Vikki wrote in with a tough question. She has an older precision knife of some kind that she believes dates back to around the 1940’s, and she needs to find replacement blades for it.
I tried my best, but couldn’t find exact replacement blades. This could mean that I’m not looking in the right places, or that the blades have a proprietary interface.
Vikki writes:
The attached photo is of a small utility knife and 2 rusted replacement blades used by my Great Aunt as a Draftsman for Shell Oil in California back before, during or just after WWII.
It has “Crescent USA” printed on the larger blade, and the black plastic handle has a knurled screw knob to secure the replaceable blades, but all my online searches have found no replacement blades.
I am currently in Australia so am unable to search in person anywhere until next year when I return to the USA.
Perhaps you can help me identify the product more precisely or where such blades might be available, as I would like to use the tool in my activities (kind of as a tribute to my very creative Aunt).
The blades look almost like scalpel blades, except from the bottom. The image is from Ted Pella, an excellent microscopy and science tool company I have had the pleasure of ordering from before.
Vikki’s precision utility knife has open-bottomed blades, while modern scalpel blades have closed bottoms.
Here’s a closer look at the modern scalpel blade interface shape:
My search for open-bottomed scalpel blades turned up empty. It looks like the knife might work with modified scalpel blades, or maybe a similar but not identical type of blade.
What I’m afraid of is that the interface is dissimilar enough such that scalpel blades – as-is or modified – won’t work. If the precision knife is as old as Vikki believes it to be, and the interface is a non-standard proprietary one, it might be impossible to find new or like-new replacements blades.
Have you seen knife like the one shown above, and if so, where can Vikki find replacement blades for it?