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Old 04-02-2015, 05:55 AM
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samg samg is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Matthews NC
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Thanks Jack for putting this "fontology" together in such an organized, easy way to understand. Great job with the pictures and illustrations!

Yes, all the photos that I have sifted through, the numbers 7,3,2, and especially 1 have held my attention.

The number 1 stamp has been interesting because both Heiser-HKL and Johnson number 1 stamp exhibit a serif. Heiser-HKL number 1 serif angles down, while the Johnson 1 serif is a right angle, straight out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jacknola
numbers on the sheath at bottom right seem match no other Heiser sheath I've seen. Those fonts are different from the most common Heiser ones, and they seem to be close to the fonts used by Johnson. Confusing?


That Heiser with the non serif number stamp is interesting. We do know however that it is a Heiser because of the Heiser logo. This would only lend to a discussion that Heiser-HKL may have made many of the east facing RMK stamped sheaths as well. We know that didn't happen.

Jack, I agree with


Quote:
Originally Posted by jacknola
in order for Johnson to have made those sheaths he would have to have done all of the following:

Started making a lot of sheaths in 1959-60; used the west and horizontal stamps with a particular number font; consturcted his sheaths with the center placed keeper; used a distinctive stiching into the butterfly on the back of the sheath; made a bunch of canteen snap sheaths; etc....

AND then SUDDENLY he had to have changed everything. He begain not using model numbers and then when he resumed adding them, he changed the font from what he had previously used; he changed the keeper strap location; changed the orientation of the stamp on the back of the sheath; suddenly introduced the tack rivet instead of the canteen snap, etc.


I see that as an unnatural progression also, and to claim that it is the way Johnson evolved, to the eventually east facing stamp and non serif number stamps? Changing number stamp styles? Logic?

A simple, easy way to understand it for myself, based on evidence thus far is that:

Heiser and Heiser-HKL used serif number stamps, Johnson used non serif number stamps.
We have provenance with knife/sheath marriages in 1960 (pre-Johnson) that display horizontal and west facing RMK stamps with serif numbers.
Evidence points strongly to Heiser-HKL made.

The case is not closed, the research goes on, but new evidence may be hard to come by, especially to debunk the observations, but I will be searching for the knife sheaths that fit our observations, and in all fairness, if there are non serif sheaths that are documented 1960, I would love to see them too.

Jack, thanks again for the clear, concise observations that you are adding to this thread.

Sam

Last edited by samg; 04-02-2015 at 10:22 PM.
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