Quality gun manufacturer-licensed knives...do they exist?

Joined
Dec 19, 1999
Messages
260
I've seen some threads lately about the crappy POS that is sold under the Smith & Wesson name, and I know that knives sold under the Walther, Colt, Browning labels also tend to be of sub-par quality. Is there a gun manufacturer out there that cares enough about its name and reputation to either manufacture its own quality line of knives, or license that name to a quality maker?

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"I can't believe you stabbed me with this cheap piece of mail-order sh*t"
James Caan in 'Eraser'
 
Beretta. They are perhaps the only quality knives I've seen licensed or made by a gun manufacturer. All the Beretta knives I've seen are made in Japan of decent quality. Their custom collaborations are really nice. Check out the Beretta Avenger. I'd stay away from S&W and Walther crap. Boker makes a tactical folder for HK, which in quality, is comparable to Boker's Gemini series, except it's severly overpriced because it carries an HK logo. Paragon makes a knife for Ruger, but I haven't been able to see one yet. I saw a Benelli catalogue which had some nice looking knives, which they claim are made by Al Mar Knives for them.

[This message has been edited by el cid (edited 03-05-2001).]
 
In addition to those mentioned by el cid, Remington makes a darn good knife. Stay with the more traditional models though! The Browning Knives look good, but I can't vouch for them. I haven't tried one yet. RKBA!
 
Winchester used to have a line of traditional pocket knives out. I used to know who was making them but it has long since slipped my mind. These were in the same class as the Remington knives, brass liners nickel silver bolsters, jigged bone scales, and a nice carbon steel blade. Mostly all slip joints, fit & finish was pretty good. I think I have about half a dozen of them in my knife roll.

I bought one of the cheaper Browning folders a while back mostly just cus I needed a knife fix. Not real good. It's usable, but only just barely, I kind of wish it wasn't, then I could throw the thing away and be done with it.


Mike
 
The Browning knives are mostly good quality, well designed hunting knives made in Seki Japan. There was some marketing confusion where they were claiming 440C alloy blades. In reality they are made from AUS-8. They don't really make "tactical" blades.

If you are a hunter you find that they make great tools for cleaning game. Their AUS-8 blades take extremely sharp edges. I rate knives like this by how well I can shave my face. At present my best "lockback razor" is a Browning.
 
If you can find them the old S&W knives were excellent. Old Browning knives were also top quality but they were all made back in the late 60's early 70's. Most of the Smith's and Browning's were made in Japan or Germany, were 440c (a top steel of yesteryear)and featured nickle silver or brass with well formed cocobolo wood or stag handles and were excellent in fit and finish. Todays Remington and Winchester's are made by Blue Grass or Camilluis, have delrin handles and other then the old designs are standard 440A or it's equivalent ho hum fare. Beretta still does make a superior knife and feature 440C or AUS8 with some in micarta in both folding and fixed blades. With all the effort now toward "tactical knives" in the $100-$200 range I do wish the companies would still put out some of their "old" knives with lots of brass, quality wood,bone or micarta handles in the newer steels. Only the custom Buck 110 (BG42)and Queen (Robsen and Shuredge)pocket folders with REAL jigged bone and ats34 are available that I know of. I miss the days of "manly" knives that included a heavy duty, brown, well oiled sheath in the large folders and fixed blades. These knives filled your hand and were a joy to use and pass around a campfire at the end of the day. Somehow G-10, nylon, delrin, kydex and kraton (all black) just doesn't do it for me. Weldonk
 
El Cid - since you mentioned, it do you have any experience with the Beretta Avenger? If I remember correctly this is the collaboration folder with Warren Thomas, which has the carbon fiber handle and the carbon fiber bonded to the blade. I actually did a search in the forums and came up with very little on this knife. Any more detailed thoughts? I've thought the knife looked pretty cool, and I love to support new technology, when it works.
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I forgot about Winchester Knives, and I have one. The traditional knives are made by Queen Cutlery, formerly Shatt & Morgan. In my openion the finest production traditional knives made. DO NOT buy the zytel one hand knives, they are China made crap! RKBA!
 
The Glock knives are good, once you get a good edge on them. And at $30, not a bad value at all. Springfield, makers of the cool survival gun, the Scout. Have a folder based on the gun. Looks sturdy, but a little crude. Haven't tried one yet.
 
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