Blast from the Past...Koncept Knives

Z

zinn1348

Joined
Aug 5, 2003
Messages
1,201
I purchased 3 of the Koncept knives from Cutlery Shoppe back in the mid 80's. The blades were of ats34, aircraft aluminum black anodized handles, with strong liner lock and single liners.

The three models that were available were something like the "Snipe" the "Worker" and the "Back Alley Fighter".

These were well constructed knives for a reasonable price, and I've kept 2 of the three for all of these years.

I found that after a short time, the brand was no longer available, with the company having gone out of business or something. I seem to remember the company's name being Cacoctin or something like that.

I was wondering if anyone knows what happened to them, and if the owners had stayed in the knife business, an if so, what company they formed or work for now.

Would like to hear from anyone else who remembers this company, and hear about any comments/experiences with these knives.

I do see some of them infrequently on E-Bay, and the prices are still very reasonable.

Regards,

Thomas Zinn
 
I never heard of them myself, but could the company name have been Catoctin, after the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland?
 
Here's more! A search on Ixquick found an old BFC thread ... Koncept Knives

Rugger
07-18-2003, 09:46 AM

I was digging in one of my knife boxes & found a folder marked Koncept Knives. It's a fairly robust little aluminum bodied folder w/ a approx 2 1/2" blade w/ a thumb stud. The body seems to have a powder coating/parkerization to it. Was told it was a precursor to Spyderco & my BS detector went off & I pretty much dismissed the rest of the guys' explanation/history. I liked the knife well enough at the time to accept it- it was an add-on in a knife trade & I really haven't given it much notice until now. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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bernard_levine
07-19-2003, 05:04 PM

KONCEPT was a brand of locking liner folder made in USA, and distributed by Catoctin Cutlery of Maryland in the early/mid 1990s (see page 61 of LG4). According to the 1992 catalog write-up, the mfr was "Varitork Research Mechansim Company," about which I know precisely nothing. The catalog says the firm had been making components for other knife companies, but does not say which ones. Designers of the knives supposedly were Ronald Ford, Vince Ford, and Wayne Ramsburg. There were 8 models in the line in 1992.

BRL...
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Rugger
07-21-2003, 10:35 AM

Many Thanks!!
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bob bowie
07-21-2003, 04:35 PM

Hi Guys,

There were a few threads on Rec.knives on the Koncept brand. Apparently before venturing into the knife business, they were involved in medical devices(hip replacements or heart valves?). I think there was a Bench Made connection some -where.

Fighting Knives covered their knives a bit, so maybe Greg Walker could be of help:)?

For what it's worth, not many people remember them, I've seen a few models on Ebay through the years, and they did'nt attract much attention.
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That's it Esav!

Sounds like the company faded into obscurity. Too bad! It almost looks like another case of being ahead of their time.

If you get a chance to snag one, might want to for a good user.
Good heat treat on mine.....

Thomas Zinn
 
They figured out a way to quickly and legally produce designs similar to what Benchmade had come out with, maybe 6 months previously. What made it easier is that most of the handles were the same on all but one model, The Alley Kat, which was a lot like the Boguszewski Spike (manual).

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
the company was a precision machine house in Oregon that was Benchmade's handle contractor, I think made aerospace or artificial heart valves or something. After they saw how knives were made they got into the act while continuing to do work for BM and Spyderco (Terzuola knife).
Vince Ford eventually went to work for Spyderco after Koncept folded and now works at Bladetech making knives. Catoctin folded several years ago. They were one of the first specialty cutlery distributors and were once Blackjacks exclusive distributor.
 
Hi. Was going through my desk and came across these and out of curiosity, searched/found your discussion on these old blades.

I bought them from Catoctin in the early 90's. They were expensive then but the quality was worth it compared to some other brands.

Though the style may be dated, the quality (materials, machining, fit, finish, action) is as-good-as or better than most high end production folders I’ve seen lately.


Koncept Model K4401:
OAL is 8 1/2
Blade is 3 7/8
Scale width 7/16
Blade width .125

I was dumping some old blades but after examining these, I am keeping them. Really nice examples of early quality work.

CopyofKoncetptK44045.jpg



CopyofKoncetptK44046.jpg
 
Very nice, what are those handles made out of ?

Any chance of a closer photo of the blade open and handle ?

Thanks. :D

Robbie Roberson ;)
 
My camera is a small pocket cam and I have not had good luck geting close up shots. I'll give it a try and add them later if it works. I don;t know much about them but here is aome additional info.

I believe:
Scales were some aircraft aluminum alloyand look to be flat black anodized.
Liner-loc looks to be parkerized steel. I doubt and exotic like Ti.
Blade is ATS-34.
Four small allen screws and the allen pivot screw hold it together.
The right side scale has a depressed circle and engraved around the inside periphery within is the logo ‘Koncept Knives’.
The left side scale has an depressed circle and engraved around the inside periphery within is ‘Made In USA’

Here's some pics.





CopyofKoncetptK44048.jpg


CopyofKoncetptK44049.jpg


CopyofKoncetptK440410.jpg


CopyofKoncetptK440412.jpg
 
Thank you much !! :eek: That is a beauty. I really like the shape of the handles, especially the finger grooves.

Now that would be a real collectable IMO.

Your camera does perfect !



Robbie Roberson ;)
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Zinn,

How much information do you want?

sal
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I'm not a heavy collector but it's always nice to have the history or provenance of your collectable. I was curious as to history of Koncept and what happened to it and the key personnel involved. There's some info in Koncept from other forumites below. Seems like they had a good product with great potential in these old knives. I see a lot of early Benchmade influence in the Koncept products.

If there's a forum or thread somewhere you know of that provides any additional info, I'ld be interested in it.
 
These were very well made folders. I had at least one of each model ever made. But none of them had a pocket clip. :( Perhaps this may have proven to be a negative at the time of "clip-it" pocket carry folders becoming popular.

N.
 
Back around 1990 Spyderco was doing a collaboration with Bob Terzuola, and
Bob wanted the knife made in the U.S. At the time Spyderco was producing their knives in Seki. Benchmade knives was just starting up in Oregon after moving from California (Acific Cutlery Corp) and they were interested
in doing the project for us.

Bob Terzuola was our teacher in liner locks and that's where most of our early training came from. Benchmade had contracted some of the work to be done by a manufacturing company nearby which was Varitork engineering. Varitork was owned by Ron Ford and his son Vince Ford. They had two main machinists working with them, Craig Green and J. J. Grosmick.

Ron and Vince Ford decided that they liked making knives more than the
medical equipment that they were making and they felt that they could be
good at it so they contacted a distributor on the east coast called Catoctin Cutlery that was run by Wayne Ramsburg. Working with Wayne they
developed and built a few knives under the name of Koncept Knives and
Catoctin was the exclusive distributor for Koncept Knives.

Western Cutlery had gone out of business and they were having an auction for their equipment. Ron and Vince Ford were in Colorado looking for equipment approached me while at that auction and said that they were already doing some work for us through another company and that they would like to continue to do more work with us in the subcontracting of knife production. After a while working with them we decided to join forces and Spyderco relocated Varitork with their equipment to Golden, Colorado and formed Golden Manufacturing which was a corporation owned by Ron Ford, Vince Ford and Spyderco. Craig Green and J.J. Grosmick relocated with them and we began producing knives in Golden about 1993.

Shortly afterwards Craig Green decided to return to the Portland area for
personal reasons. Ron and Vince Ford decided that they would stop making
Koncept Knives because they were busy making Spyderco knives and there
really wasn't enough time for both. So Koncept knives stopped production at that time.

A few years later Ron Ford decided to retire and return to the Pacific Northwest. Vince Ford and Spyderco purchased his part of the business and continued the manufacturing company.

A short while after that Golden Manufacturing ran into a few problems and
Spyderco purchased the remaining stock in the company, changed the name to Spyderco Manufacturing and Vince Ford came on board in Spyderco's R&D
department as our chief engineer. As time went on the factory was
relocated into the Spyderco building where it remains today.

I might add that both Ron and Vince were very bright individuals capable of
manufacturing just about anything. Vince Ford was one of the few people
I'd met that could engineer a product, go down into the shop, program all
the machines and actually build it, a very unique ability in just about any industry.

At about 2000 Vince Ford decided to relocate back to the Pacific Northwest
as his family missed the area and their family and wanted to return. Vince went to work with Tim Wegner at Blade-Tech making molds for Tim's sheaths and helping launch Blade-Tech's domestic knife production where he is still working today.

Craig Green, another gifted machinist, is the genius behind Kershaw's manufacturing plant in Oregon and he launched the Ken Onion Speed Safe products from their Oregon facility.

J.J. Grosmick is still working for Spyderco in our R&D department as a very skilled custom knifemaker. He makes all of the prototypes for our new models and helps develop the new concepts such as the locks that we work with.

Mr. Ron Ford passed away several years ago but everybody else involved in
the original production of Koncept knives is still in the knife industry in
one area or another.

Hope that helps with the history.

sal
 
Hey, I remember those! Thanks Sal for providing more info on them. I remember seeing them at a knife show a long time ago.
 
I carried the Back Alley Fighter for some time, including on a trip to Florida following Hurricane Andrew. Great knife. I still have it around somewhere, and it's in great shape after all these years!
 
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