Colonial knives

B

billinvegas

Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Messages
278
Back in my youth, the top-tier knives sold in the hardware stores and surplus shops in my town were Schrade, Buck, and Ka-Bar. I don't remember seeing any Case or Queen knives in the displays

The lower-tier (meaning the knives that I as a kid could afford to buy) were Imperials,
Ranger, and Colonial.

I do remember that the Colonials were less favored among my peers and the adults versus the Imperials and the Ranger knives...they just seemed to lack a little in quality versus the others.

Looking at the auction sites, Colonial knives don't seem to command very high prices,
so they're apparently not sought-after by collectors these days...

I recently won an auction for a Colonial jack, it looked nice in the pictures, the bid was ridiculously low. I won the auction for just little over a buck. It cost more to ship it than I paid for it.

When I got it, I was incredibly surprised! I was expecting cheap, plastic/composite handles maybe even crimped metal designed to look like bone (as I remembered them)
this one appears to be bone, with long nail pulls, and a nice swedge on the main blade.

Did Colonial have several tiers of quality? Perhaps the shops in my town were only buying the low-end ones?

I'll upload a picture a little bit later in the afternoon...

thanks!

Bill
 
Colonial always had several knife lines, from the low end crimped bolster knives to the OLD CUTLER line which were made with solid bolsters and thick blade stock. ANVIL BRAND was also a quality line and made with stainless steel blades.

RANGER was/is a COLONIAL brand name, it was their middle grade line.

Colonial is still in business in Rhode Island.
 
knifeaholic's statements are correct regarding Colonial.. Imperial also had several quality grades to choose from as well.

Incidentally, I've got this vintage higher grade Colonial Trapper(long-slim 4 1/4 closed) in my pocket this morning as it happens. This old slippy is every bit the comparable quality as was the USA produced Schrade Old Timer series. This is one of my favorite edc's while working around my property and such..

258a592.jpg


Here are two higher grade Imperial 'Frontier' Large Stockman patterns I picked up for almost nothing at a local knife show some years back.

dblik0.jpg


xdt55u.jpg


And this Colonial is an example of a lower grade Barlow in the card-back pack in the early 1970's..

33os935.jpg



-- Anyone else have any older Colonials and/or Imperials??


Anthony
 
How about the Colonial that was the first locking knife for many of us...and just look at that swedge!

lock4.jpg
 
i remember the blister pack ,thin stock colonials from the 70s & 80s. i sharpened some for friends & the inexpensive knives took a good edge & held it longer than some more expensive brands.perhaps the quality of these "cheapies" were a factor in making myself the tester of blades & alloys which i am today.long ago i learned the amount of dollars doe'st guarantee a quality piece of cutlery.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top