Brand Popularity?

Around Atlanta, Ga. in the 70s I mostly saw Shrade, Case, Sears/Camillus and Buck. My Dad carried a Buck 110, and my Grandfather carried Case knives. There was a knife store in a mall (forget where) that my Dad took me too once. I always remember being enthralled by all the different brands & knives I'd never seen or heard about.

Where I live now the knife brands are mostly what you find in Walmart or Home Depot. There's a local hunting & fishing store that carries some Benchmade & Spyderco, but a lot of people consider them too expensive.
 
Growing up in MS, during the 70s and 80s, I do not recall the knives I saw in the stores. Most of the knives I saw were already purchased or on TV. I was introduced to Buck and Old Timer in the seventies. Then in the 80s I was introduced to the SAK. I'm sure there were other brands floating around but I didn't pay much attention until adulthood. On into adulthood it was Gerber and then Spyderco, but I was in Kentucky by this time and just getting into noticing knife brands. So in answer to the OP's question, from my perspective, I don't think it was so much a regional thing but more about what store you shopped in. Of course, as a kid I did not frequent a lot of hardware stores, so.....
 
Growing up I only had the Swiss army knife that my grandfather had given me when I was 6... I think it was a Christmas gift if I recall correctly. He bought it at my uncle's hardware store. That was my only knife for many years. As a youngster, I lived in the South and a lot of kids had the inexpensive metal "shell handle" knives. I don't recall what was available in stores. The 1st knife that I purchased myself was probably a Schrade 8OT. At the time a Case knife was too expensive... but I do remember admiring the them.
 
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When I was a kid back in the 60's early seventies, the local hardware stores carried Buck, Camillus, and Imperial Schrade. Also, like Carl noted, the Army navy surplus stores had TL-29's that I remember my uncles all used and abused on the job. That's pretty much what we had available on the local level in my small NH town, unless you mail ordered something from a magazine ad. I bought a Buck 112 at about age 14 with my saved up newspaper delivery money. We did a lot of fishing in the rivers and ponds in my town, and most kids had those shell handled fish knives from the cards at the register of almost every store in town. I don't recall ever seeing a Case knife until I was in the Coast Guard, a friend from Vermont gifted me a Large Sodbuster when I lost my Buck 112 over the side of the Cutter I was stationed on. Some of the west coast guys were carrying Gerbers, I'd never heard of them back east. I think a lot of the regional availability depended on what type of stores people had available, and who those stores distributors favored brand wise for their inventory. Todays internet direct marketing, and the eruption of large chain stores has probably homogenized the landscape, and the inexpensive disposable cutlery is "from away".
 
The only thing I was every exposed to in the great city of Topeka, KS was Buck and junk. Buck was popular at all the local hardware stores. I am sure there were some others to be seen, but those are the only ones I remember.

Oh, and of course there were the candy jars full of knives for $1.
 
For me it's really never been about brands as much as design. Sure everybody loves a great built knife with great fit and finish, good blade steel and so on. Not to mention bragging rights. Don't get me wrong I have paid the big bucks for some of my knives with no regrets but there's something special about a good old cheap knife that takes me back to my growing up years. Here in the Southern Appalachian mountains we never had a lot of brand choices and just bought what was available and it seems like most of us at least the people I know still practice that. Here are some of my old cheap knives including one that was gifted to me by someone here on BF. ( Thanks Mike ) that I love and carry although I guess a lot of you would feel they are just junk.

93zIir1.jpg
 
r redden said:
For me it's really never been about brands as much as design. Sure everybody loves a great built knife with great fit and finish, good blade steel and so on. Not to mention bragging rights. Don't get me wrong I have paid the big bucks for some of my knives with no regrets but there's something special about a good old cheap knife that takes me back to my growing up years. Here in the Southern Appalachian mountains we never had a lot of brand choices and just bought what was available and it seems like most of us at least the people I know still practice that. Here are some of my old cheap knives including one that was gifted to me by someone here on BF. ( Thanks Mike ) that I love and carry although I guess a lot of you would feel they are just junk.

93zIir1.jpg
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I don't see any "junk" knives there. :) Is that a 389 below the 371?
 
I remember Buck seemed to be everywhere here in Florida. That's really the only brand I recall.
 
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