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Fight'n Rooster knives

I thought I might post my fairly meager collection of F-R stockman knives and the one and only congress pattern I own. Actually I may have another congress pattern by Bulldog, but I'm not sure that's what it actually would be called.

The Congress is a small knife. I put one of the stockman pattern by it for reference.

Stockmen? :

knives071310001.jpg


The Congress:

knives071310002.jpg


All of these knives have the (dreaded) celluloid scales, but they do look nice now.

Ed
 
Yep. They are some of my most regarded knives. Nobody is capable of doing what Frank Buster and the small factory he worked with in Germany has done. Those are days gone by and never to be repeated again.
Greg
 
One of the neat things about collecting F'nRs is the wide variety of patterns, some strictly Traditional and others are F.B.'s own creation, and each comes in a variety of handle materials. I have about 100, but there's still quite a few patterns i don't have.
I don't have any of the "& Sons". Are these of equal quality as the earlier ones ?
I also don't have any of the ones that Frank's son, Stirling, is having made now bearing the "Celebrated" stamping. To me they are not real F'nRs.
roland
 
I think I got the celebrated ones, and I would pass on those. I have 3, and they really are not that great. I have to keep the end of day for my daughter, otherwise, I would have traded or sold it. She wants that one when I go to be with the "Great knife collector in the sky."

I am thinking of rescaling the toe nail. It is of very poor craftsmanship. If I screw it up, I may make some sort of a long sticked weapon or walking cane with the blades hidden in the handle just for fun.
 
In the '80's and the '90's, if you wanted to get a hold of Frank ("Cuz") Buster ( he went by the name of "Cuz" and that is what folks called him), you had to call or go by the shop in Lebanon Tennessee around 11:00 PM or later. That's when you stood the best chance to catch him upstairs in his office drawing up new knife configurations. That is where and when he dreamed his pocket knives together. In the early 1980's and beyond, Fight'n Rooster, Colonel Coon and Cripple Creek knives where small knife producers and creators of knife clubs that spread across the country but where predominant in the Eastern and South Eastern United States. Their knives were, and still are, highly collectible and one of a kind knives. Fight'n Rooster having their knives produced in the renowned cutlery factory in Olbertz, Germany had the most knives to offer at a continuous pace at that time.( Cuz stuck his neck out in a business sense to produce these knives.) With Harris's Colonel Coon and Cargill's Cripple Creek being much smaller operations, Fight'n Rooster had an edge on the collector's market as far as availability was concerned and continued to pump out knives that were exciting and broke the mold of the traditional pocket knife. No one knife was ever produced to the saturation point and although knife clubs that used to congregate for bar-b-ques and get together's have dissipated in the last decade or two the Fight'n Rooster knife club still lives on as far as I know. You might want to check with Sterling Buster on that one. One thing is for certain, no matter what your opinion is of these knives, nobody and I do mean nobody has ever been able to even come close to the way the cutler's at Olbertz finished the pearl on a Fight'n Rooster pocket knife. During this period, early 1980's to mid 1990's, Fight'n Rooster, Colonel Coon and Cripple Creek where the hottest pocket knives to be collected and their legend still lives today.
Greg
 
Greg, thanks for that bit of F'nR history. Do you have any of the "& Sons" ones ? Is the quality as good as the knives with the previous 2 stampings ?
Have you bought or handled any of the "F'nRs" turned out recently by Sterling Buster ?
roland
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Where wild paper wheels roam free.
Posts: 6,594
I think I got the celebrated ones, and I would pass on those
Click to expand...

No reason to do that. You can't just look for a tang stamp that has" Celebrated" on it and write it off as not being as good as the earlier knives. The ones that precede the Celebrated stamped knives aren't that much different but do signify a different era which rates them as a preferred collectible in Fight'n Roosters. You just need to look at the handle materials a little closer because what wasn't available with the Frank Buster Cutlery stamp became available with the Celebrated stamp. No biggie. The Pearl, Gold Leaf, blade grinds and the rest of the enhancements done to the knives produced with the Celebrated stamp are essentially the same. There are just more of them. What I mean by "more of them" is being of greater quantity than the Frank Buster Cutlery stamped knives. If you look at the time frame of the FBC stamped knives, The FB&Son stamped knives and the Celebrated stamped knives you'll see that the time frame that they were created in is of varying lengths. The Celebrated stamped knives have been in production for the longest time and you will see more of them than the others. Personally. I am not crazy about any of the knives that have been produced since Cuz's passing but do admire most of the ones he was responsible for. Get to know your knives Fellas. Just something to think about.
Greg
 
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hello all,

i was just wondering what one should expect to pay for one of these knives ?
ive never heard of this brand do they have any connection to the hen and rooster
knives ? i know a man who would really appreciate one of these thanks for your
time

frank
 
Frank,
You can see them quite frequently on ebay. They sell from $50 to and even over $100 quite regularly as a ball park, depending on pattern, scale material, condition, etc. Even if you are not signed up, you should be able to see them for sale there.

I do not believe they are akin to Hen and Rooster, but I am not 100% sure of that. I just have never heard them being associated as Queen is to Schatt, Bulldog, or Robeson.
 
thanks cj65,

i havent looked them up yet but will soon

thanks again for the info

frank
 
can anyone post a close up pic of the ricasso?
i havent been able to make it out much thanks

also are these still being produced ? if not are these considered users or are
they now only collectors items ?
 
Fellas, the Fight'n Rooster knives with the Frank Buster Cutlery stamp are usually the most sought after because they were the first ones to come out and of high quality. The quality didn't diminish in the changing of a tang stamp. Some people call the FBC stamped knives "First Generation". Sound familiar? Well, if you break it down and look at it as a generational thing I guess they are and makes them identifiable by name. . The ones with the Frank Buster and Son stamp have the same quality as the ones stamped Frank Buster Cutlery but Cuz ( Frank to you Yankees) having pride in his young boy created this stamp as a family legacy. Something most people would understand, wish they were able to do and mainly because that's what Cuz decided on doing. New son, new stamp meant new ideas and new knives. So he made them. That's the big transformation. Now as all savvy knife producers have learned including Cuz, Bob Cargill, Hariis, Case and others before them, you need to keep the ball rolling and keep the buyers interested in order to stay in business, make more knives and hopefully a buck or two. When your kniives are as sought after by collectors as these knives were and you want to keep their interest up what do you do. Keep making the same thing or create/invent something new that won't really change what is already on the drawing board and still be able to use the materials you already bought? Hey, I know, we'll just change the tang stamp and everybody gets what they want. That my friends is how a new era comes to being. Nothing new and will be repeated time and time again. 'Cept for one thing. I like the way Cuz did it. Don't go by the tang stamp, look at the knife. Ain't that what Bernie told ya'll to do?? Damn.
Greg
 
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Greg, I am "reading the knife" and think there MAY have been some decrease in quality over time and hence can be somewhat associated with the 3 stampings.
The earliest F'nRs came out in 1976. At this time Solingen still had some highly skilled older cutlers. For example that's why AGR bought Hen & Rooster, but that folded in 1980 and the subsequent H&R branded knives were never as good.
By 1994 when the F'nR stamping was changed to "Frank Buster & Son Celebrated Cutlery" many of the former 'old time' cutlers had passed on and were not replaced by cutlers of the same highly skilled level and depth of experience
Overall, the quality of Solingen produced knives had been in decline for many years by the 1990s, in part because likely it was more exciting for those entering the workforce to become involved with BMW or Mercedes or other German industries that were benefitting from the "Yuppie Boom Times". ( Yes, these car companies were not in Solingen, but you get the gist).
This decline in quality of German knives over this time span can also be seen in the Eye Brand knives and i believe in all Solingen produced knives.
roland
 
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You will need to post pictures if you want to ID a knife. I recommend starting your own thread WITH those pictures in the Bernard Levine Forum. As a registered user, you may ask for ID, but not value.

I moved your request to buy over to the "wanted to buy" forum.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/683-Wanted-to-Buy-Knives

As a registered user you will be able to see your post, but not those of others. Gold members and above will be able to see your post as they are able to sell knives.

A perusal of the forum posting rules would be advisable.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/faq.php
 
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