Bob Cargill Cripple Creek Knives

A few Buffalo Skinners with different flavored bone. The Strawberry is a '83, Honeybone is a '82 and the Green is a '87.
Greg

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1982 LI-1

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Buckeye Barlow. Some nice stag went on these knives. Augie shows one at the beginning of this thread.

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The original LI-6

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Fat stag Saddlehorn.

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mckgreg said:
A few Buffalo Skinners with different flavored bone. The Strawberry is a '83, Honeybone is a '82 and the Green is a '86.
Greg

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Greg, all your pictures seem to make these already nice looking knives even more amazing.
Glad Augie started this whole thing.
 
I try to do my best with the photos. And yes, another shout out to Augie. I hope the thread is helping to answer some of
his questions. With the info provided by other members, this thread has answered a few of my own and has helped others too.
Hopefully the folks that will follow will find it useful as well.
Greg
 
Incoming! Lots of photos of ads and articles. After quite a few hours of reading, this is all the relevant information I could find related to Cargill / Cripple Creek / Blackjack in the NKCA magazines from 1987-1996. I have removed parts of some of the "To The Point" articles that Bob wrote for the NKCA, since they were usually not pertaining to his knives or his knife company.


This is an ad from Jan 1989, for the upcoming Warrior knife.
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Here is an article about Bob from Feb 1989, when he became the NKCA President.
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Here is an article Bob wrote in April 1989 regarding how he started making knives.
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Here is an ad from July 1989 for the Coke Bottle, or Whittler knives.
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Here is an ad from Oct 1989, for the Copperhead knife.
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And just for fun, here is his Christmas card from Dec 1989.
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Next up, here is an ad in Jan 1990 for the Warrior #1.
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This is an ad in Apr 1990 for the Copperhead or Mini Trapper knives.
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Next is an ad from August 1990 for the first fixed blade knife from Cripple Creek.
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Next is an ad from Dec 1990 for the Ta-Na-Si knives.
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Next is an ad from Apr 1991 for the pearl Gunboat Canoe knife.
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Next is an ad from August 1991 listing some of his new releases.
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Next is the ad for the NKCA 20th Anniversary knife.
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Next is an article about "The Gambler" knife. This article is from December 1991.
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Next is an ad from Dec 1991 for the "Si" knife.
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Next is an article from Bob from Jan 1992, talking about the difficulties of being a 1 man knife factory.
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Next is an article from Bob from Feb 1992, talking about the NKCA 20th Anniversary knife. *Note the typo in the heading says 29th, it should say "20th".
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Next is an ad from Apr 1992, for 3 new knife patterns.
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This is an article from Bob from May 1992, where he briefly mentions working on making his "Barrel Knife".
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Next is an article from Bob in Nov 1992, talking about using technology to make "hand-made" knives.
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Next is a detailed article from Dec 1992, talking about the process of making the NKCA 20th Anniversary knife.
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Next is an ad from Dec 1992, for the NKCA Membership Drive contest, and the prize knife.
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Next is the official announcement from Blackjack Knives in June 1993, regarding they Cripple Creek buyout.
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And here is Bob's official announcement 1 month later, in July 1993.
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Next up is an article from Bob in August 1993, regarding more info about his sale to Blackjack.
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Next is a full article about Blackjack Knives, from March 1994. It includes a good chunk of info about the Cripple Creek line of knives.
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Next is an ad from March 1994, announcing the re-sale of the overage knives from the 20th Anniversary NKCA knife.
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Next is an article from Bob from May 1994, where he talks about production at Blackjack.
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Finally, here is an ad from Dec 1994 for a Knife Workshop that Bob was hosting.
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That's it guys. I hope some of this stuff is useful for you all. That is all the info I can contribute out of my knife library.
 
mckgreg said:
Of course not. It won't do any good to try and contact any one of these folks. It's good to see that you are reading the info tho. Hat's off to ya for that.
It's been nearly 35 years and any of these people who are still with us would be in their 70's or 80's. Let's not bother them.
This thread, that was started by Augie, is meant to provide info and the history of Bob Cargill Cripple Creek knives.
This thread's purpose is not to provide a means to acquire them.
Any of the phone numbers in the old ads will not put you in touch with anyone that knows anything about knives.
Let's be respectful.

Greg
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Greg I wasn't thinking about contacting them..more said it as a joke. But being new to collecting Cripple Creeks I love everything that is being posted! I absouletly love the history lesson I'm receiving and love carrying my Cripple Creeks and searching for more all the time! Thanks again for everyone's contributions here, a real wealth of knowledge.
 
Rookie82 said:
Next up is an article from Bob in August 1993, regarding more info about his sale to Blackjack.
View attachment 903210




Next is a full article about Blackjack Knives, from March 1994. It includes a good chunk of info about the Cripple Creek line of knives.
View attachment 903211
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Next is an ad from March 1994, announcing the re-sale of the overage knives from the 20th Anniversary NKCA knife.
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Next is an article from Bob from May 1994, where he talks about production at Blackjack.
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Finally, here is an ad from Dec 1994 for a Knife Workshop that Bob was hosting.
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That's it guys. I hope some of this stuff is useful for you all. That is all the info I can contribute out of my knife library.
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Wow Rookie this is Awesome info! Bob seemed so happy and excited about handing the reigns over to BlackJack. I have heard many rumors of what happened after the BlackJack acquisition, we need the truth was their more articles after BlackJack folded? I would love to hear how everything happened after BlackJack. Thanks again for the Awesome reading material
 
Pjm357 said:
Wow Rookie this is Awesome info! Bob seemed so happy and excited about handing the reigns over to BlackJack. I have heard many rumors of what happened after the BlackJack acquisition, we need the truth was their more articles after BlackJack folded? I would love to hear how everything happened after BlackJack. Thanks again for the Awesome reading material
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I'm sure there were more articles written, especially once Bob tried to buy the company back. But my magazine collection only goes until May 1997, because at that time the NKCA discontinued the magazine. I bet older issues of Knife World Publication would have quite a bit more information, if anyone still had them.
 
Well done Rookie!! Good info straight from the horse's mouth. The last ad you posted about Cargill's knifemaking workshops is quite noteworthy.
Several of his students went on to become some very prominent names in the custom knife arena. Kit Carson and Phillip Boothe just to mention a few.

I highly recommend reading the article on "The Gambler" knife.
You will be shown the dedication to detail and the persistence required to make something like it.
Greg
 
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If you noticed in the one ad from 1993 Cargill was NKCA president and had 3 years left in that role.
From time to time you will find a Queen made Cripple Creek Barlow from the Black Jack era with a Buffalo Shield
set in the bone scales. On the blade there will be the letters LSANKCAP which is the abbreviation for
Last Show As NKCA President. I'm not sure exactly which knife show ,or shows, it was but that's what the letters mean.
These knives were made by Cargill with parts from the Black Jack shop. There are less than 30 of them.

As far as what happened to Black Jack, I believe that it would be in this threads best interest to just say "It didn't work out" and leave it at that.
There are a lot of opinions, conjecture and just stupid gossip that surrounds the issue. There are fingers pointing in all directions.
I'm sure there was a chain of events that lead to the demise of Black Jack and that Cargill wasn't responsible for it.

The Old Fort, TN knives were produced from 1987 to 1992-93. There are no Smoke Signals for this era so we will have to depend
on ads and the knives themselves for info. Let's move in that direction.
Greg
 
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A message from Cargill to the owners of the NKCA 20th Anniversary knives.

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I posted this on page 2 of this thread but will post it again here.

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A Clasp knife and Old Fort stamp on the blade. I have never seen one with bone scales like this before.
Greg

UPDATE:
This knife was originally made with ivory scales as per a request by a customer and re-handled by someone other than Cargill when the ivory started to get splits near the pins.
That would explain the different bone scales.


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mckgreg mckgreg just curious, are you or anyone you know friends with Bob on Facebook? He has a page for his knives, and may be willing to answer any questions that someone would ask.
 
Rookie, We're working on it.
Here's a new style Trapper from Old Fort,TN with a different frame, bigger bolsters and hollow ground blades. Notice the smaller logo on the blade.

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The Lil Trapper with second cut Stag. I believe this pattern was started with the Chief Anderson knives or the TA-NA-SI series. An Old Fort piece without tang stamps.
Must have been waiting on the new stamps for Old Fort, TN.

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Sowbelly Muskrat / Sowrat. To my knowledge, there are only a few examples of this knife.
The one below is, as you can see, is very limited in number.
This knife is serial numbered on the bolster. This one is #23. The glare from the lights blur that a little.

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Rookie82 said:
mckgreg mckgreg just curious, are you or anyone you know friends with Bob on Facebook? He has a page for his knives, and may be willing to answer any questions that someone would ask.
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What would you ask Bob if you could? Would your questions be about a certain knife or how he did one thing or another?
What is it that we can't figure out ourselves?
We've managed to obtain a compilation of information in one thread that rivals anything else out there and we aren't done yet.
There is just one question I would ask. What would you, or anybody else, want to know? Seriously.

Greg
 
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