Aitor White Bear.

[AlvarF]

Hello all,

I want to show you one of the historic spanish knives. This is the Aitor Oso Blanco, the civil version of the Aitor Black Bear. May be more of you have heard about ir, but i think it is a unknown knife in America.

This knife was mostly used in the spanish army in the 80´s. It was the regularory / crew knife , and was used in the Spanish Spec Ops (COE). The first version had a factory defect solved with the screw knob.

Sorry for my english. If you think i may modify anything please let me know.
Thank you.

 

[Slowstarter]

Nice! You don´t have any bigger pics??

 

[Archer26]

On my honeymoon in Spain I bought a Aitor Survival knife......a real draw queen. still I kept it longer than the first wife!
A lot of Aitors are a mall ninjas dream....

 

[desmobob]

Those photos are so huge, they won't even load for me. :-(

I've only seen one Aitor knife in my life... it was one of those hollow handle "survival" knives that seemed to be worth about ten bucks. They also make good quality knives? Interesting.

Stay sharp,
desmobob

 

[AlvarF]

Sorry for the big pics . I´m going to change it.

There are a lot of chinesse aitor copies. May be the ones you have seen are copies. Aitor made good useful knives.
For me, the best hollow handle "survival" is this one :
Jungle King II, it cost about 110 USD. Oso Blanco Cost 70 USD + or - .

 

[axtalan0]

Thanks for sharing, that is a good looking knife.

 

[cramsey3006]

My brother has a Jungle King II with the satin finish blade. It's a very nice knife and package. I wish they were more widely available in the U.S. They seem like great knives. I like the military version of the knife in the first picture. I should have bought a couple back in the early 90's when they were sold through a catalog called Atlanta Cutlery. How's the edge holding on that knife?

 

[J.Davey]

I remember when Cutlery Shoppe used to sell Aitor knives (late 1980's/early 1990's). They had an Aitor called the Oso Negro (the Black Bear referred to) that looked like the one by the OP, but all black if I remember correctly. I always wanted one, but alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

 

[ikiddp9]

Nice knife! I had a Oso Negro back in 1985. Mine came with a plastic green sheath. It was the sharpest knife I had bought ever! Later I sold it and bought an Aitor Bowie wich is a fine knife too. Enjoy it!

 

[desmobob]

AlvarF,

Thanks for re-sizing the photos... now I can see them!

That's a cool knife; one for the fans of recurved blades. I like the ability to disassemble it. I think that's a nice feature.

The Jungle King looks like the one, or is very similar to the one, my buddy had. This was back in the mid 1980's when I was in the Navy. It may well have been a very nice knife. I just remember the Aitor name and remember thinking it wasn't something I'd want. BUT... that was many years ago and before I was a real "knife nut".

What is the correct English pronounciation of the name "Aitor"?

Stay sharp,
desmobob

 

[Mistwalker]

I like the military version of the knife in the first picture. I should have bought a couple back in the early 90's when they were sold through a catalog called Atlanta Cutlery. How's the edge holding on that knife?

My thought and question as well

 

[kidcoyote]

pretty cool looking knife.

 

[cramsey3006]

If I remember correctly (and that's seldom!) the Aitor knives I looked at back then were 440B stainless. I'd never heard of it at the time, I knew 420, 440A and 440C, and 425M. That's why it stuck in my head. My brother's Jungle King II tooks a really nice edge. I sharpened for him, and I think it's sat in his dresser drawer ever since, LOL. He said he wanted the nicest hollow handle knife he could find. He never said anything about actually using it!

 

[dnuggett]

Looks quite interesting. I'll keep an eye for for one.

 

[AlvarF]

It´s difficult to explain the english pronounciation.
The A, it´s like the A from "A"merican
I like the i in
And Tor , try to say Toro without the final O, o "Tor"nado

Now i have to go to work. I will try to make pics from the edge later. Actually it shaves.

80´s models, taken from spaniard forum (taken from kar-98):

 

[GIRLYmann]

so the secret's out that aitor knives had produced recurve shaped blades long before the emerson commander became a vogue tactical seal folder...
back then, aitor blades had a particularly good edge retention quality with it 440 Molybdenum Vanadium stainless steel.
really took some doing to whip it's edge back to sharpness with an ordinary whetstone.
now figure out carefully the proper method of sharpening a recurve shape edge with a flat benchstone...

 

[orca8589]

What is the correct English pronounciation of the name "Aitor"?

I believe it sounds like "eye-tor".

I had a Spanish bayonet, that had a sort of bolo-looking tip. The OP's knife has the same look, just more pronounced - interesting blade shape.

AlvarF: what's the handle material? Olive wood, maybe? Beautiful grain in it.

now figure out carefully the proper method of sharpening a recurve shape edge with a flat benchstone...

Don't bother. (You'll just lose your mind like I did, and end up sitting in the corner in a fetal position, whimpering. And your family will laugh at you.) For the couple of recurves I have, I use a fine diamond rod.

~Chris

 

[A.L.]

I don't have much experience on Spanish knives but they always seem to have very nicely made leather sheaths! :thumbup:

 

[mesoscopic]

I don't get to hear or read about Aitor knives in the recent 3 to 5 years. But then I am pretty new to knives in general.

I saw an advertisement for an Aitor Hammerhead fixed blade in Tactical Knives July 2002 and it seems to be a decent blade with its unique butt cap designed for hammering.

 

[AlvarF]

Yes Chris, it sounds like "Eye-tor", thank you. The handle is made of olive wood. I applied lemon oil to it .
It makes appear even more beautiful.

The Aitor company went bankrupt, and was and was bought by Pielcu( spaniard leather goods company).
So now it's Aitor Pielcu. So for some years has not heard the brand. It is said that the old ones are better than the news.

The design of the blade may be it is inspired in the " Falcata ". It was the sword used by the Iberan in the Era of the
Roman Empire :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcata



I tried to take pictures of the edge, but the macro is not good :

It is hard to sharpen because of the 440 c steel and the curve. But it is beautiful