WWII - Vietnam - TL-29 Lineman’s Knife

[rcmodel]

Issued to Signal Corp linemen and some Infantrymen as part of the CS-34 leather, or CS-35-A cotton duck lineman’s pouch.
Used in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

Back in the day, field radios were heavy, unreliable, and batterys sometimes hard to get.
So the field telephone was the king of battlefield communications.
And that meant lots & lots of WD-1 twisted pair, steel strand reinforced Com wire.
Running hither, tither, and yon, everywhere!

Gosh I miss running those needle sharp steel strands in my fingers while trying to splice it!
And tripping over it in the dark!

The TL-29 knife has a 2 3/4" spear point non-locking blade, and a screwdriver / wire stripper blade that locks open with a liner-lock.

It has been made at various times by:
Camco, Camillus, Case, Cattaraugus, Colonial, Imperial, Ka-Bar, Kingston, Kutmaster, Pal, Remington, Robeson, Schrade, Ulster, & Utica.

Leather case is marked:
POUCH, CS-34
SIGNAL CORPS U.S. ARMY
Content include a TL-29 Lineman’s knife, and a pair of 6” TL-13-A wire pliers.








Vietnam era Camillus plastic handle TL-29
WWII era Kutmaster wood handle & blued blades TL-29



rc

 

[Brian Williams]

Here is my post Vietnam era TL set
sometime around 1977 USMC

 

[j1]

I have one of those with wooden handles.

 

[hso]

Liner Lock!

 

[Deltaboy1984]

I have got a few since I still do electrical work from time to time.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I've got a set-up that looks a lot like that except that it holds a cap crimper instead of lineman's pliers.

 

[19&41]

I remember working on 12-series radios with one. A needy lineman would get my sheath and pliers.

 

[ivankerley]

mine

a assembled set gifted to me...
wrong pliers
CS 34 Pouch
4 Line Camillus TL 29, steel liners and bolsters WW2 (thereabouts)
the screwdriver blade is such a bear to open i tell people thats why it comes with the pliers
regards
gene

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Some of mine still floating around. The ugliest Camillus is the one I used in the Army till I switched to a "Demo" knife in the SF demo course then upgraded further to a first generation Leatherman.
In the course of futzing in the shop today I found the majority of the folders that I moved through from basic to retirement. Interesting trip down memory lane, that.
2 Camlillus, a Case and a Holub. My old pliers are now a part of my Moto Guzzi tool kit now but to be honest I let them slide after borrowing a Legionnaire's French Army Engineer's pliers with a monster mechanical advantage to the side mounted cutters and parallel moving jaws.

 

[rcmodel]

Moto Guzzi?

My god man!
Will you never cease to amaze me!!

You need to retreave all those old GI knives out from under the greasy 50w Castrol shop towels and start your own knife history lession threads!

rc

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

They're slowly finding their way back from the darkness as I do our annual cleaning. A friend and I used to be fiends - pawn shop crawling whenever we were TDY to Bragg. Other folk would blow their ducats on the bars down Hay Street but we'd do the shops first back when things were sold outa bins and barrels.

As for the Guzzis - got four - and an obsession. I'll eventually have the El Dorado up when I get the beastie kitted for shooting and high-road eligible.