Gil Hibben designed United Cutlery Knives - are they good or bad?

I can't blame Gil for making a buck but if you want a good Hibben knife you'd need to actually contact the man himself, or his kid. The UC stuff looks nice but that's about it. If you commissioned a knife from the Hibbens directly i suspect you'd have a far more positive outcome.
 
Seeing as how this thread got bumped back to the top, and since I have re-learned how to post pics, I thought I'd post a pic of the four United boot knives that I mentioned in my previous post (#15), plus one more.

The one on the far left with the longer handle is the first one I bought, and the one I torture-tested. Several years ago I modified it and it became what I call a "hybrid", a knife made from parts of different knives. I wanted a longer, more hand-filling handle, so I used the handle from a SOG Desert Dagger. I had to create an extension for the tang to keep the end of the handle rigid.

The one on the far right is another hybrid. The blade is from a current model of United boot knife, and the handle is from a V-Tech Recon Bowie. The current United boot knives have slightly longer, but thinner blades than the older ones.

dSzTNix.jpg
 
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yup gil is one of those makers from a martial arts background.
fighting knives would have been in his
personal interest.
guessing uc hibbens will not attain graildom with knowledgeable knifefolks for sometime yet.
it would be a rare thing for cheaper replicas,
to emulate the task/performance of the real thing.
but beggars can't be choosers when that's
the best or only option available to them
for the money.
i dunno perhaps, some things are made to be looked at (like kit rae art knives) and that
it may inspire or delights some buyers without the demands of actual knife usage.
its admirable just how well some brands do
really excell in filling a niche because of demand ??! :)
 
unwisefool said:
How do you put all those knives in your boots? I barely have room for my feet, let alone knives.
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Yeah, I share the problem. My boots are all full of pork chops so that I can test out any new Cold Steel knives I get.

The UC 26 from back-in-the-day was Taiwan made and pretty tough. Kinda the poor man's Gerber MK I if you will. K killgar is right.

I'd use one of their old ones, but wouldn't look at a new one these days.
 
killgar said:
Seeing as how this thread got bumped back to the top, and since I have re-learned how to post pics, I thought I'd post a pic of the four United boot knives that I mentioned in my previous post (#15), plus one more.

The one on the far left with the longer handle is the first one I bought, and the one I torture-tested. Several years ago I modified it and it became what I call a "hybrid", a knife made from parts of different knives. I wanted a longer, more hand-filling handle, so I used the handle from a SOG Desert Dagger. I had to create an extension for the tang to keep the end of the handle rigid.

The one on the far right is another hybrid. The blade is from a current model of United boot knife, and the handle is from a V-Tech Recon Bowie. The current United boot knives have slightly longer, but thinner blades than the older ones.

dSzTNix.jpg
Click to expand...

That is a really nice conversion, the left one especially.
 
tltt said:
That is a really nice conversion, the left one especially.
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Thanks. I bought a broken Desert Dagger from a friend just so I could get the handle for this mod, it's a very grippy handle and was near perfect in size for the United blade. The tang of the United is a little wider and thicker than the SOG DD, so it fit great. I just had to make a tang extension out of a piece of 1/2" diameter aluminum rod to support the end of the handle and fill the round hole where the DD pommel threaded onto the tang.

Like I said, it's one of my favorite fixed-blades.

pgq1GR3.jpg

Gen2Lxu.jpg
 
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I got a lot of Hibben knives, all from gone era 20-30 years ago.
They are nice, looks very good but
to be honest I didn't use even one even one time !!
Maybe some day ...
Till that day I keep them dry and in boxes :^D
 
Knifelvr97 said:
Hi folks, I recently discovered two knives that I think have a cool design: the Gil Hibben Legacy Bowie and the Magnum Bowie. But I wonder if these blades are only display pieces or if they can really hold up to some serious tasks? Do you have any experience with 7Cr17 and 3Cr13 steel?
Thanks and have a good one;)
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Gil Hibben is a respected knife maker who besides his custom knives, designed all the knives for Browning in the late 1960s. His image sort of shifted towards fantasy knives when he began to be called the "Klingon Armorer". But I still think of him in terms of his old original designs.
United Cutlery has also been around at least since the 1980s as I remember. Originally they had their knives made by Boker in Solingen Germany then by Tak Fukuta in Seki Japan, both respected knife makers. In time, like other companies, they shifted to Taiwan production
and then the brand was bought by Bud-K, and went all China production at which point the brand image got shot to hell. The product line is really just Movie knives, Fantasy Knives, "collectibles" and absurdly mall-ninjaesque "tactical" stuff. The knives you mentioned would be of little to no interest to people who know anything about knives who would likely consider them "garbage" as functional knives. But they would be fine as wall hangers.
 
IMHO you would be better off saving your money and buying a knife that you can count on like a CPK or Busse.
 
Knifelvr97 said:
Hi folks, I recently discovered two knives that I think have a cool design: the Gil Hibben Legacy Bowie and the Magnum Bowie. But I wonder if these blades are only display pieces or if they can really hold up to some serious tasks? Do you have any experience with 7Cr17 and 3Cr13 steel?
Thanks and have a good one;)
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As long as you stay away from the "fantasy" models you should be ok. I have the old west toothpick and the double edge boot knife. I would liken their construction and quality to Buck's classic line. 7cr and 3cr are budget steels, but they should be similar to 420 hc and 420 j2 respectively. Yes they are made in China, but the only other way to get a Hibben is to get a $1,500+ custom. The UC versions are good for the money.
 
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