Building the collection... What would you consider the iconic knives in US culture?

jac_solar said:
Does anyone currently produce one of these? Or any of the standard bowies?

Regarding Iron Mistress bowie, I don't think I've seen any production releases of this, outside of the ones by United Cutlery and Hibben.
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Steve Voorhis has made many good renderings of that knife.

n2s
 
"Indian" cutting clubbing and chopping tools are very easy to recognize. These tools were born in America and are known world wide, be it stone and wood implements or later tools which used metal and gun stocks etc.
 
gytheran said:
My goal is to come up with a list of widely known 'iconic knives'(in regards to US culture, as 'must have' knives covers a much broader spectrum) that everyone knows and should be a part of any knife collector's collection. These should be identifiable(at least vaguely) by the average knife person(not talking 'us' here).
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A Russell/Green River is as iconic/qunitessential as they come for an US knife, but I don't know if "the average knife person" (not entirely sure what that means) would recognize/appreciate it.
 
Randall No. 1 is probably iconic in the knife world. But choose the pattern you like best.
Just about any Case slip joint with traditional scales is pretty recognizable.
Buck 110; yeah. But you know that already.
Victorinox SAKs even though they are not made in the US.
A switch blade of your preference; generally not US made.
 
marcinek said:
... "the average knife person" (not entirely sure what that means)
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The masses. We don't represent the majority.

Now I'm not saying a US knife... I'm saying familiar knives in US culture... two different things. Everyone knows what a SAK is... they aren't US knives. Do you think someone that's not a knife collector would recognize a Russel/Green River knife as being... a Russel/Green River knife?
 
Buck 110
Buck fixed blade hunter
Bowie knife of any brand
Sak
Old timer stockman
Italian stilleto
In no particular order
also a balisong (butterfly knife)
 
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gytheran said:
The masses. We don't represent the majority.

Now I'm not saying a US knife... I'm saying familiar knives in US culture... two different things. Everyone knows what a SAK is... they aren't US knives. Do you think someone that's not a knife collector would recognize a Russel/Green River knife as being... a Russel/Green River knife?
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That's exactly what I said about "the masses" recognizing it. I wouldn't consider them "average" knife people, like you mentioned in your OP.

But if you are, in fact, going after a collection that "the masses" recognize, like someone earlier mentioned, you might as get some "gas station" knives to go with the cheap stiletto. A SAK is about the highest quality "the masses" are going to recognize.

Wouldn't be the collection I'd build, but to each his own! :thumbup:
 
In addition to all the above, you should also consider an old Gerber aluminum cast-handle fixed blade (fillet with spoon?) and/or a USA made Gerber folding hunter. They were the next level above the Bucks in the '70s and were ground to a finer, more easy to sharpen edge. Going back a little further, virtually no knife is more iconic than an old Marble hunter.
 
I would say a buck 110, most any case knife, kabar and swiss army. Unfortunately iconic (or at least what I consider iconic) knives known by the knife industry but not many others like the spyderco millie and para 2, benchmade 710, zt 0200, sebenza, emerson commander and such wouldnt be recognized by the general public, so I would say that your iconic options are limited.
 
Actually, probably the most recognized knife in American history is a Ginsu. Gotta include one of those.
 
marcinek said:
That's exactly what I said about "the masses" recognizing it. I wouldn't consider them "average" knife people, like you mentioned in your OP.

But if you are, in fact, going after a collection that "the masses" recognize, like someone earlier mentioned, you might as get some "gas station" knives to go with the cheap stiletto. A SAK is about the highest quality "the masses" are going to recognize.

Wouldn't be the collection I'd build, but to each his own! :thumbup:
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Well, the point is not to play semantics... this forum represents a small niche in the knife market. There are plenty of people who like and buy knives who are not apart of the niche we fall into. And there are plenty of quality knives those people would recognize, as you can see from the replies in this thread.
 
TheChunk91 said:
I would say a buck 110, most any case knife, kabar and swiss army. Unfortunately iconic (or at least what I consider iconic) knives known by the knife industry but not many others like the spyderco millie and para 2, benchmade 710, zt 0200, sebenza, emerson commander and such wouldnt be recognized by the general public, so I would say that your iconic options are limited.
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Oh I agree. It's a lot easier to pinpoint the most popular knives of a particular brand. My goal was easily identifiable blades to add to the collection for non knife nuts to recognize. :)
 
GET ... A ... DA** ... CASE PEANUT!

It is all you'll ever need, trust me! Everything else is just decadence!

After that you go and apply to Carl to join the cult! :D

Then you are free, because you have all your need covered and can buy anything you like! ;)

Cheers,
Bernd
 
I'd suggest a plain old box cutter or utility knife. Besides a SAK, that's the only thing I think most of the US would recognize.
 
jc57 said:
Knives I remember from growing up in the 60s-70s:
Boy Scout knife - blade, awl, can opener, bottle opener, bail.
Red-handled Swiss Army Knife - pretty much same blades as the scout knife, but plus a corkscrew
Barlow knife - I used to think it was a brand name, not a style.
Buck fixed blade hunter - the one with black handles
Buck folding hunter (110)
"Army knife" - the Ka-bar military knife
Switchblade knife - from movies
Bowie knife - also from movies
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^^^^this is pretty accurate.
I would add these;
Rambo movie knife (First Blood) even though in reality almost no one actually owns a quality version of these.
The "Made in Taiwan" camper with the HUGE fork and spoon on the outside of the scales.
The WWII Demo (all metal camper) and TL-29 knives (millions of these made that went to war came home and went into pockets, desk drawers and tool boxes)
And also the WWI trench knives with the brass knuckles, I think most folks have seen these too one way or another.
 
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