Vintage X-Acto, Exactly, Exclusively!

[Private Lugnutz]

I picked up this vintage X-Acto set at my flea market this morning.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I could tell by the fingerboard cornered box and the look of the logo that it was vintage. How vintage, I wasn't sure, although I was guessing 1940's or 1950’s. So I started doing some research. The first thing I ran into were some interesting articles.

This bit, from a March 11, 2014 article in the Smithsonian Magazine, sums up what we all pretty much know best!

“The X-Acto knife can be found on the desks of architects, artists, designers, photographers, model makers, and ransom note writers everywhere. They're the ubiquitous gold standard in precision cutting, the Kleenex of utility knives.“

Read the full article here.

A February 25, 2014 article in Architect magazine, linked here, is also very good, including some early company marketing graphics.

According to both articles, X-Acto was founded in 1917 by a Polish immigrant named Sundel Doniger, and the company strictly made surgical knives until “the mid-1930’s” when they accidentally hit on the idea of a handle and removable blades with a variety of uses. That’s more detail than the company history on their own website, linked here, provides, but still not much.

So I did some more digging.

I found their trademark certificate (for the term “X-ACTO”) at USPTO. It was applied for on November 12, 1942 and registered (#401,167) on April 27, 1943. In the application they say that the trademark has been in use on products and packaging “since January 1936.” The earliest ads I can find are from 1941 (Popular Mechanics, Boy’s Life, various newspapers).

The full name of the company, according to the TM paperwork and the ads, is X-Acto Crescent Products Company, Incorporated, and they were located at 440 Fourth Avenue, New York, NY.

Here is an ad from a 1945 Popular Mechanics that is fun to read and also very helpful. I am pretty sure my set is the set shown in the ads. The box, logo, retaining clip (“LIFT UP” and “CLOSE WITH CARE”), and contents are identical.

My set is not marked with a set number, but based on ads, I think it’s a No. 83, called a “Deluxe chest with extra blades.”

I am missing a 1 of the 3 handles and a No. 10 blade (“for small fine whittling”).

The set has two (2) handles, and blades Nos. 11, 16, 19, 22, 23X, 24, and 25.

The extra blades are in NOS waxed paper inside those blue NOS boxes. Five (5) No. 11’s, and two (2) No. 26’s. I think I may open that box to put one blade in its proper slot next to the others.

 

[four.cycle]

My original set, received as a gift Christmas 1966, is the one in the background and looks quite similar to yours, but I think your decal has faded from UV light. Mine's always been stored inside a cabinet out of direct sunlight.

The set in the foreground belonged to my late step-father, and I believe it's reasonable to assume it's most likely 1970's vintage. The box is just a bit different, and the latch is different. It also contains the large red plastic handle as opposed to the large aluminum handle in the earlier set.

The small blue-and-white paper wrappers those extra blades are packed inside of in your photos above causes me to believe your set pre-dates my early set. When I was buying spare blades from J.K. Gill Co. in the mid-1960s they were packaged in a printed paper sleeve similar to yours, but with completely different graphics, and the sleeve was inside a molded plastic sleeve.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

If you have vintage (older than modern/current/contemporary, anything through, say, the 70's or so) X-Acto box sets, please post the boxes, sets and contents. And if you have any X-Acto marketing material or catalogs, please post those.

Now that we have a fairly good historical handle on their beginning, and an example of what appears to be a very early set, I would like to see if we can back our way empirically, through other examples and inference, and catalogs or ads if we can find more, into a timeline of products and logos.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

HAHA! You beat me to the next punch, 4.c!

I edited because you went back and provided all the answers to my questions!

THANKS

 

[Macduf]

Ok I've got an old set, interesting that the blades are marked cresent usa. Any idea on age?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The full name of the company, according to the TM paperwork and the vintage ads I have found, is X-Acto Crescent Products Company, Incorporated. Also on your box. I suspect that's the 'Crescent' you're seeing.

As for age, I don't think we have enough data points to determine that yet, although I would say perhaps close to mine based on the blue and white cardboard box.

 

[Stuart in MN]

My original set, received as a gift Christmas 1966

I got my set sometime in the early 1970s; I think the box is identical in construction to yours. I'll have to go down to the basement tomorrow morning and take a look.

 

[Jim C.]

This set belonged to my grandfather.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

"Never a dull moment with X-Acto!" Love it.

Thanks for posting, Jim. It's beyond cool that it was your grandfather's and that it has the original paperwork. As a testament to the tidiness of that generation, it looks like he used the chest for an original No. 83 Deluxe set as a home for some of the other X-Acto products he purchased and used over the years, which is even neater.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I snagged this X-Acto "Lock GriPLier" at the flea market this morning. Never knew they existed until I pulled it out of the bottom of a junk box. The patent (2,766,646, Floyd A. Marble), granted in 1956, was not assigned to any business entity, so I am not sure how X-Acto got involved with it, but they got involved early, as the earliest ads I can find in trade mags (all Snippet-Only views for now, un-lock requests submitted to Google Books team) are 1958.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The handle operates like any plier with that locking mechanism at the top (show on the bottom in this series of upside down pics, less glare...) in the rear position. When you click that forward (see Pic 3), it disengages the handle and locks the jaws in place.

I love everything about it - and maybe especially the pistol grip style!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

One more photo with my 1940's No. 83 kit!

 

[HeelSpur]

That's awesome but I wouldn't exactly carry it around these days, to pistol-like looking.

 

[four.cycle]

I'm not sure if I am interpreting the photos correctly. Is that gizmo like a little hand vise?

BK

 

[Private Lugnutz]

That's awesome but I wouldn't exactly carry it around these days, to pistol-like looking.

Haha.

Is that gizmo like a little hand vise?

I would say more like a miniature locking plier-wrench (e.g., Vise-Grip). I like the "Third Hand" marketing.

 

[four.cycle]

I like it. I want one.

Where do I order it from?

 

[c1504]

My grandpa was an architectural draftsman. These are a couple drawings he did when he was in school.

 

[JoCoSawdust]

Very cool thread! I'm afraid mine is in a plastic case with a crappy plastic insert. The old one's put it to shame (as is always the case).

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Very cool thread!

Thanks, JoCo.

My grandpa was an architectural draftsman. These are a couple drawings he did when he was in school.

Thanks for sharing those, c1504! Very cool. It's neat looking at the drawings and then at the ads.

My dad was a draftsman for Lehigh Structural Steel company. As kids in the 60's and 70's he'd always point out his high-tension wire towers when we were driving somewhere and we'd see so many that I can still recognize some of them today when I am out on the road.

 

[driftpin]

Thanks, JoCo.
Thanks for sharing those, c1504! Very cool. It's neat looking at the drawings and then at the ads.

My dad was a draftsman for Lehigh Structural Steel company. As kids in the 60's and 70's he'd always point out his high-tension wire towers when we were driving somewhere and we'd see so many that I can still recognize some of them today when I am out on the road.

When I was a kid, living in western NYS, during the 1950's/'60's, and we drove or took a train to visit NYC or Chicago relatives, I was always interested in the "mansters" that walked-across the countryside, carrying electricity. I would always cry-out, "look, mommy, mansters!"

I bought my first X-Acto tools probably 1962, from Auto World in PA, to work on my slot cars. I bought the slim metal knife and the red plastic handle, and a toothed blade with a 'back.' It was for for the red plastic handle. I still have both. No wood box. The story of Auto World itself is an interesting one. Oscar Kovaleski started the business and ran it out of his kitchen. It grew to be tremendously-successful, I still have slot car stuff I bought through them. Kovaleski was like a Polish Smokey Yunick, running his own team in Can-Am racing, evidently, catering to all the customers (like me as a teenager) was very-lucrative.

I like the wood boxes and the original products from X-Acto because I've been using their products for nearly 60 years. Here's a pic of Kovaleski with his race-face on (and his hat), in Can-Am. Pay-attention to the paint-job and tell me what you see. He knew where the $$$$ came-from.

 

[RTM]

Slot car tracks for the stripes. Nice touch. My dad had a vintage box, think my brother ended up with it.

 

[Bob Joyce]

I found this yesterday while going through some of my Dad's old things.
I believe it may be the same or close to the first one posted (though not nearly in as good of shape). The knives are not original, but the brown handled one is pretty old.

A side note the comments about Oscar K's car. He got in trouble with the SCCA for that car. Seems there was a limit to advertising space...he just told them they were racing stripes and got away with it. He died this past Dec 31st. I've got the Car Model article of how to build a model of that car.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Nothing special, but if only to bump the thread, I found a vintage handle at the flea this morning. Plastic, looking 50's to me, with the first generation logo.

 

[rustyzman]

Here are some that I have. Mixed sets, pieces collected over many years.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here are some that I have. Mixed sets, pieces collected over many years.

Nice collection! More importantly, very helpful to the discussion and continuing study of X-acto as collectibles, whether you realized it or not.

Let's start with the decal on your No. 83 set box ("Deluxe fitted wooden chest") compared to the decal on my No. 83 box. Yours is slightly different, including the text (which is not connected script). Yours has a "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." marking between the little X-man mascot's legs, mine doesn't. That TM was registered with the USPTO in 1943. It wouldn't have appeared before then, so your box is 1943 or later. I had previously dated mine to the 40's based on the 1945 Pop Mech ad, but now I know that it's from the late 1930's, when they first started marketing these, to no later than 1942.

Note that your set is also a little different. At some point they replaced the hinged metal retainer for the extra blades in the lid with that nifty fitted plastic retainer. And they replaced the fat hexagonal steel handle with a narrower maroon composite handle. When, exactly, remains an open question.

That long skinny wooden box with the single fat metal hexagonal handled tool in it is older, probably the same age as my No. 83 set. Because of the tool and the decal does NOT have the "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." marking.

 

[rustyzman]

I did not notice that on the labels, interesting... and glad it could help a bit in the research. The cardboard boxes for the extra blades in mine are also full color and appear to be a newer design. I like the older look of yours, very art deco.

I noticed that the large aluminum handled unit in the long thin box does not have the name on it ( I will have to look closer and see if I missed it) and also has straight knurling on the clamping nut, whereas the other one is labeled and has diamond knurling. I always liked that long thin box, it just seemed neat.

 

[Packard V8]

I am missing a 1 of the 3 handles and a No. 10 blade (“for small fine whittling”).

I believe I have your medium handle (there are two variations of logo and one without any logo) and possible a #10 blade, but later blades are not stamped with the number.

PM me and you can have them for postage.

jack vines

 

[senlow]

Here is my vintage X-acto knife.

 

[RTM]

Im going “dang that’s an odd shape, weird ergo grip” until I got to pic three. Nice item there.

 

[rustyzman]

Here is my vintage X-acto knife.

Wow... That is cool. Never saw one of those before.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Wow! We're supposed to be seeing an RAF Spitfire, right? That is too cool. I want to find one!

 

[steaks&anvils]

Wow! We're supposed to be seeing an RAF Spitfire, right? That is too cool. I want to find one!

Lots of them on ebay. you just missed this listing, the dude had 29 of them!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I meant in the wild, but it's good to know they aren't unicorn rare! That doesn't answer my question, though. Am I the only one seeing a Spitfire in the profile? Or is it so obvious that nobody bothered to say it?

 

[steaks&anvils]

I meant in the wild, but it's good to know they aren't unicorn rare! That doesn't answer my question, though. Am I the only one seeing a Spitfire in the profile? Or is it so obvious that nobody bothered to say it?

I knew you prefer to bag one on the wing. I was just messing with you. Yes, not unicorns, but if so common, you would have one already.

Yes, we all saw the airplane profile. BUT only after we saw the box! At first I kept thinking it was ergonomically shaped or that they had the blade in upside down... RTM made a small comment just two posts up.

 

[four.cycle]

Only one currently listed on Ebay is $41.00, which is ridiculous.
The unit does require what appears to be an oddball blade, and I doubt they're 25 cents for a package of 5 any more.
I'll let you know if I see something at a reasonable price.
BK

 

[RTM]

Here is an ad from 1946 in PopSci

Popular Science

Popular Science gives our readers the information and tools to improve their technology and their world. The core belief that Popular Science and our readers share: The future is going to be better, and science and technology are the driving forces that will help make it better.

books.google.com

 

[steaks&anvils]

Only one currently listed on Ebay is $41.00, which is ridiculous.
The unit does require what appears to be an oddball blade, and I doubt they're 25 cents for a package of 5 any more.
I'll let you know if I see something at a reasonable price.
BK

Since the ebay listing I posted shows delivery a few days from now, I suspect that there may be a few more listed for sale soon!

New blades do seem like they would be a problem.

Crazy is that the knife has ALL the modern features: ergonomic handle, double sided blades, safely held blades, storage for blades, easy open to change blades.

 

[four.cycle]

excellent find. first full-page ad I've seen for X-acto.



June 1946

 

[Provincial]

The two-edged blades may be more available than you think. I remember owning an inexpensive version with a simple stamped-steel handle in the late 1960's. It had a rivet that the two halves of the handle pivoted around to "scissor" open for changing the blades. The blade had one "edge" with two ends. It was anchored by a tang that was attached (welded) to one of the handle halves. I think it may have used the same blades as the Spitfire knife.