Mad Dog Knives

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John Phillips said:
Interesting…So far there hasn’t been some overwhelming defense of why these sell for thousands and it seems most agree that it’s kind of ridiculous. It seems that the overall consensus is “meh” and they somehow marketed the hell out of slightly above average ordinary knives. I’m still open minded to anything or any reason someone may know of…..
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To make it official: rhino says, "Meh."
 
You would find the biggest dust off to ever hit these forums. It happens during the early days of Bladeforums and consumed the collective energies of the entire site for weeks.
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I'm sorry - I don't follow what you're saying?
Can you clear that up a bit for me?
I'm unsure of the meaning of "dust off".

TIA.
 
luethge said:
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I know little about why this makers knives cost what they do. There are many members here much more knowledgeable on this subject than myself.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m actually pretty interested in this threads content.

What I do know is.. Mr Mad Dog made some knives that made it into production for a SEAL team, early to mid 90’s. If I remember correctly.. the knives were 01 tool steel that had been plated ( can’t remember if it was Nickel or Hard chrome ?) to resist corrosion in salt water / chemical environments. The blades had some kind of proprietary heat treatment and were described as nearly indestructible. I know very little about his knives, never handled one myself.

I remember seeing “Mad Dog”, “Busse”, “Strider” knives being described as the knives that can’t be broken.. cult followings, chosen by special forces etc.

(I do love INFI and will proudly support Busse - excellent customer service).

Why do these knives go for so much $$ ?

Also , what does para military experience entail ? Was Mad Dog enlisted Military at some point ?
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The "TV show" - if you can call it that - lasted 6 episodes before Discovery pulled the plug.....they knew who and what he really was.
No "SEAL knives" made it into production from what I remember. He got a contract but couldn't produce the knives for the price quoted, so he made a bunch of "civilian versions" and sold them on the open market for a lot more to "raise cash to cover the losses that would be incurred making the knives practically for cost to fill the contract"......The Navy didn't see it that way and canned him.
He claimed to be a lot of things.....and never one bit of proof. Con man all the way.....
 
Arathol said:
No "SEAL knives" made it into production from what I remember. He got a contract but couldn't produce the knives for the price quoted, so he made a bunch of "civilian versions" and sold them on the open market for a lot more to "raise cash to cover the losses that would be incurred making the knives practically for cost to fill the contract"......The Navy didn't see it that way and canned him.
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I used to be a dealer for MD before and at the beginning of the drama.

Another company picked up the slack and supplied him with roughly 200 blanks to try and fill that contract.
 
not2sharp said:
You would find the biggest dust off to ever hit these forums. It happens during the early days of Bladeforums and consumed the collective energies of the entire site for weeks.

n2s
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Are you referring to the time Cliff Stamp broke not one, but two Tusks, chopping wood and the fire storm that followed?
 
I'm sad we never got -

Dark Genius: A Child Prodigy in the Shadow of the CIA​

Kevin McClung, Author Knightsbridge Pub. Co. $22.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-56129-142-7

Fresh out of high school, McClung in the mid-1970s went to work for a small firm in California's Silicon Valley designing such items as a pen-gun, a laser-sighted rifle, an exploding ashtray and a high-tech thumbscrew, all for sale in the international arms market. He was shocked to learn that the company was run by ``crass profiteers and mean-spirited opportunists'' whose business dealings were often illegal. Later he discovered that they were thinking of having him murdered, fearful that he was going to blow the whistle on them. McClung went into hiding, camping out in the Sierra Nevada for a couple of years. He now produces custom-made guns and knives ``somewhere in central California.'' Basically this is an entertaining tale about a precocious young man who got involved in a sleazy fly-by-night business that may or may not have been backed by the CIA. Rivele is coauthor of Lieutenant Ramsey's War .

_______________________

Apparently there are a couple of copies roaming around before the project got scrapped.
 
Arathol said:
The "TV show" - if you can call it that - lasted 6 episodes before Discovery pulled the plug.....they knew who and what he really was.
No "SEAL knives" made it into production from what I remember. He got a contract but couldn't produce the knives for the price quoted, so he made a bunch of "civilian versions" and sold them on the open market for a lot more to "raise cash to cover the losses that would be incurred making the knives practically for cost to fill the contract"......The Navy didn't see it that way and canned him.
He claimed to be a lot of things.....and never one bit of proof. Con man all the way.....
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I think it has been mentioned before in years past but Benchmade made a large number of those early Mad Dog SEAL Team blades. I was in the factory back then and saw the pallet of blanks. I can't remember anymore but it was like 500-1000. Rumor has it that most of those ended up on the civilian market rather than being sent to the navy. So much for secret knifemaking techniques.
 
LuckyC said:
Are you referring to the time Cliff Stamp broke not one, but two Tusks, chopping wood and the fire storm that followed?
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IIRC, It started with Cliff Stamp doing a simple friendly comparison test between several popular knives (the kind of stuff we see all over Youtube now) and Kevin McClung refusing to accept Cliff's performance ranking, which had his knife coming in third.....

n2s .
 
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