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Coloniel Knife Company?

Picked up a "Ranger" stockman knife from a flea market. The stamp says "RANGER" on the top line and "PROV. U.S.A." on the second line. The spey blade has a patent number 3,317,996 on the tang. Anyone familiar with these knives? Are they pretty common? Seems pretty sturdy. I'm going to clean her up and add it to my EDC rotation. There is an existing Coloniel Knife Company, so I wrote them in hopes of getting more info. It doesn't appear that they make slippies any longer.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on December 15, 2016 at 18:56

The Colonial Knife Corp is alive and well. In fact it is being run by a member of the Paolantonio family. Steve is a member here and Robert was also, until his passing. This is a company I have a great deal of passion for. Most of ;what we know at this time is from active participation from that family joining in and the great respect they have for the people that love their knives, both new and old.

The Ranger line has had some of that great input and the links to those discussions are here

Date and Identify your knife

The research group

There is another one I cannot seem to locate right off the top of my hear but I will get it to you!

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Toy on December 15, 2016 at 19:01

Thanks! I did some digging myself. From all I can see, the blades are Carbon steel. According to forums on the Internet, the steel is 1075.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on December 15, 2016 at 22:25

Jeff, here is some info that was posted in another discussion

Is it possible to date Colonial knives?

Posted by Charles Sample on May 14, 2013 at 0:20

I just received this Colonial Ranger knife that I won on eBay. Is it possible to date it from the tang stamps? (There are more pictures of it posted under my photos.)

Reply by Steve Hanner on May 14, 2013 at 8:48

Unfortunately the short answer is no. After all those years of making knives, record keeping was minimal.So mich of the knowledge was in the heads of the owners. Steve Paolantonio, who is a member here now perhaps could add more to the story. The only other way to perhaps get an approximate date is another collector who might be able to say, I bought that knife new in 1960!

In a way, that's what differentiates Imperial who made minor changes in the tang stamp to get you closer in time frame.

Reply by Craig Henry on May 14, 2013 at 16:42

That's for sure Steve. Many collectors today wish many of the knife companies kept better records......or ANY records.

Reply by steve @ colonial knife on May 15, 2013 at 10:18

when I took over the sales department back in the late 80's, my first concern after 30 years in the private label business, how to build back the brand ?-I felt that Colonial Knife needed to begin the process of stamping all our products with our name, hence the Colonial on the pocket blade. So, to answer the question as to the date-late 80's-90's. due to lack of interest in the traditonal stockmans patterns- production ended in 2000.

I have a few left inventory and currently selling them "in new" condition for $69.99 each while they last-American made knife-Ranger series

hope this helps

Best regards,

Steve Paolantonio

Colonial knife Corp.

Reply by Charles Sample on May 15, 2013 at 10:48

Thanks Steve, I really appreciate the informatiion.

Reply by steve @ colonial knife on March 23, 2014 at 15:12

this is a Ranger series Brand manufactured by Colonial for over 30 years-A true back bone of the Colonial brand-Colonial has only recently started dating their products with the year of manufacture beginning in 2006