Imperial Kamp - King

[Piedmont Plinker]

I like the Stones. And Skynyrd. And The Eagles. And the Allman Brothers.
Its true, my new woods bumming combo is a Mora, Swedish Army Issue, and a Vic Electrician Plus(Those are the basics, and I vary them)
My Electrician Plus is similar to a Kamp-King. Instead of a can opener, which I never have used, and probably never will use, as I carry a P-52, it has a wharncliffe with a wire stripper, and it also has the saw.

 

[grampster]

Ha! 1959. Young whippersnaper. Back in my day in the '40's we had to actually kill the deer for the bone used on the side of that Kamp King. Had to find certain plants to make the dye to stain that bone black. You bought the knife bare and you had to use it to whittle you up a proper bone handle. Didn't have none of that fancy glue you got nowadays. We had to make the rivets, too, back when you whippersnapper's daddy wore short pants.

I think I dropped one on a gals foot. But I got a date anyway.

 

[springmom]

In 1959 I turned five, so you, Steve, are the young whippersnapper.

My dad, my grampaw, had knives that I was always fascinated with. Dad's had a lot of gizmos and geegaws, though I don't recall that his had a can opener. But he worked for the phone company, and a pocket knife wasn't an accessory, it was a necessity, working with the equipment in the switching room.

My oldest son was, oh, about ten, when Great Aunt Florence brought out a tiny little pocket knife that had belonged to her father, and gave it to him. His eyes got about the size of dinner plates. I've no idea who made it, although it came from Ireland (as did great grandfather).

Have no idea where it is now. I hope he still has it somewhere.

Springmom

 

[Valkman]

In '59 I was also 4 but don't remember anything until the next year when a sister came along - for some reason I remember bringing her home. I think that was around the same time (might have been a couple of years later) that my Dad left the station wagon running with me in it and went into the house. He left the driver door open and I yanked the shifter into reverse, causing the car to roll back and his door to cram against the side of the garage door. Ah, fond memories.

 

[sixgunner455]

Valkman, I was about the same age the day that my older sister and I got to playing "family drive" and I, being the boy and therefore the daddy, took the driver's seat. Pulled the little VW out of gear, and we rolled slowly backwards across the street and through the grade school fence. My sister was yanking on that lever I'd moved the whole time, trying to get it to go back where I'd moved it from -- she was bright enough to know that the car would probably stop if it was in that spot again.

My father was not best pleased. I think I still have some memory loss from that day...

 

[sm]

Hot diggety-dawg!

I got a old woman to reply to this thread!

Ya'll tell Jan I went that-a-way...
In the the meantime I am running this-a-way...

*neener*

 

[ArfinGreebly]

1959

In 1959 I was the nine-year-old "kid with the funny accent" who had just moved from Alabama to Northern California.

I never did really fit in.

In 1969 I was in England at RAF Croughton.

I didn't fit in there, either.

In 1979 I was in Copenhagen, Denmark, doing volunteer work.

Amazingly, I didn't fit in. I know, you're shocked.

In 1989 I was in Las Vegas, running my own business, doing custom software and other geek stuff.

It didn't matter whether I fit in, 'cuz I was the boss. Sort of.

In 1999 I was writing data warehouse code for big important companies at the behest of other people who wanted to be big and important. Everyone else involved got rich or famous. I just got the code written.

You won't believe this, but I didn't fit in there, either.

In 2009 I was working on rebuilding my private practice while working for other people who wanted to be rich and famous.

I have no desire to fit in. Not any more.

I've found very few folks over the years with whom "fitting in" would be worthwhile.

Now, if my grandfather, gone these 45 years, could see that I have preserved some of what was important to him, that would please me.

He bought me my first knife. I didn't get it until I was sixteen, but he bought it from America's first pocket knife company, Holley Knives. Probably before I was born.

I got my first Imperial from my Dad. November 1, 1961, the day I turned twelve.

Still have it. That knife is 47 years old.

Remember all those places overseas where I didn't fit in? That knife was there with me.

That's quite a bit of road together.

Done a lot of stupid things in my life. Every so often, though, I get one right.

Keeping faith with my dad's gift is one of them.

Chasing the newest, coolest, "cutting edge" stuff, while forgetting the older, reliable, traditional ways . . . file that one under stupid.

Every so often, though, someone illuminates the things of value and changes the way I look at things.

Thank you, Steve.

 

[hso]

I have an old BSA Imperial in the collection somewhere.
Great old knife, but any SAK has a better can opener on it than that old style on the folding knives of that era.

Back when "stainless" meant only one option on rust resistant blade steel, there's no question that a good tool steel blade was superior in every way except in retaining a bright shiny finish. These days, not so much, but then we are talking about older pocket knives and not discussing modern folders.

Minor nit -
As to

Some of the ladies preferred this to the Switchblade, which again was designed for ladies originally.

, well, yes and no. I'm sure that a good multifunction folder appealed to most folks that wanted more capability than a pen knife, but switchblades were not "designed for ladies originally". There were certainly switchblades that were designed for women and marketed to women (focusing on not breaking nails with the nail nick in most folders) during the 40's and 50's, but it is inaccurate to say that switchblades were designed for ladies originally when the vast majority of switchblades over the better than a hundred and fifty years of their existence were designed for every use a folder could be put to.

 

[Shadcat]

1959

Argh! That was the year I reported to Fort Knox, KY, for Army basic training. Among items I brought with me were an Imperial Kamp King that I had purchased at the age of 12 and was my sole pocket knife for 15 years until impulsively giving it to a girl friend about to leave town. When, 30 years later, we happened to meet again, I asked her what had become of the knife, she replied that a few days after her departure it had been lost.

Although, bladewise, I had moved on, a friend who regularly scours yard sales for eBay-worthy items, picked up a really nice condition Kamp King among a box of assorted cheapie folders, and remembering my fondness for the marque, sold it to me for a dollar, what I had paid for my original when it was new. Even now the KK resides in my pocket (dummy corded, of course ) as I type these words, a coincidence because it usually rides in my car glove box which I had just cleaned out to transfer its contents elsewhere.

I found this site while doing an internet search (unsuccessful) for the dates of production. This is my first post, so Hello, all.

 

[moxie]

I was lucky enough to attend summer camp on Cape Cod in 1956 and 1957. One of our favorite pastimes was "jacknife" which was a type of mumbledy-peg game. We played for hours. We used the awl, not the blade. Our elbows, wrists, knees and foreheads had callouses or scars at the end of the summer from the awl tip. Opinion was divided on whether the official BSA knife or the Imperial Kamp-King was the better knife. I had the BSA and loved it. At the end of each summer the camp director held a "jacknife" tournament and awarded a new Kamp-King to the winner. I came in 3rd once, then second, but didn't win. Great memories. Thanks.