The 80's!! Anyone remember knives from the 80's??

I got my first knives in the late '80s (I was born in '82). I remember mostly SAKs, Buck and Böker slipjoints and lockbacks. The fixed blades to have (in Argentina, at least) was the Aitor Jungle King and the Puma White Hunter.

My dad EDCed a Böker scout with stag handles that I lusted after. I loved that thing, I used to make up excuses to borrow it. My dad knew that if he wanted me to take care of some boring chore, all he had to do was tell me I could use that scout knife to do it.
 

IMG_2265 by Austinaftermath1, on Flickr

Left to Right

NATO otf, '89 Jaguar Balisong, Frost Cutlery Brass Balisong, Korean Rizzuto Clone, Fake Stag Japanese ( some of these were marked Valor or Frost this specific one just says "Vanadium Stainless Steel Japan", and my favorite a Spyderco Police P.I.G. from '84
 
No one who lived through the 80's remembers anything. :D

But yeah, I remember the good old days of cheap survival knives at drugstores, "Tiger Knives", and wood handled Pakistan daggers.
Good times. :)
 
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goodeyesniper said:
sorry, yeah I knew that was a new iteration, but the overall design is from the eighties, wasn't going to go searching for an old pic. still in love with your collection.

by the way what is with the "switch" on that Camillus Stockman?
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That is actually a slide lock for the main blade. Kind of an oddball fixture that you don't see often.

not2sharp said:
Back during the 1980s we all craved:
1) The original Cold Steel Tanto, as featured in every issue of Soildier of Fortune.
2) A hollow handled survival knife - either the original Lyle or Crain versions or one of the production knives by Buck (184), Gerber (BMF), AL Mar, Randall, Chris Reeves, or the rest.

n2s
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Yup. I still have my CS Tanto, at least what's left of it, and an old hollow handle or three.
 
In the 80's, my friends parents would order us knows from a BUDK catalog.

I rememberthose survival knives with kits in the handle, very cheap and rusted in a week.

I miss butterflies.
 
Queen cuterlery BIG CHIEF every kid in my neighborhood had one. They were 5 bucks at the local outdoor store
 
Tekna- they had a very nice dive/survival knife with a slick GRN sheath.

Buck had the 184. Rambo had the Lile, and the 184 allowed the average guy to own something very close to it. I think it cost about $85 at the time, a lot back then. Liles First Bloods went for around $300-400. The 184 sheath had a stone built-in on the backside, and webbing slots for two nylon pouches on the front.

Gerber had the LMF, about as neat as the Buck 184 except that it didn't have the hollow handle. Gerber made some good knives back then. Top notch in fact. Sad where they are today.

Cold Steel was relatively new in the early 80"s. Their tanto folders were very high tech. The kraton handles and the laminated blades were pretty incredible for those used to Buck 110's.

I had them all, and a few other brands that are long gone.

The knives of the 70's weren't nearly as exciting. Buck 110's and KaBars were about as high tech as it got in production blades.
 
stabman said:
No one who lived through the 80's remembers anything. :D

But yeah, I remember the good old days of cheap survival knives at drugstores, "Tiger Knives", and wood handled Pakistan daggers.
Good times. :)
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Haha yeah flea market "tiger knives".

I used to get Smokey Mountain Knife Works catalogs and order like $30 worth of their cheapest stuff. Then I'd sell it to kids at school for double. Stuff like the cheap paratrooper knife that folds out of the handle.

Always lusted over Gil Hibben stuff. Now I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
 
stabman said:
No one who lived through the 80's remembers anything. :D

But yeah, I remember the good old days of cheap survival knives at drugstores, "Tiger Knives", and wood handled Pakistan daggers.
Good times. :)
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I thought that was the 60's.
 
70's were Black Cats and Schrade, Imperial or Ideal for those of us who couldn't afford Buck knives. :) I carried a broken tipped Camillus Barlow carbon steel with sawcut delrin for years up until it was taken from me upon entering army boot camp at Ft. Mclellan, AL. Heck, most units I was in didn't allow any knives in the barracks and having one found in a health and welfare was an Article 15. We kept bayonets and night sticks in our wall lockers so that never made much sense to me.

Anybody recall Edge company kit knifes of autos? How about Cutlery shop catalogs? They had the best stuff for those of us that didn't want stainless fixed blades. They had knives like the Seki Cut HSEK. First one I bought took me 30 years and some help from Sal G. to find. According to Seki Cut owner he stated it was M2 ( JIS equiv.). It is also convexed, with Micarta and well worth the search. They also made a rubber gripped 440C model with the convex edge and it was nice, but not what I obsessed over.

That was the second multi decade search I made. The first was a real Gerber Sportsman 2 "V" steel ( Vascowear) blade I could not afford back then, just like the HSEK. I finally found it in around 2009-2010 from a dealer on the gun show circut who I knew for over 20 years. She had it at home in her deceased husbands collection NIB and sold it to me at dealer price ( I used to sell on the local circut, though no longer do)

I never bought a real Buck 110 until the 2000's not because I couldn't afford them still, but I was a Spyderco/Kershaw user by then. I custom shop BG42 110 was too nice to pass up, followed by another.

In each of the above cases the long wait made the feeling all the better when I finally got the knife I had wanted for decades. I had many other knives it took time to get but none quite as dramatic as a 3 decade wait.

One still eluding me is the Bosen Enkuto (sp?) in SRS 15, a stainless powder steel from Japan that resembles a stainless powder steel. I've tried to get one for years now. They changed it to SLD steel, then I believe they dropped it altogether. SRS 15 should be familiar to those who are into chefs knives

Joe
 
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Schrade LB7 and a 2 3/4" Western lockback with a black plastic handle were my two "good" knives. I found a no name made in Japan peanut slip joint on the playground at school in 5th grade or so. Gerber and Buck were top shelf items, way out of my price range. Lots Pakistan made junk.

My 1st knife with better blade steel was a Gerber with ATS-34, but that was the early 90's.
 
Survival knives, Buck, Gerber, Cold Steel Tanto's Chris Reeve Integals. Moran Damascus, the beginning of the one handed folder, Spyderco, SOG. Benchmade Fixed blades, Mamba, Delta Raider, Bushmaster, Fer De Lance. Gerber was a class brand, Oh the memories.
 
Cobra-NightSlasherKnife.jpg

:D
 
an elderly friend of the family gave me the barlow knife on the bottom right of the pic. it was the 80s and i was 13 or 14. it says 'the ideal' on the tang.
IMG_13311.jpg

the parker trapper on the top right was 'borrowed' from my dad in the late 70s. tried to give it back recently but he told me to keep it. lol
 
Ahhh the 80's :)


KBar fish knife, home made knife that I found washed up on the beach, Buck (102?) Schrade Sharpfinger, Camillus Steelhead fillet,
Buck 112 and 110.


Al Mar... forgot the name and model.

Paragon was the place to go drool back in 80's NYC...
The Cutlery Shoppe catalog was eagerly devoured...
SOF with Bill Bagwell's articles as well.

On the 007... My uncle was a cop. Sometime in the 70's he brought one home and my cuzzin got a hold of it.
He was flipping it open in his room. The last time he flipped it, the pivot pin fell out, the blade went across the room and hit the wall next to his buddy's head.
I've heard it more than once, the 007 is the knife is the reason for the NYC gravity knife laws...
 
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