Brand Popularity?

afishhunter

afishhunter

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Is the popularity of a knife brand still somewhat regional?

Example :

I grew up in Iowa, along the Iowa/Illinois border, before Al Gore invented the Internet. Heck, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had not even invented the computer yet.

The most common knives I remember seeing at the stores (excluding Sears, Montgomery Wards, W.T. Grant's, who had their own brands made for them by others, and the no name gas station specials) and J.C. Pennys (they were the only store that sold the "official" Boy Scouts gear, so had Ulster scout knives) are Buck, Imperial, Schrade Old Timer/Uncle Henry, Colonial, SAK (Victorinox or Wenger, I do not know). Case was a rarity. From what I remember, even Farm and Fleet did not stock Case knives. For whatever reason, Case was not a popular brand in the area I grew up in. I have no idea what that reason is, by the way.

The city I was raised in had an economy that was roughly 70% industrial/30%Agricultural.

I'm pretty sure that if I had lived in the Great Lakes region or New England, and possibly the south, Case would have been one of the more popular brands of the everyday working person.

What's your opinion? Does location still play a roll in what knives and brands are most popular with the non-knife nut working person?
 
Among the general, non-knife enthusiast public, probably not. They are going to buy what is offered for sale at their local hardware, sporting goods stores or superstore. As those are mostly major national chains these days, I would be surprised if the selection varies much between regions.
 
When I was a kid in the '70s, the local stores I frequented that sold pocketknives had Schrade, Buck, Colonial, Camillus, Ka-Bar, Wenger, Victorinox, Craftsman, etc. I never saw a Case. I never even heard of Case until the late '90s, through an unsolicited knife catalog that came in the mail. I suppose it is a regional thing. It sounds like in a lot of other places, Case was THE brand.

Jim
 
I'm not sure if region plays a big role these days since people shop online a lot.

Some of the hardware stores in Iowa City and Coralville, Iowa used to sell Case knives. I don't know about back in the 70s or the present day. The last time that I was in a hardware store in Iowa was maybe 2007 and most American made knives were being replaced with foreign made knives in blister packs. The last time that I bought a Case knife in a brick and mortar store was years ago. I've bought about a half dozen online this year. I think some of the big box hardware stores sell a couple Case patterns including the sodbuster. ...I did see a large Case display at a hardware store in Maine a few years ago.
 
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Yep back in those days - I remember them - you were stuck with what was carried by your local stores. Unless you wanted to drive untold miles in search of something different, which of course didn't happen. Whatever your hardware store or Sears or Montgomery Wards carried was your choice and you made do. They worked fine and nobody knew any better.

Today I think stores still sort of carry certain brands and that's what they carry. They can order something else maybe if you ask, but their vendors are where they get their merchandise.
 
I think it used to be more regional before the big box stores took over and Internet shopping exploded. We had the brands you mentioned pretty much everywhere, but Case was even more common. They were (and actually still are) in basically every hardware and feed store I have been into around here in South/central Texas.
 
When I was growing up, I remember seeing a huge amount of military surplus or issue knives. I think as a little kid I thought every man in the world must have been in the service because of all the TL-29's, 'demo' knives, stockman marked "U.S. Government on the blade. Then there was the Army-Navy stores that sold black handle Mercators for 99 cents, and Camillus made MK2's by the bushel basket load.

As far as civilian knives, I saw Case and Western a lot, down on the Eastern shore of Maryland. It seemed like every hardware store had a big Case display case right near the front door. This was the 50's. In the 1960's it seemed like an overnight explosion that Buck took over the knife scene. By the mid 1960's it seemed like Buck 110's had taken up a place on everyone's belt.

I only became aware of other knives because I was traveling around in the army, and saw a lot of knives in other countries.
 
When I was a kid growing up we all carried Sheffield-made knives ;)
 
In the late sixties and early seventies the knives that were available were from hardware stores or sporting goods stores and the occasional variety stores. I remember case, buck and gerber. My first exposure to knives was from my dad who carried a case pocket knife and used a case fixed blade when deer hunting. My brother introduced me to buck and gerber. This was in central northern California.
 
In the 70's, I bought all my knives at knife and gun shows, so had access to all kinds of brands not available in your local hardware
store.
 
Most of what I saw were Schrade knives. My father had an endless supply of small Schrade pen and jackknives, that always ended up being sacrificed to the washer and dryer gods. Every time my mother did a load of his laundry, she'd always liberate his pocket change, wallet and whichever knife happened to be lucky enough to be saved that time. Most other people that carried a knife, had an Old Timer. I just remember that handle, and I wasn't a very observant child. Not really an observant adult, but more observant than back then ;)...

In my area, the hardware store has switched over to mainly Frost junk, with a little bit of Buck and Victorinox tossed in for good measure, and the ubiquitous multitool. The feed store across the street has more multitools, some Winchester knockoffs, a couple Case and some Chinese Schrades. The Arkansas based behemoth on the hill has a selection of Winchester knockoffs, Victorinox and Buck folders. Most people I see are buying Winchester knockoffs. I live on the Mason Dixon line, in central PA/central MD corridor. The middle of farm country, overtaken by bedroom communities that make that daily drive down to Baltimore. Most of these people aren't going to have a knife on them, at most a super knife or a no name multi tool in their car. I do see some kids, from middle school to high school, looking at the knife displays, but they normally are just looking. Most of them later fall in love with fast cars and wild women.

Whenever I see someone at a gun show or flea market spot a slipjoint, whatever brand it is, they always say "hey, look, a Case knife!". I guess it's like Coke in some parts of the country, you could be drinking a Sprite, but they'll call it a Coke. Just an all encompassing term, like Kleenex. Hopefully that brand recognition keeps Case afloat.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Whenever I see someone at a gun show or flea market spot a slipjoint, whatever brand it is, they always say "hey, look, a Case knife!". I guess it's like Coke in some parts of the country, you could be drinking a Sprite, but they'll call it a Coke. Just an all encompassing term, like Kleenex. Hopefully that brand recognition keeps Case afloat.
Click to expand...

When I was a kid ln the 50's, a "case knife" was a generic term, just like that. I was oblivious to the brand. We had the steel-sided scout knives and army knives (probably Camillus, but no one knew or cared). Slipjoints were either "case knives" or "jackknives", used pretty much interchangeably.

The only knife brand I noticed before about 1962 was Warther's, because my father hailed from Dover, Ohio, home of Warther Cutlery. I still have a couple of pieces with their distinctive engine-turned blades. I was probably eighteen or twenty before I realized there were different brands of SAK.

The other brand I recall from my adolescence was Herter's, the sporting goods mail order house located in Waseca, MN. There were Herter's-branded knives, but we were really more interested in the three-tined frog stickers that you mounted on a broomstick.
 
My grandfather, through the turn of the century/millenium, carried a Buck slipjoint. My Dad, born 1951, had a couple of Imperial slippies. Someone in the early 80's gave my grandfather a commemorative Case lockback, and I recall everyone being somewhat awed with it being a Case. I was probably eight years old or so at the time and I remember being confused about whether the word "Case" was a proper noun or referring to the nice leather clambox that the knife came in. My grandfather never took it out of the commemorative clam box though as far as I ever knew. His Bucks worked just fine, and I think the blade having a prominent college football coach's image and record engraved on it made it too nice to use. Granddad passed about ten years ago, but that Case is still sitting on top of Granny's TV as far as I know; I haven't been back in a little over a year.

That's Mobile, Alabama, for geographical reference.
 
I do remember growing up in the 60's in a middle income community the most popular knives carried was the Schrade Old timer until Bucks 110 became popular.Most of us kids had Imperial shell knives,I started scouts with an Imperial Kamp King and pocketed even to school a Saber Ireland jack which I still have both:)My Grandpa had Ulsters one jack and a pearl.The only knives my Dad had was a Colonial lb which was a safty award and a Vic with a Schrade tl-29 he keep on his tool belt.Now the coolest was my Dads Mom had a Imperial Tuxedo that I inheareted..
 
Growing up in Northern NY in the 70's, Imperial and Schrade ruled the roost. The barbershop in my small town (pop. 300) actually had a nice Case display which we drooled over. Never saw a Buck knife during that time. A lot of the old timers still had/used old Marble's fixed blades. Fairly poor region but the men valued a good knife highly.
 
I lived in Pennsylvania until I was 12, and we kids had "ForrestMaster" and Kutmaster scout knives. When I moved to Texas, I saw Buck, and Case, and lots of Schrade Old Timers.

Recently, an old Texan told me that those knives were more popular than Camillus and some other brands because Southerners didn't like carrying a federal shield. I really can't say if there's any truth to that, but I suppose it's possible, especially fifty years or so ago.
 
When I was a boy I remember Buck Knives at the local hardware/sporting goods store - got my first Buck (a 301) there in the early 1970's. I also remember Case in the same stores; my impression when I was a boy was that a Buck Knife was like a Chevy truck or a Winchester rifle (good, solid, standard grade) while a Case was like a Buick Sedan or a Browning Shotgun (high end goods). I began selling building materials to lumberyards in 1983; most of the lumberyards in eastern NC had a hardware store up front and that store had pocketknives. I saw more Schrade Old Timer and Uncle Henry displays than any other brand (Buck was big at the gunshops and sporting goods dealers, while I saw Case and Schrade at the lumberyards). It is still that way around here - some of the display cases are nearly as old as I am - unfortunately the knives aren't! OH
 
arizonaranchman said:
Yep back in those days - I remember them - you were stuck with what was carried by your local stores. Unless you wanted to drive untold miles in search of something different, which of course didn't happen. Whatever your hardware store or Sears or Montgomery Wards carried was your choice and you made do. They worked fine and nobody knew any better.
Click to expand...

This was my experience growing up in south Florida in the '70s. Most hardware stores and sporting good stores (the ones that used to carry more hunting and fishing gear than anything else) in my area carried Schrade Old Timers and Uncle Henry knives, and several models of Buck. I came of age during the time that every other guy between the age of, say, 15-45 toted a Buck 110 on his belt. A few places in the mall carried Victorinox. I can't remember any Case knives around at all.

-- Mark
 
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