Ahead of their time in design, or just similar to other knives

[calm]

These Cat Eye knives (not Cats eye) were acquired over 12 years ago from a US online shop, based mainly on their looks. They have never really been used. They were very cheap, made in China knives.

I was looking at them recently and they seem to have a current day look, similar to many products of the past few years.

I still like their looks, they feel solid and good in the hand, but as knives they are not that brilliant as they are quite heavy (no titanium, just steel it seems) and unfortunately they have very soft steel.

Were they ahead of their time in design or, were they just similar to other knives of the time (12 years ago, probably even more) that I do not remember or know?

https://imgur.com/j4Ezhuh

and a more normal looking one.

https://imgur.com/6Dk1RT8

 

[midnight flyer]

With the overwhelming amount of inexpensive foreign made knives for sale now, I think you could easily put those up for sale as a new designs. There is no end to new, inexpensive knives for sale that are made by new companies, companies with subsidiaries, and even subsidiaries of their subsidiaries.

There are about three overly excitable guys that post on YouTube every time they get a new knife, and about 30% of the time I have never heard of the company. And for budget knives, may be even more than that. And those guys post as many as 2-3 videos a week!

With the steel frames, that would simply mean bottom tier knives these days, so nothing really to differentiate it from today's manufacturing. Still plenty stainless frames out there. and plenty of soft blade steels, too.

So yeah... I would say ahead of their time.

 

[elasmonut]

The middle one looks a bit like a "Pat Crawford" knockoff.
Top, like another custom knockoff, can't remember the name of the maker but the spine clip was a design about the same time....lare 80's early 90's
Im sure lots of manufacturers, do tooling runs, and slight design alterations to spin a bit more out if each contract.

 

[eveled]

I guess its a perspective thing. 12 years ago seems like yesterday to me. So I consider these to be recently made / designed.

The knife designs I like are 100 years and older. The reality is those are modern too.

Cool hobby we share with something for everyone. Knives have been treasured tools for thousands of years. The only hobby older than knife collecting is rock collecting. Lol.

 

[calm]

Many thanks to all for the answers / thoughts. The one with the holes in, does echo the mentioned design, though it could have just be a coincidence, deciding to drill holes in the handle. CRKT M16 has holes too, and the design is attributed to Carson and it is a pretty old design too.
They all look contemporary.

 

[KenHash]

The second one looks similar to an Al Mar Sere 2000 profile./silhouette.