Regional patterns in north America?

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
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Feb 2, 2005
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I know that some patterns are popular in Michigan, for example. The Marbles knives, from Michigan, for example. The Grohman/DH Russell pattern from Canada. A maker who's name escapes me at the moment, possibly Ruana, identified with Minnesota? The iconic stockman, identified with Texas for example. Rigging knives identified with the coastal states.

This is more based off an informed speculation than anything else. For instance, the Hudson Bay camp knife and axe and trade knife, those were imported by the Hudson Bay company and traded amongst the Canadian tribes, and used by the company's fur traders. The Virginia riflemen were famous for their long knives in the French and Indian Wars, the Revolutionary war. Use of bowies was prevalent in the south in the years preceding the revolver, and during the Civil War. Jack knives in the urban areas.

I defer to those men and women with more knowledge than me, which is most of you, and I would really love to see some pictures.

The giant knives the Mexican vaquero used, with his meager availability of guns (be careful searching on Google for the Argentinian knives that are similar in design, some of that stuff can be a little xxx)...
 
The Stockman was king in the Ozark mountains where i grewup just a little north of the Arkansas state line in southwest Missouri. Square bolsteted models were much more common than round. I also remember seeing a few Muskrats and the ocasional Barlow carried by some older men. That was about it.
Dedicated hunting knives were rare, most just used their pocket knife and or a kitchen butcher knife once they got back home or to camp. Most folks had a fillet knife for cleaning fish.

Jim
 
Here in eastern NC it was mainly square bolstered stockmans and the occasional trapper.
While I like the stockman style, I have never cared much for the square bolsters as they will wear a hole through your jeans pocket in short order. I wonder why they're so popular even still.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
The giant knives the Mexican vaquero used, with his meager availability of guns (be careful searching on Google for the Argentinian knives that are similar in design, some of that stuff can be a little xxx)...
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Umm... what? :confused:

Do you mean like the name of the design is a homonym with a dirty word?

Also, I'm in California, and if we have a trademark knife, then I don't know what it is. I would guess it's just whatever spills over from Mexico. It's definitely not the "California clip point" though, that's named for the shape, not the place of origin as far as I know.

I see a lot of spring assisted knives though, I think it's because we aren't allowed to have cool stuff here, people are always trying extra hard to push the limits and find loopholes. You see it a lot with guns. We do our darndest to strictly follow the letter of the law while simultaneously defying the spirit of it.
 
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In Western NC in the 60's Barlow seem to be the most carried or at least in my circles but I remember every one talking about the new Buck 110 and then when the 70's came you would see 110 belt sheaths everywhere. Now even though a lot of my friends carry various traditional knives it seems like I see pocket clips are everywhere.
 
Don't know if this fits or not, but how about the push daggers and boot style knives of the riverboat gambler?
 
Grateful said:
The Stockman was king in the Ozark mountains where i grewup just a little north of the Arkansas state line in southwest Missouri. Square bolsteted models were much more common than round. I also remember seeing a few Muskrats and the ocasional Barlow carried by some older men. That was about it.
Dedicated hunting knives were rare, most just used their pocket knife and or a kitchen butcher knife once they got back home or to camp. Most folks had a fillet knife for cleaning fish.

Jim
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I'm assuming that's probably what a lot of my family members used then they were from around White Township Newton County Arkansas.
 
I'm in northwestern PA, home of Queen and Case and GEC, and 50+ old knife company names that have come and gone. I don't think there is really any specific knife that defines my area, there are too many to choose from. I do know that looking at garage sales and flea markets, there are always a few poor quality hawkbills laying for sale. Maybe from all the logging in this area, everyone had one?

I agree with redden, look at what most people carry today around here, it's Walmart cheap foreign tacticals with a belt clip.
 
deltaboy said:
STOCKMANS, Barlows, Sodbusters were pretty much all I saw growing up in Arkansas.
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Grateful said:
The Stockman was king in the Ozark mountains where i grewup just a little north of the Arkansas state line in southwest Missouri. Square bolsteted models were much more common than round. I also remember seeing a few Muskrats and the ocasional Barlow carried by some older men. That was about it.
Dedicated hunting knives were rare, most just used their pocket knife and or a kitchen butcher knife once they got back home or to camp. Most folks had a fillet knife for cleaning fish.
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I certainly don't have any expertise in this matter, but I will say that the only knife I inherited from my grandpa (who lived in Arkansas his entire life) was this stockman.

E7D07408-802B-4B63-8FFC-CC1C75D12734.jpg


So I guess that's three votes for stockman popularity in/around Arkansas. :D
 
Idk about here on the prairie, but the seed and feed salesman used to give away a lot of premium knives for ordering a certain amount of whatever, and they were mostly trappers, pens, and stockman, with trappers probably #1. They would all have advertising on them, like the Purina Chex, or Ralston-Purina, about a stones throw from Lincoln. Co-ops would do the same thing,IIRC, as well as sell a few patterns. But whose gonna buy one if you can get a "free" one? Outside of the hundreds and then thousand(s) you pay for seed and feed.
Thanks, Neal
 
btb01 said:
I certainly don't have any expertise in this matter, but I will say that the only knife I inherited from my grandpa (who lived in Arkansas his entire life) was this stockman.

E7D07408-802B-4B63-8FFC-CC1C75D12734.jpg


So I guess that's three votes for stockman popularity in/around Arkansas. :D
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I wish I could confirm as such with my ancestors but I can't unfortunately, I can only assume, I'm glad to see the answers for Arkansas though gives me a better perspective on what my grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather may have carried.
 
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Another Arkansas boy here, most of what I remember back in the 1980s were stockman knives and probably trappers too. My dad and I both had stockmans, I liked Old Timer 34OT and he had a Schrade stainless, Buck was also popular. I don't remember ever seeing a spear blade or even a barlow but I'm sure they were around.

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The only Barlows i remember seeing when I was growing up in eastern NC in the 60's and 70's were the really cheap kinds that you'd find at the checkout counter of the local feed store or hardware store. I'm talking cheap as in $5-$10 or so when a Buck stockman was selling for $30.
For that reason, I've always looked at Barlows as an inferior style knife, regardless of who makes it.
 
I'm thinking the US doesn't have regional knives in the same way Europe does. Knife manufacturing grew up in a Europe that was already settled and during the industrial revolution was highly localized in terms of government and culture.

In contrast, industrialization spread across the US with the settling of the West and with the context of a comparatively united culture (compared to Europe). Companies like Western literally moved west.
 
Im in nj and honestly, all i see are pocket clips, gerber multi tools and the occasional sak. Ive never seen anyone with a traditional knife except for one old dude i encountered at work. He carried his army issue tl29 on his keyring
 
fishcakes said:
Im in nj and honestly, all i see are pocket clips, gerber multi tools and the occasional sak. Ive never seen anyone with a traditional knife except for one old dude i encountered at work. He carried his army issue tl29 on his keyring
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Yes, that's definitely all I see these days unless I run into an older farmer out in the country.
 
NativeCraft said:
Yes, that's definitely all I see these days unless I run into an older farmer out in the country.
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Yep. Im 26, and i dont know anyone in my age group who carries a knife. Let alone "grampa knives" as my coworker calls slipjoints. Meanwhile, that same cowoeker constantly asks to borrow a knife, yet never takes me up on my offers of giving him one that i dont use
 
Anyone have any regional info about knifes carried in the early days of Oregon? I know it's a lot younger of a state than the east coast, but I'm assuming those who walked the trail brought some kind of regional knife with them


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