Sal, a thread that needs your attention:

[ThinkOfTheChildren]

I posted your remarks over at the knife forum at Glock Talk (where I moderate). I hope you don't mind. One of our members had this to say on the matter:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Spyderco was not the first knife manufacturer to either put a pocket clip on a knife or devise a single-handed opener for a blade. I know this with utter certainty, because I saw a knife with both those features about 35yrs ago, long before Spyderco was founded.

That knife was owned by a guy who painted my parents' house back in about '65 or so. The frame and scales were stainless, it had maybe 4-5 blades, and one of those blades (a nasty little hooked thing with a really sharp point) had a thumb stud on it. Screwed into one of the scales was a not-very-elegant clip that, while kind of brutish looking, worked just fine.

I remember all this quite distinctly because from the very second I first saw it I wanted that knife in the worst way. I like to drove that poor sucker right up the wall begging him to let me check out his knife. The worst part was that he couldn't remember where he'd gotten it, and I searched in vain for quite some number of years to find one like it. Never did.</font>

I don't know how to respond to these allegations. I would appreciate it if you could come over and post with us just for a second.

Here's the link:
http://glocktalk.com/docs/gtubb/Forum38/HTML/000337.html

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Karma is only justice without the satisfaction

 

[cerulean]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Screwed into one of the scales was a not-very-elegant clip that, while kind of brutish looking, worked just fine.</font>

Why would the poster assume that this was done by a "knife manufacturer"? The description makes it sound like it was a custom job done by a single individual.

People put make-shift thumb studs on Buck 110s before 1980. And since clips had been used to carry a variety of objects before they were put on knives, it doesn't seem unreasonable to believe that someone thought of the idea before Spyderco.

I don't think Sal was arguing that he was the first human to think about one-handers and pocket clips. He was just saying that Spyderco was the first company to put these features into production and the "tactical folder" craze was a result of Spyderco promoting those features.


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Cerulean

"The hairy-armed person who figured out how to put an edge on a suitable rock made it possible for us to be recognizably human in the first place." - J.K.M.

 

[lifter4Him]

Spyderco was the first to use the hole, and the first production company to use the hole,serrations, and clip together, thus producing the first tactical one hand opening folder.

Dave

 

[Fozzy]

I'm not sure that Spyderco ever made a claim to be the first to put a clip on a knife or make a one-hand opener. I doubt one could patent a clip anyway. As I recall, the hole in the blade was Spyderco's developement. I have no doubt that Spyderco significantly helped make both one-hand openers and pocket clip knives as popular as they are today.

BTW, where can I find the Glock forum?

Duh! Never mind- I just answered my own question!

Ben

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"If you're upside down and burning, you probably went too fast."


[This message has been edited by Fozzy (edited 06-01-2001).]

 

[Sal Glesser]

Hi Think. Thanx for the info. There was also an attatchment for a blade that came out before the Clipit. It was called a "flicket". Kind of like a lever that attatched to the blade with allen screws.

Though I've not seen or heard of the knife you speak of, a pic would be interesting for the forum.

sal