Pine Tree Casting Knife Blade

[8pointer]

This weekend I picked up a knife blade made by Pine Tree Casting Co.  Pine Tree Casting was a subsidiary of Sturm, Ruger, & Co. and later became a division of the company.  As the name suggests, they did investment casting for many of Ruger's firearm parts.  In 1966, they cast 20 sample knife blades.  Dougan has a brief write up about these blades on page 330 of his last book.  He indicates that the project was scrapped because of technical problems.  I picked up the blade from a former collector here in Richmond, VA, who tells me that he obtained it years ago from Don Findley.  I am having trouble with PhotoBucket, but hope to post a picture soon.  I also picked up a Callaway "Great Big Bertha" golf club driver that is stamped Ruger Titanium. Don't know the history behind that one, but I am sure someone on the forum can enlighten me. I plan on incorporating both into my Harrisburg display . Anyone have any Ruger golf balls?

 

[BlkHawk73]

I foolishly missed a great deal on one of those unfinished knives. Stupid me. The golf heads (they don't make the whole club) were simply a contracted thing for Callaway I believe. There's a few different ones I know. The balls...there's the current ones (I have these) and some earlier ones I have located just gotta get the current owner to let some go.

 

[radicalrod]

Jerry, I have some RUGER GOLF BALLS somewhere in the PILE.....RR.

 

[8pointer]

Jerry, I have some RUGER GOLF BALLS somewhere in the PILE.....RR.

If your willing to let go of a couple, let me know. I'm sure you are bringing lots of good stuff to sell me in Harrisburg anyway...heck you might even recognize a gun or TWO in my dispay.

 

[circlergrugers]

I believe there are some golf balls on shopruger.com now.

 

[golferboy426]

my dad got some of those knives He had about a half dozen or so. Still have a few kicking around. Ruger made club heads with just their name also. At least 4 different styles plus the made one for Ram golf too IIRC

 

[chet15]

The technical problems with the knife blades is that some of them were made out of alloy that included Beryllium Copper. When polishing them they gave off a poisonous gas. I'm not sure about the 20 figure though. Would seem there would have been quite a few more made originally. I have one that is unfinished. I think they made some out of 4140 chrome moly also.
On the golf heads, Callaway had a contract through Ruger to produce the Great Big Bertha. A bunch were made and then the deal fell through, not sure what happened. But Ruger's casting facility also made golf heads for at least one or two other companies as well.
Chet15

 

[8pointer]

The technical problems with the knife blades is that some of them were made out of alloy that included Beryllium Copper. When polishing them they gave off a poisonous gas. I'm not sure about the 20 figure though. Would seem there would have been quite a few more made originally. I have one that is unfinished. I think they made some out of 4140 chrome moly also.
On the golf heads, Callaway had a contract through Ruger to produce the Great Big Bertha. A bunch were made and then the deal fell through, not sure what happened. But Ruger's casting facility also made golf heads for at least one or two other companies as well.
Chet15

Thanks for the update Chad. The 20 figure on the blades came from the information in Dougan's book. The blade I have is also unfinished. Still can't get PhotoBucket to work. Do you know how many Callawy club heads were made?

 

[Danjet500]

The technical problems with the knife blades is that some of them were made out of alloy that included Beryllium Copper. When polishing them they gave off a poisonous gas. Chet15

Beryllium copper (and other alloys that contain beryllium) can be hazardous when ground, polished, welded or melted. The fumes aren't poisonous in that they will kill you instantly but can cause a serious lung disease if it is inhaled and you happen to be sensitive to beryllium. Chronic beryllium disease or CBD can be fatal but you will not die instantly if you happened to breath some fumes or dust containing beryllium. However, it could cause chronic lung issues. Proper respiratory protection is required whenever dusts or fumes containing Be are created. The hazards and liability are probably the reasons why the product was discontinued.

 

[radicalrod]

CBD is not a good way to go....my Dads good friend fought it for a long time....losing the battle several years ago.....RR.

 

[RPM Enterprises]

I think in a past calendar I did I featured the knife blades in question. If I recall Jim Hoobler was envolved in that project. Ruger told them to scrap the project and trash the knives. Well I think about 75 made it out of the factory in various stages. I think the old man seen a couple at a gun show and discovered that they were not destroyed and was not very happy about it.
The golf clubs... well that is a long story. Frank Bonaventura was in charge of that project. It started with Callaway contracting/ordering heads for the clubs. Frank later went to work for Callaway and later returned back to Ruger. The golf heads seem to follow him. I have several proto type and exsperimental heads made by Ruger. I did a display on golf one year to fill an empty table one year that had some of the stuff I have. Didn't have time to dig it all out it was a last second made display.

 

[chet15]

When the "Great Big Bertha" golf heads hit the marketplace, they were all the rage. So I would bet there were probably several thousand made in different degrees of lift. Seems they were around about a year and then the next greatest thing in golf heads came out.
Chet15

 

[RPM Enterprises]

Ruger made heads for Zevo and Callaway. I think there may have been a couple more..... The early Callaways actually said "RUGER TITAINIUM". Callaway later asked ruger not to put the Ruger name on the club. From what I understand those heads are more scarce. I beleive later the two seperated.

 

[cplane]

I would love to see a pic of a cast ruger blade! That sounds interesting!

 

[8pointer]

Wow, I had no idea that there were so many Ruger golf related items What, no golf cart? The club I picked up does say Ruger Titanium. He also had a ladies driver that I might go back and pick up. Heck, and I don't even play golf. :shock:

 

[8pointer]

I would love to see a pic of a cast ruger blade! That sounds interesting!

I can email a pic if someone doesn't mind posting it for me. I can't get photobucket to run on my computer any more.

 

[cplane]

Send it my way and i will post with flckr! [email protected]

 

[cplane]

Here we go! Thanks for sharing the picture! Looks like it would be easy to install a handle on!

Ruger cast blade by seaplane1, on Flickr