Which styles actually exist?

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RARanney

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What is the rarest blade style (scimitar, mariner, kris, etc.) that you have seen, or have knowledge of it's existence, in a 3" Benchmade custom? Which blade style do you wish you owned in same. How about a 4" or 5" custom.
 
Three, four, five, and six inch customs all exist.

The rarest blade profile in my experience is the sheepsfoot or mariner.
 
I say about half of these qualify for being rare customs. Aside from appearing in this picture, I've never seen another example. I'd hedged a guess that many were built just to show the blade style, but were not popular items for ordering.
 
Great photo. And how many in this forum wish that theses knives were still available??
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
Click to expand...
 
IMHO, the knives were very expensive in 70's and 80's dollars and getting one at all was quite an accomplishment! To add $$$'s for optional blade styles, handle material, etc... really made the bottom line expensive. I feel any of the knives ordered with optional features like blade size (3",5", or 6"), blade style, blade steel, latchless handles, factory file-work, factory scrimshaw, custom insert material, handle material other than 303 stainless, i.e., ti, aluminum, and brass, etc.... are much more rare than your 'average' 4" stainless, skeletonized handled customs. Don't get me wrong, I'd take every 4" stainless, skeletonized handled custom I could get my hands on, but there are many more of them in circulation than the optioned-up special order knives in the picture.

I agree with Chuck on the Mariner blade style probably being the most elusive/exclusive and I've never even seen a 6" custom outside of the actual advertising for the knife, and it doesn't look like a real knife but a drawing.

Like Tony says, most of the blades in that picture are rare as hell but I have run across some of the reverse curve blades and I've seen the 'wilder' looking bowie blades in a collection. Ah, only to have an example of each..................:eek:.....................

It gives me something to shoot for.......:rolleyes:
 
Very nice, tony. I guess those are all from your collection...?

Is the sheep's foot and mariner's the same profile, or what? Pics of both, comparing?

I was also reading through the profile text under the pic, and that gave me a couple of questions (as usual ;)): 1. What's the difference between a modified spearpoint and a weehawk? Is it that the spearpoint is narrowing in on both sides of the blade?
2. What's the diff. between a spearpoint and a stiletto?
 
Hehehe, that would be more like it! :p

edited because I didn't see the subject
 
Yes, Mariner and sheep's foot are two different names for the same profile and the one shown in that picture is really wide. A knife with a flat edge and rounded tip like that is called a mariner because knives like that were given to sailors on ships since they filled the sailor's requirements for work knives, cutting ropes etc., but weren't very good fighting knives either for them to fight among themselves or to stage any muntany.

Keep in mind, too, that all of the customs were hand-ground. So, they vary considerably within themselves. I've got a pair of bowies that were made at the same time, side-by-side as a matched pair and, while they're close, there's some variation between them just as you'd expect in a hand-ground product. I've got two 4" tantos I should dig out and photograph side-by-side. One is over half-again as wide as the other. (It seems to me, and maybe Tony and or Mr. Dawkin can comment, that the later a Tanto was made, the wider and heavier it is.) All of the flavors of bowie, especially, just blur together in real life.
 
To be honest, I don't think I can see a diff between a bowie and a Imada high hollow either... Can someone help me?
 
Originally posted by Gollnick
(It seems to me, and maybe Tony and or Mr. Dawkin can comment, that the later a Tanto was made, the wider and heavier it is)
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I'll second that. The Custom Aluminum Tanto I picked up in '91, was nowhere as wide, or tip heavy, as the later Tanto styles, especially like that of the BM 44's.
 
I wonder if the Benchmade advertisement is of actual knives, or are they "pictures" of blades in some cases. Nothing wrong with them being pictures, and it actually seems most likely, as that's an awfully large selection.
 
Even the 44s got wider as time went on. I never liked the 44, but the later ones were just ugly. I sort of cringed when I had to buy the last ten for $80 each.
 
As Dudley mentioned.., back "in-the-day"..(late 70's -80's), those "Options" were pricey relative to the rest of the industry. Just about anything a customer wanted personalized/added significantly to the final price.., and although I'm no economics expert.., I'd guess the prices at the time would project to something shocking in todays economy.

If you're reading this Jody.., I'll take one of everything in Tony's Promo-Picture and do endentured servitude until 2011 while you garnish my wages. :p Eric can do the handles, so you don't have to fuss with that.., and have time for a sword or (2). :rolleyes:


"Hunters seek what they [WANT].., Seekers hunt what they [NEED]"
 
Tony - thanks for posting that -- I have a 5th generation copy of it - the pics are OK, but the text isn't readable. I was really taken by the 3" drop point - looks like a high hollow grind. It flicked my bic!!
 
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