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Permalink Reply by tim payne on May 26, 2015 at 19:36

goooood stuff manx, thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by John Bamford on May 27, 2015 at 2:38

Great thread this , I am learning an awful lot here .

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Permalink Reply by tim payne on May 27, 2015 at 19:15

drop bye anytime john, always glad to have you visit here

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Permalink Reply by Ken Hashimoto on May 29, 2015 at 6:15

The Seki Blackjacks were mostly made by Kinryu, the company that made most of the Seki SOG fixed bades until 2007 and and still make the Cold Steek SRK. Some of the fixed blades were also made by G.Sakai, The Blackjack folders were made by Seizo Imai, The owner of Kinryu, Harumi Suzuki passed away 3-4 years ago.

I can say this with certainty as I spent the day in Seki with Mr J. Iwahara, president of Kencrest Corp and  met Mr. Y.Sakai, President of G.Sakai, got a tour of the factory. I also met Mr Ichiro Hattori..

According to Mike..."Steve - The Marauder and Marauder-II and the Anaconda and Anaconda-II were made by Harumi Suzuki - Not by G.Sakai. Same for the Blackmore Dirks - Warner Moran Bowie and Wasp.  the Archangel was made by G. Sakai"

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Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on May 29, 2015 at 6:56

I believe we are talking about two different incarnations of Blackjack knives, Ken. If memory serves, Kencrest was Blackjack International knives, whereas I am speaking on the original brand.  

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 29, 2015 at 7:41

That begs for me to ask...Do we have a timeline of the evolution of the BlackJack company and owners??

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Permalink Reply by Ken Hashimoto on May 29, 2015 at 8:37

Not sure to what incarnations you refer Steve. Kencrest is not and has never been a knife manufacturer,

There are few if any contracts placed with Seki manufacturers without Kencrest's intervention,

Kencrest as well as the other companies took a loss when Blackjack went under,

Steve Scheuerman (Manx) said:

I believe we are talking about two different incarnations of Blackjack knives, Ken. If memory serves, Kencrest was Blackjack International knives, whereas I am speaking on the original brand.  

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 29, 2015 at 15:41

This is a brand that had always confused me some, maybe because it has moved around a bit and there have always been 2 companies

Brand	Blackjack (USA)	Owner/TM	Knifeware Inc.
Country, Place of Manufacture:  USA
Product notes:  Blackjack knives has a storied past. The current Trademark owner is Knifeware Inc. Before that it was owned by SMKW(Blue Ridge) who bought it from Knifeware Inc. USA made Blackjacks are made by Ken Warner and his team at Knifeware. Even when the TM was owned by SMKW, Warner was making the USA produced knives. The are made in limited numbers and are sought by collectors.

Brand	Blackjack, International	Owner/TM	Knifeware Inc.
Country, Place of Manufacture:  China, Pakistan
Product notes:  Blackjack International knives are most likely contracted through SMKW global factories. The quality will be similar to other globally produced SMKW brands such as Marbles, Colt, and BW Custom. . Price and value will be significantly less than Blackjack knives made in the USA.

Kind of why I was looking for a timeline.  This is what I know and it was located here who owns who

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Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on May 29, 2015 at 17:45

Ken...the information above was a private message sent to me by Mike Stewart, the founder of Blackjack Knives the same day I posted it here.

This was posted a few years back by Mike Stewart...the original owner of Blackjack Knives.

03-12-09 15:01.01  

The Trademark is now Owned by Blue Ridge knives and Smokey Mountain Knifeworks jointly.

I don't know the exact ownership percentage between the two Companies but they do have a lot of join holding.

Blackjack was Bought last year from Knifeware Inc.

Knifeware Owned it since 1997 and it was a company with a large number of Stockholders from 1987 until 1997.

I originally Founded it in 1987 but have had no part in it's ownership since 1997.

I have made them regardless of who owned it.

I still make them today.

Here is some more info.

"The knives that were made in Japan were done by The Kencrest Corporation in Seki city Japan" I shouldn't post when tired...for some reason I was thinking Ken Warner, not Kencrest. Hence my comment above. My mistake.

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Permalink Reply by tim payne on May 29, 2015 at 17:46

tell us more about your japan factory tours ken

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Permalink Reply by Ken Hashimoto on May 29, 2015 at 18:21

Jan, as far as I am aware there was only one Blackjack Knives that had placed any orders in Seki Japan during 1987-1990 or thereabouts. This is the one owned by Mike Stewart, formerly of Pacific Cutlery/Benchmark. Blackjack collapsed, making a bit of a financial mess. Mike himself went on to work for Marbles for a while before establishing the presently successful Bark River Knife & Tool. I am only aware of knives made in Seki Japan or Effingham USA during this era, This seems to correspond to the Blackjack (USA) above

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Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on May 29, 2015 at 18:28

Yup...what he said. Blackjack went to snot when it changed to Blackjack International. Quality went up significantly when Blue Ridge took over. Mike is still making knives for them, and their new stuff is quite nice.

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