Illustrated in this posting are some of my favorite, production model fighting knives. Most of them are out of production now but examples can be found on Ebay™and other sites. In their day they were not cheap knives either. Back when I bought them it was an extravagance to spend $175-250 on a production knife. Randalls were a lot cheaper back then but still topped the list of expensive fighting knives. Makers like Pacific Cutlery, Blackjack, REKAT, Cold Steel, Ek Knives, Gerber, just to name a few, were turning out very high quality knives. I liked the Pacific Cutlery Fer de’ lance so much that I own several of them. If I see one at a can’t-resist-price I buy it. Now I see one on Ebay with a used Randall sheath that the seller is asking $450 for. Holy Cow that’s a lot of money for one even taking inflation into account. Then last week a “Rare” inscribed WW-II Fairbairn Sykes sold on auction for well over $500. It pays to know what you’re bidding on. That knife was made in the 1970s or 80s, I cannot remember which. But in my memory of history that is a little post WW-II. How do I know that knife was not WW-II? Because I bought one brand new when they were first advertised in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine, which is also post WW-II. I paid $90 for mine and have since bought two more overruns without the blade etchings. Nope I did not even pay $500 for all three of mine. Maybe those bidders should have looked on my F~S web-site. But anyway, here are some nice knives for those who asked me to post an article on something“Affordable” from the recent past. By the way this is the early "Recon" tanto with bead blasted finish and different pommel. There is another later version called the Recon which is a fine knife too. I forgot to mention the Fer de' Lance is double edged in case you cannot tell from the photo.
- Blackjack Mamba
- Cold Steel Recon Tanto
- Pacific Cutlery Fer de' Lance
- Cold Steel R-1 (Randall look-alike)
- Gerber MK-II
- Ek Knife MK-2
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2 comments:
Thanks, Dave!
I had not heard of the Pacific Cutlery Fer de Lance before. Beautiful knife, really perfect insofar as one can judge by a picture alone. It's a shame they are not made any longer. There's way too much fadishness in human affairs.
Hi Jeff. The Fer de' Lance is a very graceful knife and I think it deserves a better photo so as I have time i'll do one, more from the side to show its nice curvature. The sheath is marginal but servicable. Most of these knives are 6-7 inch blades which is on the short side of what I prefer, but they are very well made, light and quick handling, and suitable/reliable fighting knives.
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