Ranger Branded Knife

[RackinRay]

A co-worker, knowing of my love for knives, asked me to sharpen an old knife that he inherited from his grandfather and recently decided to carry and use.

He brought it in today and at first glance I thought it was an old Case Stockman. It was only branded "Ranger", and since I never remembered hearing of the company I put on my Google-fu!

Seems Ranger was a brand made by Colonial Knife Company, an USA family owned company. I read on, and the company is still in business:
http://www.colonialknifecorp.com/

Turns out they also made the "Ranger Barlow" two blade knife I bet many of us owned or longed for as a kid! I believe I saw that knife in every hardware and knife shop I ever went into in the south. The one he has was one of their bestselling models from the 1960's. Here is a web pic of the Stockman and the Barlow:





They have several items on their site listed by NSN (National Stock Number) for the non-military folks on the board.
I cleaned it to the best of my capacity and gave it a quick sharpening. It is good carbon steel and took a nice edge. A neat old piece of Americana!

 

[TraderDan]

I have run across tons of colonial knives on my get abouts, all decent entry level knives, but not very high on the collector scale. They made a lot of the pen knives (gentlemen pocket) and had good steel blades.Seems like they kept the cost down by using plastic scales (handles)

 

[RackinRay]

Good high carbon steel blades. Some of the ones on the knife I tuned up sharpened scary sharp. This from a guy who expects a blade to shave hair!

 

[RidgeRunner]

remember the ones with Wilkerson steel on the blades, they were sharp