Nic asked the question in chat room:

I wanted to know what would be a vintage good knife or brand to focus on if I wanted to start a collection of American knives focusing on the West/cowboy traditions.

  The return of a Bayonet

     I was attending our Ohio District 7 American Legion Auxiliary Meeting this month.  My President Sandy came over to me , she had been talking with the President of another unit carrying a piece of notebook paper with something written on it.

     This piece of paper she handed me saying this guy was a member of this post and they have a bayonet they…

Spend any time on the internet whatsoever looking up knife stuff, and you’re bound to hit a few dozen discussions regarding “cheap” knives. In this context, cheap is referring to poor quality in materials, construction, performance, or any combination thereof. Today, cheap knives are almost synonymous with anything made in China, Pakistan, or other parts of Asia.

This is unfortunate, because many inexpensive knives come from these same regions, and they are anything but cheap. Even…

My first Fallkniven arrived today three weeks after ordering , I start to worry when it gets above two weeks ! This is not a complaint about USPS as they managed to ship the knife 5,000 miles from Detroit Lakes to London in around six days. Our post office in the UK took fourteen days to cover 154 miles , which I could drive in around 3/4 hours even with London's traffic. Rant over so about the knife .

It is as I am sure you are aware a slipjoint , the only Falkniven without a blade…

We all have them…those knives we bought some time ago…years maybe…that we really did not intend to add to our collections. We see them as disposable tools, junk knives, knives not worth mentioning or are too embarrassing to admit you ever owned.

I have a handful of such knives – those blades I purchased for a specific need at the time and really didn't care if I ever lost it, broke it, had it stolen (no such luck), or just neglected it because I no longer cared about it.

After…

Part 2 of this blog is dealing with Survival knives, both as an item and a legit category for collecting.

The bone of contention that was vocalized some time ago is that there is no such thing as a tactical knife or a survival knife – rather, these terms are marketing terms to sell more knives. (Tactical knives are discussed in Part 1).

While I have a different opinion on the matter, I can’t throw out the whole argument because some of it is true – many companies and makers do…

41 individual pieces to this knife.

The top frame:

(01) Houses the heart of the mechanism, the slide assembly

(02) Within the “slide assembly” is the “main spring”

(03) Hardened steel “Lugs”

(04) Which are attached to either end. These lugs contact the blade at point

(05) To shoot the blade in & out. This OTF mechanism uses what I call the “Cowcatcher”

(06) For a solid lock-up. The Cowcatcher slides along a groove in the “Bottom frame” to…

Greetings IKC  fellow members;  Looking for members that collect vintage and antique German made pocket/folding knives such as Krusius, Bruckmann, Ern, Hubertus, Olbertz, Hoffritz, Schmidt-Ziegler, Weidmannsheil, Hartkopf and so on.  Would like to see the startup of a chat group with like minded collectors to share information and experiences.  Your comments are most welcome,  Bill

When it comes to knife collecting, there are probably as many types of collectors as there are categories of knives to collect – from purists to novices, open-minded to staunch believers, early adapters to Luddites, and everything in between.

I like to think of myself as one who knows why I collect what I collect – evolving technologies notwithstanding – and stands behind it unless a better argument comes along that challenges my thought processes enough to either broaden my…