TIME TESTED “TRADITIONAL” MODERN PRODUCTION KNIVES

For me the icons for 30 years are still icons. I'm lucky to have them all (Sebenza recently) and feel quite well knifed.

Buck 110/112
Victorinox SAK
CRK Sebenza
Spyderco Delica/Endura
 
Spyderco Native. I don’t currently own one but I remember that one of the first models was sold at Walmart for $37.98 back in 2007 or thereabouts. It was an inexpensive way to try out S30V which was gaining popularity at the time.

To the best of my knowledge, Spyderco is currently on revision number 5 of the Native.
 
I would nominate the Al Mar SERE knives, both folders and fixed. Although I believe the only fixed ones still produced are the Operator line.

His folders came in several sizes, the larger ones directly aimed at the military market. I think they were the first large folders that were marketed to replace a fixed blade as a SERE/combat field knife.

His fixed blade SEREs with the substantial stainless bolsters and micarta scales were a significant departure from your typical fixed blade sheet metal guard leather handle combat knife at the time.

I think many of his other knives, like the small lightweight very slim and pointy Falcon and Eagle Talon knives for example were quite unique when they came out and possibly influenced other makers along similar lines.

I bought a 3" Al Mar SERE folder in the early 1980s, carried and used it a lot. The lock spring died some time ago but I think I still have it - "somewhere".
 
Le Thiers, depuis 1994

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The reason the "Le Thiers" knife fits this thread so well is that it was cooked up in 1993-4 as the result of a competition. The town of Thiers was the heart of knife production in Auvergne, in central France. For a long time, it was the source of almost every French-produced Laguiole knife, despite that name coming from a town whose knife production had greatly diminished. When the town of Laguiole, in Occitània, clamored for recognition of its parentage of the Laguiole knife (which goes back in modern form to about 1830), and started to revive its knife industry, Thiers decided it needed its own knife with its own name.

Inspired by the gently curving shape of the Le Thiers, Le Confrérie du Couteau Le Thiers commissioned a logo, the top of the "T" being formed by the shape of the knife.

It's a modern knife with a classic pedigree.

https://lethiers.fr/film/

 
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