Traditional Knife Collector Starter Kit?

steve-in-kville

steve-in-kville

Joined
Dec 25, 2001
Messages
1,139
Finally making the jump to the traditional side. Sold off a lot of my "black-n-tactical" blades to invest in traditionals! I own a few traditional Bucks, but thats about it.

So, if you had $100 to spend on two knives, where would you start? PM me links if you must as I have only dealt one dealer in the past number of years (New Graham). If there are any dealers here on BF, let me know!

ETA: I find trappers (and other two blade folders) interesting. All my knives are users, but taken care of.
 
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For that kind of money, you really can't go wrong with a couple of Case knives in the pattern of your choice. The other option would be to look at several knives from Rough Rider. You'd be surprised at the quality for the price point of them. With the Rough Rider, you could try out 8-9 different patterns to find what you like best. Once you zero in on what you like, take a look at Great Eastern Cutlery, Queen, Schatt & Morgan, Canal Street and many others.
 
I would stick with Case knives. My suggestion would be a medium Stockman in bone, stainless or CV, a Sodbuster Jr in yellow Delrin, CV or stainless, and a Victorinox SAK Alox Pioneer. Where I typically shop, this would be a grand total of $89.90 shipped, leaving you with over $10.00 for a six pack of your favorite suds to celebrate the start of a traditional collection.;)
 
steve-in-kville said:
Location: Pennsylvania
Click to expand...

You're in a good location for traditional cutlery. Take a drive to Titusville, PA (Great Eastern Cutlery & Queen Cutlery) and Bradford, PA (Case Cutlery). Take the tours and look at all the knives. Afterwards, you'll have a better idea of what you want.

Some inexpensive essentials:
Opinel No 8
Douk-Douk
Mercator k55
Victorinox Swiss army knife
Case Sodbuster

Some other popular knives that are well under $50:
Buck 301 Stockman
Schrade 8OT (USA) Stockman
Case 3254CV Trapper
 
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This would be a very nice pair to start with, from one of our BFC dealers, Collectorknives.net.

Top is a Queen Slimline Trapper in D2 steel and curly zebrawood @ 4⅛" closed, for $44.95.

2fer100_zpsbmbriizg.jpg~original


Bottom is a Case Wharncliffe Mini-trapper in Tru-sharp stainless and bonestag @ 3½" closed, for $42.25.

Add shipping and you are still well under $100, with both wood and bone for covers, tool steel and stainless for blades,
1-blade and 2-blade patterns, one medium and one large. You should learn a lot about what you prefer from these two.
 
For 100 you could get a schrade 8OT stockman USA, have to get it on an auction site, look for the USA on the tang stamp, and a gec 15. Still under 100 and you have a large 3 blade knife and a small single blade. Both will be great quality. Heck, you could get one of those new fangled 83 lockable instead of the 15 if you want a locking knife.
 
This is a great thread. Although I've known about the knives and information related here for some time now, it would have been great to develop a list from this thread when I first started hanging here. Kind of a "must haves" in the budget realm.

Yeah, I agree about the Case And Rough Rider.
 
Welcome to the traditional side Steve! :thumbup:

As said above you sure can't go wrong starting out with a Case Trapper, Stockman, Texas Jack, Peanut, etc. If you look around you'll be able to score two of these for your targeted budget.
 
supratentorial said:
You're in a good location for traditional cutlery. Take a drive to Tidioute, PA (Great Eastern Cutlery) and Bradford, PA (Case Cutlery) and Titusville, PA (Queen Cutlery). Take the tours and look at all the knives. Afterwards, you'll have a better idea of what you want.

Some inexpensive essentials:
Opinel No 8
Douk-Douk
Mercator k55
Victorinox Swiss army knife
Case Sodbuster
Click to expand...

Great Eastern Cutlery is located in Titusville, not Tidioute.
 
LastRodeo said:
Great Eastern Cutlery is located in Titusville, not Tidioute.
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Good catch.

Great Eastern Cutlery
701 East Spring Street
Unit 10 Building 2
Titusville, PA

Queen Cutlery Company
507 Chestnut St.
Titusville, PA 16354

Case/Zippo Museum
1932 Zippo Dr
Bradford, PA 16701
 
black mamba said:
This would be a very nice pair to start with, from one of our BFC dealers, Collectorknives.net.

Top is a Queen Slimline Trapper in D2 steel and curly zebrawood @ 4⅛" closed, for $44.95.

2fer100_zpsbmbriizg.jpg~original


Bottom is a Case Wharncliffe Mini-trapper in Tru-sharp stainless and bonestag @ 3½" closed, for $42.25.

Add shipping and you are still well under $100, with both wood and bone for covers, tool steel and stainless for blades,
1-blade and 2-blade patterns, one medium and one large. You should learn a lot about what you prefer from these two.
Click to expand...

ooo wheres that trapper selling from?
 
Some great suggestions :thumbup: Welcome aboard :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the replies. I will check out Collectors Knives.... like to patronize our fellow BF members when I can.

Upon some further soul searching, I think a one-blade lockback is in order (sodbuster, perhaps?) and maybe a two-blade trapper.

Is it bad form to carry such things in a belt sheath? Or is that bad form? I hate stuff in my pockets....

Again, keep the replies rolling.
 
I think knife purses are collectively frowned upon, but individually appreciated. Do what is best for you.
 
Two simple, basic, long time favorite, patterns to consider would be a Sodbuster and a Stockman.

Here is a Sod Buster Jr. from Case. You can get them with SS or CV blades and in various cover materials.

icc0b8f.jpg


Here is a Stockman from GEC. These come with 1095 blades and this is GEC's 66 pattern called a Calf Roper.

2z3CE8i.jpg


You can get both of the above knives for under your $100.00 target.

For that $100.00 target, you can get several Rough Rider knives - perhaps as many a 5 or 6 of them. Some people don't like them because of the Chinese connection but put that aside and consider the fact that they are very well built knives with great fit and finish and wonderful utility.

Good luck on your upcoming adventure into traditional knives.
 
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