1960`s Gil hibben Elmer Keith on E-BAY?

A

AMRA

Joined
Dec 3, 2007
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I was looking at Randall knives on e-bay when a 1960`s Gil Hibben Elmer Keith knife popped up on my screen
Is it the real McCoy or a clever fake?
 
Chance Peiest is the seller on that knife. Chance is a great guy and I have done business with him before and I will again. He knows knives and he would not sell a fake to his knowledge.
 
Thanks for the information. I had never seen a Elmer Keith pattern knife without the double hooked guards around the handle.
 
They usually look like this
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That`s the one! That is what I have been drooling over for a few years now!
Is that a Friedly? Have you used it for dressing out wild game?
Amra
 
It is a Friedly and I have never carried it in the field. Very stout knife but for skinning I usually use something in the 3 inch caper fixed blade style.
 
Very 80's? I would say very 60's custom. Back when everyone though factory hunters were weak because they weren't 3/8-inch thick. I don't think very many hunters in the 80's were in that camp.

I have a Draper/Keith. Makes you wonder if Keith actually was the hunter he claimed.
 
I miss Elmer Keith and Jack O'conner todays gun writers suck. They hunted when I wish I could have hunted
 
I was able to get Dennis Friedly`s phone number a few months ago, I called and spoke to him about his Elmer Keith knife. He told me that he makes a fair number that DO get hard use in the hunting field. He said that some outfitter buddies of his have used his Elmer Keith`s hard and he has yet to have one break, even when they were batoned into elk bones when field dressing. He also said he is making 3/4 scale Elmer keith`s for some Docters going to Africa this year. They will be done in ATS 34 instead of the regular heavy 440c
 
Yep very 60's! But you have to remember, just about all factory hunters back then were 1/8" thick or in many cases, a lot thinner! They were famous for failing. Especially round tang knives. I guess this make the pendulum swing the other way for a while before settling somewhere in the middle. I think its a hoot that in the May Issue of Blade, they are touting the new style (OLD AS SIN!!!) round tang as the strongest handle design yet. It is as weak as it ever was. This is why we went to the much more elegant tapered tang in the first place! Another Brilliant design move by Bob Loveless. How soon we forget the past failures, and do it all over again!! With the Magazines leading the way. For all the newbies to once again blindly follow yet another ill conceived fad.

Mike
 
I got this Knife from Mr. friedly almost 20 years ago. Before the internet and knife maker web sites. I called him and months later it came in the mail with a bill. It was one of my first custom knives and Mr. friedly was and I am sure is still a trusting great guy and I will always remember that transaction.
 
MisterSat, thanks for posting that catalog, brought back some good memories. I first saw a Hibben catalog in early 1965 in Vietnam, but remember it being in color. Later in the year I ended up in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital In Denver and ordered a Jungle Fighter but it had a stacked leather handle, and is marked "Ben Hibben", as he had a short partnership with a man named Benedict. I paid $25.75 and right after that it went up to $50. I am not sure exactly when I received it, but still have a receipt from the Provost Marshall dated May 1966, as I could not keep it on the ward. Gil warned me the leather handle might shrink and on my next tour in 1967-68 it did, so I sent it back to have the new Jungle Fiber handle put on and made a few comments. I got the knife back and Gil had taken out all the scratches, put the jungle fiber handle on and a new butt cap. Sent along a letter that said something like "I for one appreciate the men who do my fighting for me" meant a lot to read that. Still have the knife and the jungle fiber handle is as solid as the day I got it back form Gil in 1968.
 
Great story about the jungle fighter. It just so happens that I just finished photographing 21 Ben Hibben knives from a collector in Chicago including a couple of jungle fighters. As you said, the "Ben Hibben" stamp was from a short-lived partnership between Gil Hibben and Stewart Benedict. The partnership only lasted a few months in 1963-64 and Ben Hibben knives are extremely rare. It is estimated that fewer than 100 exist. I know of about 40 of them in two collections.
 
That Keith is cool. MisterSat...thanks for the link to the 1965 catalog. I have a Hibben with the Manti stamp and without knowing, I had thought it was from the 70's or 80's.

The best I can tell, my knife is a Kodiak model.

Peter
 
Gil made knives in Manti, Utah from 1965-1970 before relocating to Alaska for a few years. During that time he designed Browning's original line of knives.

Gil still makes his Keith knives for custom orders.
Elmer1.jpg


He once even made a folding model. I think that was the biggest folder I have ever held. :D
KeithFolder1b.jpg


KeithFolder2b.jpg
 
Great stuff to peruse. Thanks again MisterSat. I noticed there was an address of Sandy UT crossed out and changed to Manti. I've traveled through Sandy many times to go skiing up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I would imagine for hunters it must have been a great area too.

Peter
 
peterinct said:
Great stuff to peruse. Thanks again MisterSat. I noticed there was an address of Sandy UT crossed out and changed to Manti. I've traveled through Sandy many times to go skiing up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I would imagine for hunters it must have been a great area too.

Peter
Click to expand...

Gil set up his first shop in Sandy, then moved to Manti. He later moved to Arkansas, Alaska, Silver Dollar City in Missouri, then to Louisville, Kentucky and finally to his current shop in LaGrange, Kentucky.
 
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