Bob Cargill Cripple Creek Knives

[sunnyd]

I will add to this thread, and hopefully others will to. I am currently involved in obtaining some of the Smoke Signal memos and will post them in here
as I receive them. That part is going to take a while. Information is always the key.
Greg

I am very much looking forward to seeing whatever amount of the Smoke Signal memos you are planning to post here..

I am loving those little '83 Trappers with that sweet jigged honey bone.

 

[mckgreg]

The Smoke Signals are going to be a while. I want to post them a batch at a time rather than one here and there. I still have
to get them but I'm working on it.
Every now and then one of these will show up. Funny story behind this piece. The guy who was selling it was trying to hide the
reverse logo in some shadows of the photos. Must have thought it was bad or something.
Greg

 

[NirreBosse]

Mckgreg and Sunnyd, Im glad at heart to see the two of you write here. So glad I write too even though I have nothing partikular to say about cripple creek more Than how good they look.

Greg, Im impressed of your collektion. The number of lovely knifes seem as Hugh as the number of files in my flybox.

Anthony, you can only imagine how many throut and greyling the lovely case stockman you sent me 2009 has seen. Also the 54 trapper has been used regularly in my vacation workpants.

Bosse

 

[sunnyd]

The Smoke Signals are going to be a while. I want to post them a batch at a time rather than one here and there. I still have
to get them but I'm working on it.
Every now and then one of these will show up. Funny story behind this piece. The guy who was selling it was trying to hide the
reverse logo in some shadows of the photos. Must have thought it was bad or something.
Greg

Of coarse the SS memos will be worth the wait. When you are able to post them, you are able to post them..

Regarding this knife: Is it not rare with the reverse logo? Does it not make it more valuable since there was obviously less of them produced? This is the first one I've ever seen.. Great piece.

 

[sunnyd]

Mckgreg and Sunnyd, Im glad at heart to see the two of you write here. So glad I write too even though I have nothing partikular to say about cripple creek more Than how good they look.

Greg, Im impressed of your collektion. The number of lovely knifes seem as Hugh as the number of files in my flybox.

Anthony, you can only imagine how many throut and greyling the lovely case stockman you sent me 2009 has seen. Also the 54 trapper has been used regularly in my vacation workpants.

Bosse

Bosse, its good to see you my friend. I'm glad the trout and greyling are getting all the plentiful Stockman and Trapper treatment on your edge of the woods.

 

[mckgreg]

Thank you NirreBosse. I haven't heard from you in a while either. The reverse logo does make it a rarity. I have a few of them but they are like hens teeth. Here's a 1982 Muskrat.
The thing about any 1982 is they are rare and hard to come by as well. This was the same time period Cargill was
up to his armpits with work on the 2000 knives that Knife World hired him to do. This left him little time to do anything else.
There were only about 40 other knives made in '82 which makes them quite rare. As far as the reverse logo is concerned,
I am not sure if it was done at a customers request or if Bob just felt like doing it.
Bob was pretty much a one man show and could, and did, do whatever he wanted.
Greg

 

[Bugdoc]

Greg, that honey bone is gorgeous. I'm sure others have used it and yet it has a unique look, like real honey comb.

 

[mckgreg]

You're right Bugdoc. Cargill used the honey comb jigging a lot. Don't see it on any other knives that I know of. Honey Bone is a color. The sowbelly is more of a brown bone. The lights throw the color off a bit. It's still Honey Bone.
I'll post some more Honey Bone soon. Here's a 5 blade sowbelly for Anthony. I didn't get all the oil off the blades so it shows up a bit.
The Butterbean I posted earlier is a Honey Bone. It can be a shade darker or lighter like honey
Greg

A correction to the above statement concerning Honey Bone. All bone scales with the honey comb jigging was considered Honey Bone.
Regardless of how light or dark it is. This is for the ones made 1981 forward. Even then there are occasional exceptions.
All I can say is you'll know them when you see them. A few have honey comb jigging but are red/brown in color. Obviously Cargill tried out a few different dyes from time to time.
One exception would be Strawberry Bone which has honey comb jigging but is red to pink.

Some examples of honey comb jigging with different colored dye.

 

[sunnyd]

Y

You're right Bugdoc. Cargill used the honey comb jigging a lot. Don't see it on any other knives that I know of. Honey Bone is a color. The sowbelly is more of a brown bone. The lights throw the color off a bit.
I'll post some Honey Bone soon. Here's a 5 blade sowbelly for Anthony. I didn't get all the oil off the blades so it shows up a bit.
The Butterbean I posted earlier is a Honey Bone. It can be a shade darker or lighter like honey
Greg

This sweeeet example of Bob's Sowbelly pattern. I really like it a lot..

Greg, I think I seem to remember from my own stash once upon a time, a 5 blade medium to smaller Stockman in stag scales? Do you have such an example?

 

[Mike Robuck]

It's great to see Greg's superb Cargill and Creek collections as well as his outstanding pictures of them.

 

[Rookie82]

I remember meeting Bob at a knife show in Kentucky when I was only 6 or 7 years old. He was very intimidating, standing behind his table of knives, watching a young kid come by with big eyes staring at everything he had on the table. He didn't say a word to me, or even smile, he just watched me to see what I was doing. I had been warned by my grandfather (who was friends with Bob) that I could go over and look, but don't touch anything. Later that day, I went back over with my grandfather, and they talked together while I once again stared at all of his shiny knives.

He had 1 that I remember, I think he called it his "barrel knife" or something like that. He only made 1 piece. It had a white colored handles, and had blades that pulled out from the top, bottom, and each side. The handle was round (like a barrel), and apparently it was quite the talking piece because everyone there during the 3 day knife show wanted to "go talk to Bob about that crazy knife he created".

Here are a couple I have. 1st and 2nd Knife World knives. (Sorry the photos are garbage, these are the only pics of them that I have on my computer at the moment).

 

[mckgreg]

Rookie, You must be talking about the Barrel Knife. I guess I could enlarge the image.

Hey Robuck. Been a while. I don't come in here much. Anthony, I'll get a photo of the 5 blader you're talking about and post it.
It really is an amazing piece once all things are considered.
Concerning the Knife World moose in the upper photo, They came in 2 versions. One version had a center liner and the other didn't.
The lower Knife World piece is a prime example of what the "color of Honey Bone" is. Like I stated previously, Honey Bone can be a tad lighter or darker.
Like honey. Same thing with Strawberry Bone. It can have some white areas and the reds can be dark to light. Just like a strawberry.
Greg

 

[mckgreg]

Made in the first year of Cripple Creek, 1981, this little jewel is only 3 3/8" closed. Notice how there is no date stamped into
the circle on the tang. This only occurs during 1981 or 82. There are only a handful of these around and were most likely made
by hand by Cargill. He had little help in the shop at this time though his wife and daughter did contribute as much as they could.
This was the start of the man's dream. Very, very personal from the name of the brand, the 3 legged buffalo shield, his limited shop and
the help of his family.
Greg

 

[pmek5]

Made in the first year of Cripple Creek, 1981, this little jewel is only 3 3/8" closed. Notice how there is no date stamped into
the circle on the tang. This only occurs during 1981 or 82. There are only a handful of these around and were most likely made
by hand by Cargill. He had little help in the shop at this time though his wife and daughter did contribute as much as they could.
This was the start of the man's dream. Very, very personal from the name of the brand, the 3 legged buffalo shield, his limited shop and
the help of his family.
Greg

Wow, thanks for sharing.

 

[sunnyd]

Greg,
That is beauty I was speaking about! My very favorite Cripple Creek slipjoint to be certain. The degree of difficulty because of the small size and the number of blades, not to mention his execution and fit and finish he produced with this little gem is just fantastic.. Thanks for showing her this evening.

 

[mckgreg]

It was my pleasure Anthony. It is a jewel of a knife. Comes in honey bone too I believe. I'll have to look.
Here's the big Buffalo Skinner that measures 4 5/8" with some very nice Strawberry Bone and honey comb
jigging. I had to watch it on this guy when I was getting it ready to shoot. The blades are nice and smooth until
you get to a certain point downward. Then it wants to close and close fast.
More later.
Greg

 

[Rookie82]

Rookie, You must be talking about the Barrel Knife.

That's it! I remember staring at that knife for what seems like hours. I couldn't figure out how everything worked together in it (I'm still mildly stumped). Glad you had a photo of it.

Here is another cool knife that Bob made in 1993 for the NKCA, given as a prize for a contest. Very unique knife. I wonder who won this knife, and where it is now.

 

[mckgreg]

From what I understand Bob started out by doing repair work for Case and making custom knives before opening Cripple Creek Cutlery in 1981

You're correct Augie. He was also making custom knives as well. Cargill made quite a few custom fixed blades and folders.
I've heard about the knife you posted Rookie. I might have one similar with the tooling on the blades and bolsters.
Greg

 

[mckgreg]

The Chief Anderson knives are a 15 knife collection of mostly 10 made of each knife. There are 2 patterns of 20 pieces. If you go looking thru the history books for Chief Anderson
you won't find squat. A man by the name of Frank Phelps was a good friend of Cargill and commissioned him to produce the Chief Anderson knives.
Frank was known to his friends as "Chief" and he lived in Andersonville. That's where the name came from. Frank also supplied some of the scale material
which is on the large banana trappers, coke bottle, toothpick and the saddlehorn. Frank Phelps had friends who worked for Queen and KABAR
and got the material from one of them. KABAR used it on Limited Edition
trapper with a dogs head shield.
There are 13 knives in the catalog page plus two that are not. A total of 15 knives.
Greg

This is knife number 14. A 2 blade trapper. The one in the catalog is a single blade with a spear point blade.
Knife number 15 is the White Bone Coke Bottle in the next post.

 

[mckgreg]

Below are 15 images of the 15 Chief Anderson Knives.

This White Bone Coke Bottle below is the 15th Chief Anderson.

Regarding the knife below, there is a typo in the 1985 Smoke Signals that lists this knife as 1 of 10.

Below is possibly a prototype for the single blade muskrat Chief Anderson knife.

The greenbone toothpick.

And the Coke Bottle. Making it the 15th and final piece of the Chief Anderson Knives.