Most iconic American folders

Buck 110
Buck 301 stockman
Case 54 pattern trapper
Case 32 pattern medium Stockman
" TL-29 " pattern electricians knife, currently still made by Utica as well as rebranded by Klein Tools.

I think those are about the most iconic American traditional folders still made today.
Sure there's a Chinese version of about everything but I wouldn't really count those myself.
 
What about the traditional scout knife? They have been around forever and were made by many producers over the years.
 
afishhunter said:
baxtrom baxtrom
The RR are indeed made in China. However, they are "inexpensive" not "cheap".
There is a difference.
They do have a fairly good reputation here on the porch. You might fnd this thread ineresting.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/rough-rider-related-slipjoints

Thanks to the greed of Photobucket and the resulting fiasco a couple years ago, a lot of the pictures in the first 100 ~ 125 pages are no more. However, you can still read the comments. :)

The concensus is the are a cut or two above their price point.
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Thanks,
For some reason your link doesn’t work, let me try:
RR thread
I did indeed find that thread before ordering, had a quick look at the first few posts and was pleasantly surprised by the positive reviews. It is of course common on enthusiast forums of all kinds to find the wide spread opinion that anything that costs below XXX $ is crap, especially if made in China, and that the only tolerable quality derives from hand crafting by nuns in some monastery or similar 😉

So, this Swedish guy is looking forward to his China-made American classics 😎

cheers,
Baxtrom
 
Iconic is actually a difficult term...As noted by others, patterns such as Sodbuster, Barlow and Stockman all have their ancestry in Europe due to the influence of Sheffield and Solingen and cutlers emigrating to the US. Add this to the huge and expanding market in America at the end of the c19th early c20th and you set the stage for the popularization of patterns and 'iconic' emerges.

For me as a European, the 'iconic' American Traditional is the Trapper and I suspect it was and is hugely popular in N.America as part of the outdoor ethos and Frontiersmanship etc. It is much less appreciated by users in Europe Ironically, it is perhaps my least favourite Traditional pattern but Congress eclipses it! So it gets my vote for 'iconic' or quintessential American pattern.

Nothing wrong with trying out patterns with RR. and using them. I do find their smaller knives better than the large ones personally but to the OP if you want an 'iconic' American Traditional (rather than folders which can encompass all sorts of knives) Du måste köper en CASE kniv och snart!:cool:

Thanks, Will
 
Will Power said:
Iconic is actually a difficult term...As noted by others, patterns such as Sodbuster, Barlow and Stockman all have their ancestry in Europe due to the influence of Sheffield and Solingen and cutlers emigrating to the US. Add this to the huge and expanding market in America at the end of the c19th early c20th and you set the stage for the popularization of patterns and 'iconic' emerges.

For me as a European, the 'iconic' American Traditional is the Trapper and I suspect it was and is hugely popular in N.America as part of the outdoor ethos and Frontiersmanship etc. It is much less appreciated by users in Europe Ironically, it is perhaps my least favourite Traditional pattern but Congress eclipses it! So it gets my vote for 'iconic' or quintessential American pattern.

Nothing wrong with trying out patterns with RR. and using them. I do find their smaller knives better than the large ones personally but to the OP if you want an 'iconic' American Traditional (rather than folders which can encompass all sorts of knives) Du måste köper en CASE kniv och snart!:cool:

Thanks, Will
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Thanks Will, luckily I am already a happy owner of a case sodbuster in pocketworn whiskey, but these RRs will be my first Stockman and trapper patterns and if I like that I will perhaps order myself some Cases also. I recall looking at a few somewhat less expensive Case knives but they featured synthetic scales and I wanted bone so I ended up with the RRs. Also, that meant I could buy both patterns without feeling bad I spent too much money* on knives

* I am married 😊
 
The iconic American knife is probably the Knife, Pocket, General Purpose Mil-K-818/(NSN) 5110-00-162-2205. Produced in greater numbers and more widely distributed throughout the world than any other American pattern from 1945-2007 (and for a time reintroduced by Queen for Ontario from 2009-2014). Based on the boy scout pattern, its improvements made to speed mass production were incorporated into the 1961 version of the Swiss Army Soldier. So iconically popular that a copy is still being made overseas.
 
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Bartleby said:
The iconic American knife is probably the Knife, Pocket, General Purpose Mil-K-818/(NSN) 5110-00-162-2205. Produced in greater numbers and more widely distributed throughout the world than any other American pattern from 1945-2007. Based on the boy scout pattern, its improvements made to speed mass production were incorporated into the 1961 version of the Swiss Army Soldier. So iconically popular that a copy is still being made overseas.
Click to expand...
So this one? Link
 
Bartleby said:
The iconic American knife is probably the Knife, Pocket, General Purpose Mil-K-818/(NSN) 5110-00-162-2205. Produced in greater numbers and more widely distributed throughout the world than any other American pattern from 1945-2007. Based on the boy scout pattern, its improvements made to speed mass production were incorporated into the 1961 version of the Swiss Army Soldier. So iconically popular that a copy is still being made overseas.
Click to expand...
Why does your post include a foreign phone number? I thought it was a picture link and my phone dialed it !
 
Lesknife said:
Why does your post include a foreign phone number? I thought it was a picture link and my phone dialed it !
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Lol! Ye olde Mil Spec number, followed by the Commercial Item Description National (later NATO) Stock Number that superceded it in 1997.
 
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