Let’s See Your Rarest Knives!

In 1969 Gerber introduced a dive knife that was a modified version of their Magnum Hunter. The Magnum Hunter at the time had a dark green Armorhide coated handle. The dive version, called the Neptune Dive Knife, had a bright orange Armorhide coated handle, inch marks etched on one side of the blade, and came with a heavy duty rubber dive sheath with sharpening steel, and straps. White Stag, from Portland Oregon, had a sportswear line that included SCUBA Dive equipment. The same year, Gerber made a similar dive knife for White Stag called the Super Stag Dive Knife. It has a black Armorhide handle and the same inch marks on one side of the blade as the Neptune. It was advertised in the August issue of Skin Diver magazine on page 6. Very few were made and all had serial numbers starting with 1000. The knife pictured in the advertisements is #1002. I have #1009.
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There were probably many of these knives made, but it's rare to find one nowadays.

Jonathan Crookes (c1780-1827)
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American Shear & Knife Co. (1870-1914)
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My Ralph Bone Kit knife is definitely my rarest. I bought it in not good shape but put a bunch a work into cleaning it up. I'm not quite done with it but it is passable now. My understanding from the book about RalphBone is that there were very few Ralph Bone kit knives sold. This is the only one I have ever seen and I look for Ralph Bone knives everyday. Shown are before and after pics.

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OPSEC-C-C said:
In 1969 Gerber introduced a dive knife that was a modified version of their Magnum Hunter. The Magnum Hunter at the time had a dark green Armorhide coated handle. The dive version, called the Neptune Dive Knife, had a bright orange Armorhide coated handle, inch marks etched on one side of the blade, and came with a heavy duty rubber dive sheath with sharpening steel, and straps. White Stag, from Portland Oregon, had a sportswear line that included SCUBA Dive equipment. The same year, Gerber made a similar dive knife for White Stag called the Super Stag Dive Knife. It has a black Armorhide handle and the same inch marks on one side of the blade as the Neptune. It was advertised in the August issue of Skin Diver magazine on page 6. Very few were made and all had serial numbers starting with 1000. The knife pictured in the advertisements is #1002. I have #1009.
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That is an awesome find. I have collected Gerber knives for over 45 years and have never seen one of them. I have owned a few Neptunes over the years but had no idea that this was made and you have the box and complete kit in mint condition. Stellar collectible! I also like the picture on the front of the catalog with the girl leaning on the twin 72 steel tanks; I would like to see her donning those at about 75 to 80 pounds. I hope you don't mind but I have to save a copy of your pictures. Thanks.
 
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donnord said:
My Ralph Bone Kit knife is definitely my rarest. I bought it in not good shape but put a bunch a work into cleaning it up. I'm not quite done with it but it is passable now. My understanding from the book about RalphBone is that there were very few Ralph Bone kit knives sold. This is the only one I have ever seen and I look for Ralph Bone knives everyday. Shown are before and after pics.

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Here are about 30 of Ralph Bones knives for sale https://www.arizonacustomknives.com/knives-by-maker/bone-ralph/

I have two knifes from Enedino DeLeon who was a student / protege of Ralph Bone. I used to buy knives from him back in the 1980's. I still have one that I drew a picture of and he made for me back then. I can see the similarity in their styles.
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A Hackman Tapio Wirkkala Puukko and "CIA" folding knife. I don't think these are actually "rare", but they are "uncommon", both having been produced by Hackman in the 1970s. I bought them from a catalog back in the day.
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This is a prototype Buck 302. 50 prototypes were made. Note the "301" on the blade. They did not change the tang stamp for the prototypes.
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I have a few that are a little hard to come by.


These UDT knives were issued to US Navy SEALS and UDT members back in the 1960's and are non-magnetic Haynes alloy No. 25, 1156 were made.

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Only 60 of these Spyderco Goddards were made for the Oregon Knife Collectors Association in 1998. The beaver's picture is made from different types of wood.

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1) Custom Emerson CQC-7 Mini.

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William Henry Spatial B12, featuring integral frame & bolsters of heat-blued, hand-forged Mind Meld damascus by Chad Nichols,
jewelry-grade 4.5 billion year old Gibeon meteorite scales with prominent Widmanstatten pattern,
and blade of hand-forged Boomerang damascus blade by Chad Nichols.


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William Henry B12 Adventure, featuring integral frame & bolsters of hand-forged TRex damascus by Delbert Ealy,
scales of ring-cut Wooly Mammoth tusk, and blade of hand-forged Intrepid damascus by Chad Nichols.
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I’ve been strictly collecting LGs for the last 2-3 years. I’ve finally gotten to a stopping point and currently can say there’s only one vecp left I would like to have.

Here are the rarest I’ve been able to acquire.

From top to bottom:

A v1 mefp Talos. Not sure on how many but definitely less than a 100 made. Only 2 batches were done. This one is from the second batch which is when he started using a larger pivot. I’ve seen a handful from the 1st batch but this is the only one I’ve ever seen from the second batch.

A G10 vecp which was a grail of mine because I love the grip and lightweight of g10. I’ve only ever seen one other one in the wild.

A Nichols Boomerang flipper vecp with trichordial(boomerang) milled scales. This was a bladeshow special. It may be a 1 of 1 but I would guess no more than 5 ever made. Les doesn’t remember 😂.

A prototype v2 Talos. 10 total were made, only 3 in the morph milling.

A thumb stud g10 esv. The thumb stud versions of these are already pretty hard to find but I’ve only ever seen 3-4 with the g10 scales.

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vjb.knife said:
Here are about 30 of Ralph Bones knives for sale https://www.arizonacustomknives.com/knives-by-maker/bone-ralph/

I have two knifes from Enedino DeLeon who was a student / protege of Ralph Bone. I used to buy knives from him back in the 1980's. I still have one that I drew a picture of and he made for me back then. I can see the similarity in their styles.
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I was not referring to Ralph Bone Knives in general but rather the Kit knife specifically. You find a Ralph Bone KIT knife for sale let me know.
 
knarfeng said:
A Hackman Tapio Wirkkala Puukko and "CIA" folding knife. I don't think these are actually "rare", but they are "uncommon", both having been produced by Hackman in the 1970s. I bought them from a catalog back in the day.
QYijBV2.jpg



This is a prototype Buck 302. 50 prototypes were made. Note the "301" on the blade. They did not change the tang stamp for the prototypes.
GctjW3k.jpg
Click to expand...
knarfeng, I bought a small Tapio puukko in Finland, then found one right here in the USA at half the price I paid for the one in Finland. I bought one of the larger versions from some hardware store (Brookstone?) back around mid 1970's too. I have several of the "CIA knives, the last one I acquired came from a CIA employee, who said it had been issued to him, so maybe some truth to the stories about them. John
 
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