As you probably already know, South Bend is not a knife company but a tackle company.  The knife they offer is out-sourced and made in China.

For those who are unfamiliar, South Bend is a Tackle Company known for offering affordable tackle.  Among some of the brands they offer are Ready2Fish, Blaze Lures, Microlite, Black Beauty, Cahill, ZooKids. The company is known for its efforts to encourage youth fishing.

This American  company can be traced back to 1896…

The Fisherman's Pal isa  traditional fishing utility knife that is still being made today by R. Murphy.   There was a time when several American Knife Companies offered a knife of this pattern.  Today, only a few bother to make such a knife, especially in the United States.  The knife is exceedingly affordable.

Above:  The R Murphy Fisherman's Pal;  a…

Most modern bait knives are distributed through Tackle Companies.  While several knife companies make fillet knives, very few knife companies offer a specially made fish-utility or bait knives.  The excuse is there isn't much demand for one or that fisherman haven't quite decided what they want in a bait knife.  One of the exceptions is Buck Knives.  While I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Buck, I give them a big thumbs up when it comes to the USA made Buck Clearwater Bait Knife.  It proved…

For background information on the Modern Bait Knife see my entry at:  http://iknifecollector.com/profiles/blogs/the-modern-bait-knife-by-tobias-gibson

When last I posted I discussed a modern Bait Knife, the Shakespeare Utility Knife.  This entry is going to focus on a much early design first developed in 1951 and pateneted in 1953.  ( I plan on alternating between a modern…

For an overview of the Modern Bait Knife see:   http://iknifecollector.com/profiles/blogs/the-modern-bait-knife-by-tobias-gibson

This related post is a review of  the Shakespeare Utility Knife.  Future bait knife reviews (both modern versions and older utility fish  knives) will follow using the same format.  As the bait knife blog states, these are mostly inexpensive…

Below is an introduction to a series on Bait Knives.  I will return to this blog over time with reviews of the numerous Utility Fishing/Bait knives I own. 

The Modern Bait Knife

by: Tobias Gibson

Before World War II most anglers fell into one of two categories -- those who fished for fun and those who fished for necessity.  Those who fished for fun could afford expensive tackle. Those who fished for necessity made their own tackle and used…

A while back Jan Carter sent me  a Kabar Hobo Knife.  She asked me to put it to good use and let her know what I thought about.  So here it goes.

First off  Kabar markets this all stainless steel knife as

the Kabar HOBO, the Complete Slide-Apart Outdoor dining kit.

Despite their marketing I mainly used the knife indoors eating a variety…

Some people go out and party on their birthday.  I took it as an excuse to take a couple days vacation from work and continue to build the "Wall-O-Knives in my Cutlery Cavern.   I now have an area that will hold 96 scout/camp knives instead of the old 75 knife area.  The old area is going to pay homage to Red Ryder.  This in turn is opening up an area to display more fixed blades!

The area is currently 12 feet 8 inches  (3.86 meters).  There are 188 hooks for hanging…

Recently purchased two Economy fixed blade hunters.  (Both made in China)  The first was the Turtle Man Lightning (TM 002) the other a Rough Rider Heavy Hunter Series Sidewinder (RR 1349)

The Sidewinder currently sells at $22.99. (It debuted at $16.99).  The Lightning goes for slightly less at $19.99

Both are currently sold out so both are exceedingly popular. After playing around with both for a few days,  I have to say, I prefer the Lightning, primarily because it feel more…