Knives from 1980

odd · May 26, 2012

So I was born in 1980 and after buying my kids some knives made in the years of their births. I thought it would be cool to find/get some from my year of birth.

So my question is what was made then that is "dateable" to 1980?

I am aware of some of the production knives around then that have dated tangs like Buck and Case. Buck is fairly straightforward but for the Case knives all I have seen is either "red appaloosa bone", yellow derlin(?) "Coke" ones and the "75th green scroll set" in stag what other handle materials were available that year?

Who am i missing out on?

What of customs/handmades?

lambertiana · May 27, 2012

Puma had date codes on all their knives. The ones made in 1980 were good quality.

Piper Maru · May 27, 2012

I own some balisongs from the 80s, and a case knife or two I believe.

odd · May 27, 2012

lambertiana said:
Puma had date codes on all their knives. The ones made in 1980 were good quality.

Cool I will go take a look. thx.

Piper Maru said:
I own some balisongs from the 80s

made by who? (not that im supposed to have them up here in Canada.)

Railsplitter · May 27, 2012

odd said:
So I was born in 1980 and after buying my kids some knives made in the years of their births. I thought it would be cool to find/get some from my year of birth.

So my question is what was made then that is "dateable" to 1980?

I am aware of some of the production knives around then that have dated tangs like Buck and Case. Buck is fairly straightforward but for the Case knives all I have seen is either "red appaloosa bone", yellow derlin(?) "Coke" ones and the "75th green scroll set" in stag what other handle materials were available that year?

Who am i missing out on?

What of customs/handmades?

There were thousands of different variations of Case knives made in 1980. Look up one of those knives that you mentioned and get a good visual of the tang stamp. It should have 10 dots and the "SS" should be in in the shape of lightening bolts, so to speak. Then just do a search for "Case knife 1980". When you find one you like just make sure the tang stamp has 10 dots and the lightning bolt "SS". On the carbon steel knives the "S" in Case and USA will be in the lightning bolt design.

To the best of my knowledge. Buck didn't start using date codes until 1986.

gooeytek · May 27, 2012

Swiss Army Kives, although I'm not sure how they are identified by date. Maybe others will chime in.

Bob W · May 27, 2012

Many knives were SFOs for sales awards, safety awards, advertising, or commemoratives and are are often marked with the year of release. You can probably find these with any year in modern history if you check the online auction site.

1980 was also an election year...

odd · May 28, 2012

Railsplitter said:
There were thousands of different variations of Case knives made in 1980. Look up one of those knives that you mentioned and get a good visual of the tang stamp. It should have 10 dots and the "SS" should be in in the shape of lightening bolts, so to speak. Then just do a search for "Case knife 1980". When you find one you like just make sure the tang stamp has 10 dots and the lightning bolt "SS". On the carbon steel knives the "S" in Case and USA will be in the lightning bolt design.

To the best of my knowledge. Buck didn't start using date codes until 1986.

for the case...yes I got that coding down but thats the thing...I did some searching and the ones I mentioned (red, coke,and 75th) are the only ones I ever see.
and for the Buck I found this some time ago so its what I have been going on
"There is some additional coding for knives made between 1974 - 1986:
1974 - 1980: one dot on either side of the model # (example: .110.)
1980: two dots on the right side of the model # (example: .110..)"
and it goes on...

gooeytek said:
Swiss Army Kives, although I'm not sure how they are identified by date. Maybe others will chime in.

thanks they can be somewhat identified by date but mostly in a range not pinpoint which is unfortunate as I have a few older ones that I would love to know exact years.

Bob W said:
Many knives were SFOs for sales awards, safety awards, advertising, or commemoratives and are are often marked with the year of release. You can probably find these with any year in modern history if you check the online auction site.

1980 was also an election year...

Yes I have seen a few of these but my concern is that for ones that are not marked on blade (like case) it would be more difficult to be sure of exact year of production...still worth looking into though thx.

Railsplitter · May 28, 2012

I got the impression from your original post that you are looking for a slip joint. I was referring to Buck's line of slip joints when I mentioned that they started the date codes in 1986.

I did some searching myself and I see what you mean. I can't find much more in the Case lineup from 1980 than the ones you mentioned. Now you've got me wondering if they made anything else besides those in 1980.

It seems to me that there has to be other Case knives from 1980 but I can't find any either.