Originally Posted by
mauve
Could be personal knife the TSA screener got from a CBP officer, or something like a DHS gift shop if that exists.
Or maybe the bag was screened by both TSA and CBP.
I'm sill a little skeptical that's a GI knife, though.
Don't know what this indicates, but I found the make and model of the knife. It's a Smith and Wesson First Response Liner Lock. Retails for under $20 online.
I have a similar knife, a S&W CK5 Extreme Ops, but I find it underwhelming. It's better than most sub-$20 knives, but not in the same ballpark as my $60-$80 Benchmade or Kershaw or Buck folders. It's heavy and uncomfortable in the hand, I only bought it because it's unusual looking. I suspect that the First Response is much the same; it looks like it's made from the same materials, and it's in the same price range.
I can't imagine CBP issuing a sub-$20 knife to their officers, but I could see one of them perhaps getting his personal knife engraved with the CBP logo and later lending, trading, or selling it to a TSO. CBP might also have had a batch of these made up as a giveaway for job fairs, like convention swag. <redacted by moderator>.