X-Acto: The perfect knife brand to cut letters out of magazines for your ransom notes. IN ANY DECADE.

I think the “Help Uncle Sam” aspect of this 1944 ad for X-Acto knives is a bit tenuous, and one not helped at all by the primitive, cave-painting-level artwork. (It’s like something out of a Revolutionary era political cartoon. DON’T TREAD ON ME.) Not sure that building plane models was really going to be the tipping point against the Axis or any other future foes. Kid, buy a Victory Bond if you’re that concerned about Hitler and Tojo. Leave Mustache Dad to his pipe and evening newspaper.

And make sure to use the knives for wholesome, painstaking model work, and not for stocking your own private torture porn studio.