KIM: THE NOTES BESIDE THE PICTURE NUMBERS ARE NOT CAPTIONS TO INCLUDE, JUST GUIDES TO KEEP ME (AND YOU) FROM GETTING CONFUSED. 
  FOR EACH REMINGTON PATENT, THE PIC OR PIX COME BEFORE THE TEXT THAT APPLIES TO IT/THEM.

WHUT IZZIT

  by Bernard Levine
  www.knife-expert.com

  Remington Arms Corporation made cutlery. It made cutlery in a big way, and sold it in an even bigger way, buying in Remington branded cutlery items it did not make in order to fill out its lines. 
  Remington went from a standing start in 1920 -- setting up a new Cutlery Division in its recently built and newly decommissioned government contract ammunition plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut -- to dominating the cutlery industry across the United States, all in about three years. And then the Cutlery Division really began to grow, expanding product lines, introducing new lines (such as the Bullet shield sportsmen’s folders), adding new distributors and retail stores, making and shipping vast quantities of knives. 
  Remington stumbled into bankruptcy in 1933 (too much credit extended to too many wholesalers), but it was saved at the last minute, acquired by one of its largest creditors, DuPont. Under DuPont, the Cutlery Division pared back its offerings by about three quarters, but still continued to introduce novel products, such as stainless steel pen knives, though now at a modest pace. 
  Finally in November 1940, with new war contracts in the pipeline, DuPont and Remington managers decided to divest the Cutlery Division, selling it to Pal Cutlery Co. of Plattsburgh, New York. 
  Included in the sale to Pal was a little regarded asset, Remington’s portfolio of cutlery patents. None of Remington’s cutlery patents had ever been especially lucrative -- unlike, for example, the ELOSI (aka JackMaster) patents, licensed to and improved upon by Imperial Knife Co., which made uncounted millions of dollars selling knives with pressed sheet metal handles, wrapped in sheet celluloid. 

PICTURE 1 OPTIONAL  elosi [NOT A CAPTION]

  Indeed it appears that several of Remington’s patented inventions never saw daylight at all, just gathered dust in a filing cabinet, while preventing all competitors from using similar ideas. 
  One of my long-term ambitions has been to present all of Remington’s cutlery patents together in one place -- at least all the ones I know about. That place is this column. 

PICTURE 2 lock punch 1,498,517

PICTURE 3 knife with lock punch

  First up is an invention we saw here before, back in April 2009. It is a lock used on punch blades in premium stock knives, and on screwdriver blades in electrician’s knives. The operating mechanism is a slider in the handle. The inventor was Carl W. Tillmanns, Production Manager of the Cutlery Division. A native of Solingen, Tillmanns had emigrated before 1910, leading a team of master cutlers who worked together for many years. They helped set up Utica Cutlery Co. in New York, where Tillmanns introduced several large buffalo-head shield folders. They moved on to Camillus, thence to Boker in New Jersey, and finally to Remington -- where the buffalo shields became bullets. 
  Tillmanns applied for his lock patent in December 1920, barely ten months after standing up production at Bridgeport. Perhaps the Patent Office did not like his German name, because it took three and a half years for the patent to issue -- No. 1,498,517 on June 17, 1924. 

PICTURE 4 nail nick 1,571,886

  Remington’s next knife patent was No. 1,571,886 of February 2, 1926. The inventor was Samuel A. North of Bridgeport, whom I’ve never heard of in any other context. And I’ve never seen his invention, either -- which is too bad, because it’s a clever idea. It would have been technically challenging in 1926, but it should be easier now. His idea was to stamp the nail nick in a blade as a cartouche, with the company name incorporated into the stamp. 

PICTURE 5 can opener 1,635,649

  Next up was Tillmanns again, this time with an invention known to every scout knife collector nowadays, and written up in these pages by Mr. Dennis Ellingsen. This is the two-piece can opener blade of July 12, 1927, No. 1,635,649. It is both much stronger and more efficient than the previous one-piece styles (even than the strange English patent can opener of 1912 that we saw last month). 

PICTURE 6 corkscrew 1,701,467
PICTURE 7 OPTIONAL open

  Followed by Tillmanns once more, February 5, 1929, No. 1,701,467. Now he’d invented a pivoting-folding arrangement that allowed a very long corkscrew to be built into the back of an ordinary sized multi-blade knife. It was used on Remington’s most expensive gentleman’s champagne pattern folders (which are not bartender knives!). 

PICTURE 8 clip 1,704,514

  Next was not a knife, but a nearly invisible spring clip for use on cutlery display boards. Invented by William H. Ramsey of Ilion New York, No. 1,704,514, patented March 5, 1929. 

PICTURE 9 shield 1,839,653

  John B. Curtis of Nichols, Conn., invented a novel method of installing shields, to insure a precise fit without special tooling -- in theory. It would only work in thermoplastic handle materials (such as PyREMite) that can flow under high pressure. No. 1,839,653 of January 5, 1932. 
  The recess for the shield is made smaller than the shield, but deeper than the shield is thick, and of any regular shape. The shield has a single tapering pin extending from the middle of the back. The shield is pressed into the opening, the extra material being forced under it, until the shield is flush, when the rivet is then set against the inside of the liner. 
  Did it really work? More to the point, did Remington actually use this method? I don’t know. Do you? 

PICTURE 10 carton cutter 1,843,535 [OK TO USE JUST THE KNIFE]

  Remington’s next invention did work, and I’ve seen several examples. It was a high-tech box cutter, offered in response to the growing use of corrugated cardboard shipping cartons, in lieu of wooden boxes. Patented by Frank Arnold of Bridgeport, February 2, 1932,  No. 1,843,535. 

PICTURE 11 forged handle 1,843,584

  Carl Tillmanns got a new patent that same day, No. 1,843,584. It had been a long wait, seven and a half years since he’d applied, in July 1924. He’d invented a completely new way of making liners and bolsters. The liner began as a piece of wire -- any metal. The bolsters began as two cups that fit over the ends of the wire -- same metal, or different. Then this ‘dumbbell’ was pressed into a knife handle. 
  Did Remington, or anyone else, ever use this method? I don’t know. But maybe you have seen a Remington R100 Dollar Knife. Those junior stock knives have a one-piece integral frame, forged and folded from nickel silver. Some, not all, are marked on the closed back: PAT. APPLD. FOR. They do seem to date from the long time period when this patent application was languishing. Connection? Maybe...

PICTURE 12 serration 1,911,974

  William G. Shelton of Bridgeport invented a new way of serrating blades, both knives and sickles. No. 1,911,974 of May 30, 1933. Remington bought it, but did they use it? All the serrated Remington knives I have seen, mainly “Moby Dick” bread knives, used the popular Burns edge under license (Joseph Burns of Syracuse, N.Y., No. 1,388,547, August 23, 1921). 

PICTURE 13 Moby Dick d0102,745

  However the shape of the Moby Dick knife was protected for Remington by a design patent. Des. 102,745 of January 19, 1937. Designed by Pierre H. Boucheron of Riverside, Conn. 

PICTURE 14 paring d0102,746

  Monsieur Boucheron also designed Moby’s companion paring knife. Des. 102,746 of the same date. 

PICTURE 15 plastic handle 2,072,581

  On March 2, 1937, John Curtis got another patent relating to plastic handles, this one (No. 2,072,581) for kitchen knives with Bakelite (phenolic) handles. The challenge: molding Bakelite handles onto the tangs of blades led to uneven cooling and curing of the plastic, thus to brittleness and frequent breakage. His solution was to mold a precise pocket into the end of the handle, then snap in the tang after the plastic had cured. 
  Did Remington ever do it this way. I don’t think so. Their line of brown plastic handled household kitchen cutlery shows no sign of it, and no patent markings either. 

PICTURE 16 fish (Western States)
KIM: I CAN SEND A SMALL HORIZONTAL PIC OF THIS IF NEEDED.

  However Western States does seem to have taken inspiration from Curtis’s idea. Circa 1940 they introduced a line of plastic handled cutlery with the handles cooled and finished before assembly. They got around Curtis’s 1937 patent, by using their own 1934 patent for a split tang, barbing the ends of the tang so the blade could not pull out. See pages 137, 144-45 of The Knife Makers Who Went West. Nearby is a photo of a No. 992 fish knife from that line. 

PICTURE 17 skew blade 2,102,930

  On December 21, 1937, Thomas E. Wharton of Fairfield, Conn., received Pat. No. 2,102,930 for a new pocketknife blade shape -- essentially a skew chisel. He described it as a wood carving blade, for scraping and cutting. Did Remington ever make it? Not as far as I know. 

PICTURE 18 plated liner 2,195,846

  John R. Balder of Stratford, Conn., did not play with plastic, or wood. He played with non-ferrous metals. And he claimed to have devised a method of plating the liners of pocketknives with zinc and cadmium, so as to protect the carbon steel blades and springs from rust. He convinced the Patent Office, who granted him No. 2,195,846 on April 2, 1940. He convinced Remington to buy his patent, but I have seen no evidence that they used it. 

PICTURE 19 cleaver-knife d0113,026

  One more patent was assigned to Remington while it was still in the cutlery business. This was a design for a cleaver-knife, created by John Vassos of New Canaan, Conn. Des. 113,026, issued January 24, 1939. I have seen similar knives by other later companies, but never one by Remington. 

PICTURE 20 tickler 1,577,095
 
  One patent used by Remington was not assigned to the corporation upon issue. This was Frank Arnold’s incorporation of a fish-hook disgorger into the pointy head end of a tickler jack -- a feature later used by many other knife companies. No. 1,577,095 of March 16, 1926. 
  Some of Remington’s outside suppliers had knife patents of their own. A common example is the pull-ball switchblade (Remington Clipper) made by George Schrade Knife Co. of Bridgeport, protected by No. 2,098,678 of November 9, 1937, 
  And finally two patents assigned to Remington issued after the Cutlery Division had gone to Pal. Both were the inventions of Wilfred V. Mounts of Stratford, Conn. 
  No. 2,252,896 of August 19, 1941, purported to simplify the construction of plastic-handled pocketknives. Its twenty-two closely packed drawings seem to belie that simplicity. 
  No. 2,327,924 of August 24, 1943, taught a multi-part rivet for the handles of fixed blade knives, in only thirteen drawings. 

*	*	*

  As always I am happy to be corrected when I am wrong. Otherwise I would never learn anything. If you catch me in an error, please do me the favor of letting me know. Just be sure of your facts before you do. 
  Please send me an email to 

brlevine@ix.netcom.com

or mail paper correspondence to Whut Izzit, c/o Knife World, Box 3395, Knoxville TN 37927. Be sure to enclose either an email address, or a long self-addressed stamped envelope with your letter, and also a flatbed scan, photocopy, or photograph (taken on plain LIGHT GRAY or WHITE background please) of your knife. Do not write directly on the picture. Indicate the knife’s handle material and its length (length CLOSED if it is a folder). Make enlarged images of all markings and indicate where they appear. Because of the large backlog, it usually takes me at least six months to answer a letter to the column. 

*    *    *    *END*    *    *    *

KIM: I CAN EMAIL YOU SOME PICTURES and TEXT IF YOU NEED TO FILL MORE SPACE. LET ME KNOW HOW MUCH SPACE IS LEFT TO FILL. 

ALL THE REMINGTON PATENTS (most or all acquired by PAL)  

A. Utility Patents
x 1,498,517	06/17/24	CW Tillmans > Remington Arms - handled tool, locking punch blade in folder
x 1,571,886        02/02/26          Samuel A. North > Remington Arms - logo stamp as nail pull (assign to Rem)
x 1,635,649        07/12/27          Tillmanns - Remington 2 piece can opener
x 1,701,467	02/05/29	Tillmanns - Remington pivot to unfold corkscrew
x 1,704,514	03/05/29	Ramsey > Remington Arms - metal clip for display stand NOT A KNIFE
x 1,839,653	01/05/32	Curtis > Remington Arms - folder handle shield attachment
x 1,843,535	02/02/32	Frank Arnold > Remington Arms - carton knife
x 1,843,584	02/02/32	Carl W Tillmanns > Remington Arms - bolster scale methods
x 1,911,974	05/30/33	Wm G Shelton > Remington Arms - method of producing serrated edges
x 2,072,581	03/02/37	Curtis > Remington Arms - tang construction for fixed blades w molded handles
x 2,102,930	12/21/37	TE Wharton > Remington Arms - skew chisel scraping folder blade (tanto like)
x 2,195,846	04/02/40	John R Balder > Remington Arms - zinc & cadmium plating folder liners
x 2,252,896	08/19/41	Mounts > Remington Arms - plastic handle placement on folders
x 2,327,924	08/24/43	Mounts > Remington Arms - multipart rivet for fixed blade scales applic 8/24/40

B. Design Patents
x D102,745 	1/19/1937	Boucheron, Pierre H. of Riverside, CT
assigned to Remington Arms Corporation - Knife (Moby Dick Bread & Paring Knife)
x D102,746 	1/19/1937	Boucheron, Pierre H. of Riverside, CT
assigned to Remington Arms Corporation - Paring Knife (Streamline)
x D113,026       1/24/1939      Vassos, John of New Canaan, CT assigned to Remington Arms Corporation - Cleaver Knife
 
C. Patents licensed to Remington, or used on cutlery made for Remington
x 1,388,547        08/23/21   Joseph E Burns, Syracuse NY - small angled serrations, licensed to x Remington for Moby Dick
x 1,577,095	03/16/26	Arnold - fish hook disgorger in tickler handle(licensed to Remington)
x 2,098,678       11/09/37           G Schrade -  pull ball - used on Remington clipper