Stainless Steel Bolsters in production slip joints. Where?

I

il Coltello

Joined
Oct 20, 1998
Messages
301
Hi all.

I have been hit badly by the knifebug after years of suppressing it. Now I am back and into traditional slip joints. I began anew with the Case Sway Back Jack which is very well put together. Great knife.
As I have nickel allergy in my family I should probably avoid nickel silver bolsters. The question is where to find a smaller (3 1/2 inch) slippie with stainless steel bolsters (or even titanium or aluminum)?
So far I have only seen stainless bolsters in custom knives or in custom/factory collaborations at around $300, which is rather expensive in my opinion. The closest I have seem so far is the Moki Renaissance at $100 but it is no longer available.

Thankful for suggestions.
 
Great Eastern Cutlery has made several knives with carbon steel bolsters. The most practical would be a two blade 73 Scout Model the 735211stl. Another pattern they made was a regular Sunfish. 362211stl I believe is the pattern number. There may be others.
 
Yes, I see that some of the Buck 303's (Buck Cadet) with plastic handles are indeed stated as having stainless bolsters and liners. But the more I look into it, the more contradicting info about the 300 series bolsters I find. The very same model of knife is said to have stainless bolsters on this webshop and nickel silver on that. It remains an uncertain card.
 
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I started once to research back to see if any Buck 300 actually had stainless bolsters. With the first check, I also found two answers in the same statement. For now I would say, just think of all 300s as nickle silver. If any are SS they are discontinued models from several years ago.......

If I find a all stainless 300 model I will get you the information. With all that said I believe that current Buck 500 series are all SS .....I would take a look at those. Most are wooden scaled.

300Bucks

PS I went and checked out some catalogs around 2000. They say the 700 series as mention below as nickle sliver also, but the 500 lockbacks are SS linered and bolstered.
 
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The case/bose collaboratioins are stainless liner and bolsters. (The ones I had a chance to handlewere nice)

The GEC with carbon steel bolsters and liners are fantastic! I have a sunfish and barlow with that construction.
 
Don't the earlier 700 series Bucks have ss bolsters? I'm pretty sure mine does. I'm talking about ones with the older Buck logo that looked like this:
BuckColtStockman.jpg
 
The Buck 700 series is a great suggestion. I carried a 703 for several years in the mid 80's to early 90's. Back then no other knife could touch it. It was my all time favorite for a long time until I started collecting and buying more knives. I lost that knife but I liked it so much that I bought two more just a few years ago. Top pic is a 1986. Bottom pic is 1979-1985. (pre 1986) I never had any of the other 700 series knives but that 703 I had back then made a great little companion.

An excellent suggestion and definately worth looking into.

1986Buck703Colt.jpg


1979to1985Buck703Colt.jpg
 
A.G. Russell has offered quite a few traditional models with all-stainless construction. Quality is excellent (both Japan-made and Chinese production, depending on models). Dogleg Trapper and Pinched Peanut come to mind. They are Japan-produced, perhaps also by Moki. A few examples pictured here:

RUS-JT13-CLW-slw.jpg

RUS-JT13-CO-es.jpg

RUS-JJ13ES-cq.jpg
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. Humppa, that Anchor shield is pretty cool. I also just found out about Chief Brand knives which have stainless bolsters, and they do not seem to bad. I have contacted SMKW för international shipping quotes.
 
Ouch. $58.30 for shipping 2 knives at $19 total. I took my chances with ebay instead and ordered a 3½ inch Chief brand mini trapper. $7 shipping feels a little more sound.
 
That´s an amount of money! With 7 bucks for shipping seems really to be more interessting.

Kind regards
 
This is a great question. It is why I suggested an OP6 Opinel to a friend of mine. Its not a slipjoint though and it doesn't have bolsters.
 
Fallkniven TK3, again made by Moki. Lockback but as close to perfect fit and finish wise as you'll get from a production knife:)
 
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