Nathan,
A lot of people, no offence to your dogs, hate pitbulls. Some areas ban them. Unless you are specifically looking for an edgy symbol, I wouldn't use it. I'm pretty neutral on pitbulls, but wouldn't want a knife with one on it, I think they are somewhat ugly. They also are part of the whole chopper, lowrider, tats etc... culture. Which, again, is fine, as long as that is a demographic you want. We just recently had a kid literally eaten by a Bull Mastiff in this town, every year we get one or two of these incidents. It's a working class area, mostly, and people have multiple PBs and so forth. It's always the same half a dozen breeds.
If this is a marketing thing, then you have to consider how the broad range of people feel, unless the whole marketing thing is based on a specific, small demographic, or on a "I don't care" kind of edginess.
The revised logo with the name is even worse (IMHO), because for that name to be minimally readable, the dog's head would be huge. Even if you put my pitbull Frank's picture on your knife, I don't want it to be larger than 1/4", and at that size, your name would be illegible. But that is just a practical issue, you can choose what you like from a series of printouts.
I am not comparing pitbulls to swastikas except to say that some symbols are open to multiple readings. I have attached some varied swastika meanings below. Even with these I wouldn't plan on adopting the symbol any time soon.
"design: an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles, all in the same rotary direction, usually clockwise. The Hindu and Buddhist swastika goes in the opposite direction.
meaning: a symbol of prosperity and good fortune, a sun symbol of universality.
derivation: from the Sanskrit swastika: "conducive to well-being." In India, a distinction is made between the right-hand swastika which moves in a clockwise direction and the left-hand swastika ( more correctly called sauswatika), which moves in a counterclockwise direction. The right hand swastika is a solar symbol and imitates in the rotation of its arms the course of the Sun, which in the Northern hemisphere appears to pass from east then south to west. The left-hand swastika more often stands for might the terrifying goddess Kali and magical practice.
In India , Hindus use the swastika to mark the opening pages of account books, thresholds, doors, and offerings. Among the Jains it is the emblem of their seventh Tirthankara.
In the Buddhist tradition, the swastika symbolizes the feet or footprints of the Buddha and is often used to mark at the beginning of texts. Modern Tibetan Buddhism uses it as a clothing decoration. With the spread of Buddhism, it has passed into the iconography of China and Japan where it has been used to denote plurality, abundance, prosperity and long life.
In Nazi Germany, the swastika (G: Hakenkreuz) it became a national symbol. A poet, and nationalist ideologist Guido von List had suggested it as a symbol for all anti-Semitic organizations and when the National Socialist party was formed in 1919 -20 it adopted it. On Sept. 5, 1935, a black swastika on a white circle on a red background became the national flag of Germany. This use ended in May 1945 with the German surrender.
Other uses of the symbol: in ancient Mesopotamia it was a favorite symbol on coinage, In Scandinavia it was the symbol for the god Thor's hammer.. In early Christian art it was called the gammadion cross because it was made of four gammas. It is also found in Mayan and Navajo art."
I just heard Pat Buchanan say something this morning about wedge issues. I think he said they unite your base while deviding the other guy's. If that's what the term means, I misused it.
