Primbles?

Jazzman

Jazzman

Joined
Jan 11, 2001
Messages
2,750
I bought 2 Primble folders off of SMKW this past week and they should be arriving sometime soon. What should I expect as far as quality?
Thanks,
Matt
 
Matt,

I was looking at those real hard in the catalog as well. The price seemed too low for Primbles. Maybe someone else owns the name now or something. They looked nice, though. Let us know how they are.

Thanks
 
Jazzman, another interested party here. I saw them in the SMKW catalog and did some searching here and on knifeforums but most of the posts were around a year old and mentioned various manufs over the years. I am especially interested in their black delrin 4-blade stockman.
 
Bluegrass cutlery owns the brand name. They bought it in the early 1980's when Belknap hardware folded. They had been in businees since the 1840's.

As far as I know, three manufacturers have made Primble marked knives for Bluegrass. Colonial made some (mid range quality), but Colonial is now out of business.

Queen was contracted to make 200 each of 36 patterns in 1995. These were a "one-shot" run, very high quality. Bluegrass still has some left (apparently) as they show them on their website.

Utica Cutlery Company has made a bunch of them, including the 4-blade stockmans. These are of low to mid range quality, IMHO.

Are these knives shown on line anywhere? I'd like to take a look at them.
 
knifeaholic, I can't seem to get to their site right now but they are at www.eknifeworks.com. you can click on "brands" on the left side of their homepage and then click on "primble" or you can do a search from their homepage for primble.
 
APS:

I took a look at the knives. Thanks for the link. The more expensive ones are definitely the Queens.

The less expensive ones are the cheapo ones made by Utica.
 
I just recieved my package from SMKW and the knives are better than what I expected. I would compare them to Old Timers as fas as quality and steel are concerned. The blades have good snap and came with a nice, even polished edge. The black wormgroove delrin handles look a tad bit cheap but I think I'll get used to it.
Thanks guys,
Matt
 
Thanks for the update Jazzman. I guess it may be a hit and miss kind of thing for $20. Their 4 blade stockman is calling me for $20.
 
BTTT

I have been searching for a Barlow pattern and found some Primbles from Blue Grass Cutlery on the same web site that Jazzman mentioned. They want $65 for the ones with bone scales. From the info above, I assume that these were probably made by Queen? It just says carbon steel blades, anyone know what steel they use?
 
Those barlows are actually made by Utica Cutlery Co. Quality not quite up to Queen...but still good. They say carbon steel which I suspect may be chrome vanadium.
 
Oops, my mistake. I tought we were the older ones. I didn't they had expanded they're new Primble line-up.
 
Bob:

I can never be sure who makes what - but it appears that BG is having three different companies make the Primble knives.

They have used Utica for some time now. Utica is little known today - in the 30 plus years that I have collected knives, I have never once seen their knives in a retail store or in a dealer catalog. But apparently they are still at it - I think their website is www.kutmaster.com.

I recently saw on ebay some new Primbles made by Camillus (at least by the look of them). They looked just like the Moore Maker "working knives", except with jigged brown delrin handles.

I also saw on ebay a Primble canoe that appeared to be of Queen mfg, and different shield than on the Primbles that Queen made in 1995.

What's too bad is, BG has not updated their website in at least seven years, so they don't show any of this stuff.
 
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