n again we can tnll it nlllnyllm, II ring, a IlIn)'amring, hIlil ring, dl'Ua<:hllblering, loop ring. hoop, lan­yanlloop, staple or aha<:kleH you ....ant to atudy thissubjeet furth~r r~f~r toKnife World, April 1999 andthe article titled -rhisThing Called Bail.~

The sheep foot mainblade on the fil1!lt variationof the Ulater Mountainknife oould hsve been ulliCdto lipread Willi: on !kia andalllO for generlll cuttingchorell. The spcy atyle blndeW/IJ a amall blnde thntcould alllO be used for flesh

Fien...LLI:=.:: .......UZLLI::c

style blade and the Phillipshend driver waa located onthe top of the ovenized flatbail If the Phillips wasused to lighlly tiJ:htenscrewa, it would functionquite wdl If it Willi ulled ina high torque aitulltion. itcould fail terribl)'; but it did"'ork. Thill firJIt design knifeused two lIpringa for the

tary. The curious part aboutthia pocket knife WAS that itevolved with several dellignchnngl'lI. To n collector thisis tI fun llpecialty type knifeto lltudy The lint design ofthill pocket knife WIIS ratherstrange. This pocket knifehad II ahl'<'p foot atyle mainblllde, punch bl8de, ctlnopener blade, a amall apey

CMI""'td from pagt 4time tool.

Ulster Knife CompanyWIl! the IIOle manufacturerth!t offered a poekel knifewith II Phillips helld IICrew­driver attachment, Thetime period would be about1942 until 1946, a! lhi! wasthe time that this toolwould find UR in the mili-

"hi. mo.t likely ia the commercial offcri/ll1 ofthe WWII Mountain knife. 11 Itl with·out boil and 0 .tundurd flut 6/mle tlcl-ewdriver replace. the amall shcl'p footblade. We eun gueu that these knivea were mad#: up after the war from spunparla or they wen made 10 see "ow t"e murket wuultl aeet!pl them.

Knife World

cutting blade h.. beenreplaced with a Itraightblade Kr'e'Vdriver.

Another obaervation on

Page 6

Contin..w from page 5polIe. The eHmifltltion ofthi. would .peed manufac­turing

The Phillips screwdriverWilt added on future modelsa•• aepa.rate blade thatunfolded from the knife.The blade nestled over a cutout that Willi msde in thefront handle. The knife nowwas a three .pring knifewith fi'l"e blades. The screw­driver construction couldbest be deseribed as II n/ltpartial blade which had aPhillips .crewdriver bitwe1ded to the side of it.

The mAin blade on laterpatterns ...at then chllngt'dto a dip blade dellign whichcan be found on almost allknivea thereafter. (Onespecim('n was found with aSpeRT blade. If this is cor­r('(:t, then I suspect othermoo('ls can be found withspear blades. If not, thiswould be R repaired knifeor a 11 one orr prototype.)

The .mall spey blade waschllnged from the originllldesirn to a small sheep footstyle blade. The nat heavyduty btIil (d~is, IIhackle,IItaple, etcJ was neverehllnged, uve for onedesim that did not llportone. It might be suspeeledthat Ulster auempted tointroduce thi. at a oommer'cial knife an.rr- the War, andthe bail ..at eliminated. But

The Boy &:01'" of America mSA) in/rodueed thi, 3­318" poehet hnife with a Phillip. hf!ad driwr ira 1952.The badge emblem wa.r di.continuf!d i" 1962 orad1170' replaced by Ihe round BSA ,hield. The fintmodel introduced was the wood handle IJariation.These models do "ot have a boil (lnd ~re made byImperial.then again, any gUf!llll

would be a good guest. Itmight be noted that on thitbail-leu model, the sman

April 2001

The 3·3/4" Phillip. driver 80y Seoul h"ivu ",eremade either by Ulster or Camillus. The top hnife i,Ihe Camiltus and the others are Ultter. There ",ereuery sUght design eha"ges in this model save forha"dle malerial, Ulhieh were brow", blaeJr, Ulhilea"d illOl")l A.II th~te hnives ~re mad~ (lifer 1962 asper the round BSIt ,hield.

April 2001

There were few de,ign challges Qfthe Phillip, driuerin a pochetknife. The fir" try wa, the driver on theend of the bail. The ,ecolld and molll commQlI meth<xlwas to weld a Phillip. driver to a flat blade. Thethird melhod, illtro(l"ced by Camillus, lOa. to makethe whole device Qrle i'ltegral de,igll.

The cartridge .erie. knife alf offered by Comifl ..susn the late.t dellign in the "lie of the Phillips (iri.ver. Thill ~ the firltt knife ever to have the Phillip,driver Qn the rear portion ofthe knife.

Knife World

these knives is the stamp­ing of "U.S." on the bail.This was not always done.For the most part threebilldes lire found on the bailend of the knife, but onacclIsion n SpN"imen ClIn befound that hall the threeblades on the non bail endof the knife. For what rea­som this was done, I am notsure, Another anomaly i.~

the use of the long pull onthe main blade where nor­mally a short nail nick pullwas used. But throughoutall thelle changes, the beau­tiful bone handles persist­od.

One of the most obviousevolution Chang<'11 in thispattern knife waS the canopener.. Early IIpedmenshad the "0" style designthat used a round lin pin.This was instantly replacedwith the safety style Cllnopener. This new designwas first introduced as 11

patent application onNovember 7, 1944. All ofthese changes are interest·ing and help us pinpoint thelittle windows in history.

The War ended and theneed for pocket knives withPhillips head screwdriversseemed to end too. But thenin 1952 Imperial KnifeCompany introduced aknife for the Boy &outll ofAmeriCll (BSA) that had aPhillips head screwdriver

.' • .1,

induded in ill! array ofblades in a pocket tool.These were knives withoutbails and rnealtured 3AOn

(3-318"). Not your standardIIized 3.72" (3·314") knife,but rather a smltller atylc inlhe image of the WWIImountain knives. TheileknivcII had three bladesthat are found on the mainblade end of the knife. Theother two blades were theClin {lpener and the screwdri\'cr (combo cap lifter)blades. The Phillips and thepunch blade were on theother end.

All of the knives made forthe BSA had spear mainblades, The first knife inthis series made by Imperi·al had rosewood handlesand the firllt class badg(!style shield. making it anofficial eSA pocket knife.After 1962 this shield waschanged to the round styleshield. Another specimen ofthis knife with the badgeIItyle shield (1952 - 1962)was in a white, pearl-ized,synthetic, smooth whit(!handle, The round IIhieldedknives, again with(/ut bail.Clime in II dark brown,smooth plastic handle and IIbrown, jigged delrin handlethat resembled bone, Allthese junior sized kniveswere made by ImperialKnife Co.

Wben Ulster made the

Page 7

larger 3·3/4" official BSAknives with the Phillipshead driv(!r, they too maden knife without II bail. Thefirst style hlld brown. jiggeddelrin handles 0976 - 1979)((.!Iowed by lin ivory colored.jigged delrin knife (1980 .198]). Another style wa.~ awhite, jigged delrin handle0982 . 1983) followed by asmooth white handle knife(1984 . 1985). All theseknives had the round BSAofficial shield.

One other company madea pocket knife with aPhillips head driver. Thiswall Camillus and againthis was for the Boy Scouts/}f America. These kniveswere also without bail. Thefirst ones were madebetween J986 and 1991 andwere a deluxe model withblack, delrin handles. Themodel that replaced it in1992 had the first majorchange in the Phillipsscrewdriver design. Itbecame a one piece soliddellign. It ill completely dif­ferent in design from any ofthe other drivers evermade. The most currentPhillips head pocket knife isalso made by Csmillus andis in their cartridge series.This knife has a cartridgecase head liS a shield andfeatures a wood SIlW thatworks quite well. This

Continued on poge 8

Page 8

C01lti1lW!d {rom JXl,t 7replace~ the can openerblede. The smaller blndeal80 ill unique in that it hn~a IH'IT1Ited edge, ""'no wouldofthunk"'

In going through my col.­lectioD of utility kmves, Icame acrOllll the ffi03tunlikely knire with R

Pt.ilIip's lI(:rewdriver. ItllQe$back to 1990, and is a RedRyder knife -A Boy's FiutKnife,R It has a spear mAinblade, acissors, a slollodscrewdriver, a cap lifter andthe always ready Phillipsscrewdriver. Tslk aboutincongruous, It is not evenin the Slime time line hi!\tO'ry window lIS the characterit portflllYll. Unl~ of COUteeyou think of Red Ryder a. a19301 chllracler. Now this illreally lI(:rewing With hilltO'ry Th me the true value orthis package is thencellentcartoon book that ac-oompa·nies it. It does a good job orteachmg youngsleu aboutuaing e knife. You betchumRed Ryder. And for the tnv.ia qui~ of the day; what wasthe nllme of Red Ryder'lInlltive American sideltick?

It is to be noted that thediscussion in the article

deals with production styleknives that are Americanm3de. I am IIWllre of proto­type knives that weredClligned in the 19408, how­ever a diSCUllllion of designsthat didn't ~ke It lire notthe point of thill pieee. Ihave alto not wntlen aboutthe European Ityle knivesthat also come equipJH!dwith Phillip" head serew­drivers. Everyone knowsabout the Swilll Army typeknives, where it probably ismore rare to find one with­out a Phillips than withone. I'll leave that story tosomeone else, But for thesccond quiz or the day, try tofigure out why the SwissArmy knivel have a slotthat run. down the lIhaft ofthe Phillips head dri"er ontheir knives

There i8 yet one moredevi«> where one ClID findthe Phillips head screwdriv·er, These lire the multi-looldevices that Leathermanintroduced to the knifeIIccne many yearll ago,Almost All contain thePhillips hud driver, alongwilh too many lo nllmeother tools. This again is anarticle that could reach

Knire World

book proportionaUntil or lllte, all pocket

knives with the Phillipstype tool in them ha"e beenorganiutionlll driven. Firstit WRlI the Army and thenthe Boy Scoots of America.But in any CRIIe, dear claynethinka thlllltjust olTers meenother chance to "acrew'around with lIn(1l.hcr writ­ing task. Oh well

My thanb to Ed Hol­brook /Ind the informationin his book Official Scout81adl!8.D

Check lilt for tn$l.erMounhlin Knife variations:Bolstera - plain or groovedMain blade - Clip - Sheep

Foot· SpearCan opener· Safety or

eArher broken -0" styleSmall billde - Spey (II'

ahl'('p footShield· W,th or WIthout8ack spnn~ - 'J'u,'o or thJ'«'

Check list for flSA· Phillipshc~ dri~'tr knives

Maker ·lmperilll- U1ster­Camillus

Size· 3-318 or 3-314All 3·3/8 knives were made

by ImperialVariations of handles

April 2001

TAKE A l.OOtCAT THE

00A6AAM.""m""SHONrNr:; '1tlU •THe PARTS 9F

A KNIFE _ .c:>~

The /ted Il)'der knife h(J6 (I l'hiltiplI head driver in it.The only justification Ihllt I can 8fOe ill thai it wallmurhl'ltod all "The Doy'll Fir., Knife." The booklet thatlIccompaniell thia knife ;11 qllite good and infarma·lillf~.