Virginia Brand?

P

pe

Joined
Jun 12, 1999
Messages
11
Hello BladeForum:

I am a knife collector from Spain, Europe,
and now a new member of the forum.

First of all, excuseme for my poor english and best regards for all the members.

I have two questions for you.

One month ago I bougth in a local hunting shop a folder of the brand VIRGINIA ( ? ).

This folder impress me. Why ?.

- First of all it have a very good 440c
3 1/4" droop point blade: ( You can read on it: " VIRGINIA-44OC STAINLESS SEKI "). Not one-hand open.

- It is very good stainless handle construction.( and solid ).Lockbacks .41/4" closed. It show like my stainless spydercos.But the handle is decorated with five holes like Buck titaniun.
The holes aren´t empty, they are of dark and texturize stainless.There are two little holes betwen the big holes...

It have a very and "ergonomic" design.

- It was very cheap. ( 36 us dollar in my country money, including the european 16% V.A.T. tax ).

Here in Europe are hard and expensive to obtain some good brands like C.Reeve, Microtech.... ( if you know how much I paid for my Sebenza, probably you think I and crazy ) or only expensive obtain brands like: Spyderco, Buck....

I impress with this folder because it is good like a Spyderco (440C blade, droop point, solid.... ) and cheap like....( 36 U.S. Dollars).Probably. for me this knife have the better relation price/quality in a knife that I have....And if you think only in quality, it is a good knife too.

The local dealers said to me that the knife was in his shop for a long time, and he think it is a american brand....

I try to obtain some imformation about this brand, but I can´t obtain any...

My two questions are:

- Do you know this brand ? Can you gime some imformation ?.

- Do you have any knife that impress you ( good impress ) and you never can´t obtain any information about it ?

Pedro.

( P.D. I try to add a Photo of the knife, but I can,t...)
 
I live in Virginia, USA, and I have never heard of them. 440C steel sounds right good, though, and Seki City Japan has some excellent makers. Spyderco, my favorite, uses them for some of their blades.

My curiosity is piqued. Has anyone ever heard of this brand?

------------------
Walk in the Light,
Hugh
 
Hello Pedro and welcome to the forum. I also have not heard of this brand, but there is a good chance someone here will have.
As a side note, reading your post reminded me of how fortunate we are here in the USA in regards to availability and cost of our toys. It's obvious that many folks in Europe have a much harder time finding and affording the knives we take for granted. With all pur restrictions, we are still VERY lucky.
 
Thanks, Hugh and Brian, for your reply and welcome.

Yes, Hugh the knife looks good. I am a Spyderco enthusiast and this knife looks quality constructed like a spyde. I´ll can add to the forum a photo of this knife....but I don,t know how. I`ll going to send it to the Webmaster ( he can add it here )....
I am not a professional photographer, but I think they are enougth for a general idea about this knife.

Yes Brian, I think you are fortunate....
the only positive for me is that I can find rare knife like this.


Pedro
 
I tried to find this brand named in the Levine's Guide to Knives and Their Values, and in Pocketknives Brand List, I cannot find a manufacturer called Virginia. There were a few manufacturers listed from Virginia, but they didn't fit that type of manufacture (using Seki-make knives), but seemed more hardware wholesalers (?) or were out of business for decades.

This is a tough one! Maybe it is a Seki-based company that used the name Virginia...?
Jim
 
Pedro, my guess would be that it is a contract made knife by a non american company made to sell outside of the U.S. but using the Virginia name to imply an American connection. Seki is like Soligen, Germany with a very large number of cutlery manufacturers that do a lot of contract work. I would assume quality would range from excellent to fair as in does in Soligen. I would rate all of my many Seki knives from very good to excellent but they are all brand names I am familiar with like Spyderco, Moki, G. Sakai and Condor. I'll be interested to hear if any body is familiar with these knives. Welcome to the forums!

phantom4

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who dares, wins




[This message has been edited by phantom4 (edited 15 June 1999).]
 
OK, I'll tell you, I live in Italy (but I am not proud of this). So you can understand my "strange" English and some strange laws about buying knives sometimes I quoted.

Let's go to the beef: Virginia is an Italian brand. They don't imply an American connection, it is only a "cool" name for them.

They were (IMHO) the best hunting and sporting non-artigianal Italian knifemakers until 5 years ago.

They make very solid folders, clip and drop point, with strong metal/wood handles and strong blades. They were among the firsts in Italy to use Titanium Nitride coating, and they made small ceramic folders too.

They also make fixed blade knives, and made a very good copy of BuckMaster, when there was the Survival/Hollow handle "vogue".

They design themselves their knives, and then they have their blades made in Japan or other Far East country, but following their own very strict quality control and parameters (no Chinese or Taiwan cheap stuff).

Their prices were relatively high for an Italian-made knife at that time, but their quality was higher than other Italian industrial knifemakers.

This company is near Turin, in Italy. Some years ago they moved there from Genova.

The price Pedro paid for his knife seems to me a right one, as he bought his knife in Spain.

I remember a friend of mine bought a Virginia folder in Italy in 1986, a clip point, blade 4-4.5", and he paid for it the current equivalent of $ 25 USD. It was very well build, very solid, it was so strong we threw it against a tree several times without any apparent damage.

Now the quality of Virginia knives is the same, but they could be not the best Italian industrial knifemakers because there is a very strong competitor whose production has now the same or ever better quality. They are FOX knives.

FOX knives are from Pordenone, North Eastern Italy.

FOX made good knives for a good price, knives you could use without afraid to loose many bucks if you damaged them, but good enough you could trust on them. I used and abused some fixed blades from FOX, they are now quite used, but they are still very good.

During the last five years, they increased their quality using 440C, Damascus, Titanium Nitride and a good design. Their prices are now a little higher, but their production is even better.

They make their own blades and knives themselves, no Far East joint-venture.

It seems (someone says, but I don't have a "legal" evidence) their knives was choosen by Foreign Legion as their ordnance combat knives.

Soon there will be a new site on the Net about FOX and some other Italian brands. There is a site right now about them, but is very poor and full of big errors (e.g., it says all knives are made with AISI 420). On this new site you will find Muela Knives too.

I'll post a message on a new thread when the site will be available.

Falcenberg

P.S.: Please, stay away from an Italian brand called Jndiana (this is their correct spelling).


[This message has been edited by Falcenberg (edited 21 June 1999).]
 
Falcenberg, thanks for the info. As I was starting to read your post, I thought great! This is just the guy to ask about Fox. I've seen their ads and they look impressive but I've never actually handled one. Please keep us posted. Also, anybody have a U.S. source for Fox and/or an experience with particular models.

TIA
phantom4

------------------
who dares, wins


 
I used to have a Fox fixed-blade that reminded me of the Al Mar Sere IV. This was about eight years ago as I remember. It had a pouch on the front of the black (think it was leather) sheath that carried a small, black handled SAK-type knife. The quality on it was outstanding, much like a Puma's fit and finish. I sold it long ago and haven't seen them in years. I have seen Fox folders around. I seem to remember them being manufactured in Maniago, Spain; did the company perhaps move? I was in Italy about three weeks ago and found a nice little knife shop that had all kinds of Italian brands that I considered buying as a souvenir. I waited till I got to Switzerland and got a stag-handled Victorinox Swiss-Champ instead. The Italian brands were really nice though. I think most of the ones I saw mere made in Milan. I remember many of them saying "INOX" somewhere on the blade.

------------------
Professor
 
Jim, Phantom4, Falcenberg , Professor and all of you,Thanks for yours info and replys.

Jim and Phantom4 and all : I hope you soon can see a image of this knife here.
Falcenberg you, speak the same english like me!!.
In Spain a knive with this price ( 36 US Dollar ) is not cheap for a " normal" buyer, ....but you know cheap and
expensive is a realtive concept. Probably you can not see it alone ( in the same way you can see alone quality ).
I can buy in Spain a lot of cheap knifes, some of then look impressive...... but the problem it is when you have
to use it hard.
I can buy here ( or from here ) a good brand ( some american ) but they are pobably more expensive that they
would be are. More of it there aren´t a competitive, are only a "colection" choice. For my , now, it is very
interesting to find "unknow" brands that it have good knives with hight relation betwen quality/price. For me
Virginia, Fox, ..... are good exemples of this. ( but probably in the U.S.A. this european brand with Custom
Tax aren´t so competitive, like US´s brands in EUROPE ).

I know the fox knives, and I think it is a good brand too. I have some fox knives ( and another italian brand
called MASERIN, is the same ? ). I think a good web site of this knife is a very good Idea. ( in the w.w.w.. I
can`t see the italian´s knives that I have, I can see others fox or maserin models but not the models that I
have......). I would like to see this nex site....( and buy on it ).


Professor, Maniago it isn´t a Spanish city. It is a Italian city. But .... it is near spanish´s mediterranean coast.
And of couse it is European.

Pedro.
 
Pedro, that looks pretty nice! The blade is a carbon copy of the Buck 501.

phantom4

------------------
who dares, wins


 
Pedro:

1) Nice knife, Pedro.

2) You can look for Berti, Conaz, Prezioso (Camel), Maserin. It seems to me Maserin is another Italian brand, different from FOX. I don't know its connections, if any, with FOX. I own a Maserin multi-use knife (you can say a SAK) since 1972, when my father bought it to me. At that time the brand was "Maserin & De Nardo - Maniago". A good knife.

3) There was another thread about Muela knives. We were looking for Muela knives on the Net. An Italian site on them will be available in three weeks. Do you have some opinions on these knives, their quality and an URL where we can find them now?

Professor:

1) FOX was the Italian dealer of Al Mar, so you can imagine why they were quite similar. They have good copies of Ka-Bar too. But FOX is also inovative: I hope you will find some examples of this in its site.

2) Please be careful if you buy knives in Italy: you can find some scrap metal. If you don't look at their very poor description and mistakes, go to www.italpro.com. This is the site with great mistakes I told, but you can have an idea of some good Italian brands. Moreover, you can go to www.arca.net/expo/conaz/czmenu.htm where you can find traditional Italian knives (the site is written in some different languages). Please note that this isn't the site I knew, I reached it now to give its address to you. For instance, the former site was multilingual.

Two good Italian brands more are Berti and Prezioso (Camel). There are some good custom knifemakers, but they make "jewelry", not "combat" stuff. For instance, you can find a "Pattada" or "Resolza" folder (very nice, elegant knife) from Boiteddu Fogarizzo (Sardinia), say 7-8 inches opened, and it will cost $ 450 USD, because it is gold-finished, its handle is made with the horn of Sardinia Bighorn (there are very few of them, you can have very small quantities of that) and the blade it is "only" carbon steel, no-stainless but very well heat-treated.

3) And furthermore, be careful with Italian laws: I read the thread on Californian Laws, and I would be very amused to write down Italian ones, but nobody knows them. They are thousands, one telling the oposite of the other, and all are still valid, none of them overrides the former. If you buy a knife in Italy, take with it the receipt or the note the knifeshop gave you, so you can prove you bought it during your travel and it isn't your deadly weapon you use to kill innocent people. Remember that some Italian laws states a knife is an illegal weapon when it reaches 4 centimeters (1,57 inches). But you can buy large knives legally, only you cannot carry it with you. If you can prove you are carring it to your home from the shop, there isn't any legal problem.

3) The word "INOX" is not a good sign: it only means "Stainless", "Rostfrei", it comes from word "Inoxidable". Very often it is written on a blade when there isn't any other good thing to write. If it is the only thing written on a blade, please buy another knife (and if cannot find a better knife, save your money and have a good ice cream, you will be happy and the ice cream will have the same cutting power and edge retention of the blade you saw). You could buy it only if it is very cheap and you don't have to use it hard.

4) The best Italian cities for knives are: Scarperia (near Florence) and Maniago (near Pordenone). A knife coming from these cities is quite always a good stuff, because there are some common rules and agreement from local knifemakers (in Italian I would say can say "D.O.C.", Controlled Denomination of Origin).

Phantom4:

1) You can have an idea of Fox knives at www.italpro.com, but please remind that all the technical data are wrong (e.g. they aren't AISI 420) and their production is much more wide. It goes from large heavy choppers to small pocket gentleman knives, military knives, hunting, fishing and the (in-)famous Italian automatic stiletto (jacknife?). Believe it or not, here in Italy the "automatic stiletto" is not very used. It is only used "for traditional purposes" by some criminal people because it remembers so many films and means "Mafia".

2) I have a very good experience with FOX Adventurer, a hollow handle knife, 7-7.5 inches of blade, shaped like Ka-Bar. Its handle is a "plastic" one, nevertheless it is still quite new, and I used it hard: each time I plan some hard work and a long trail, I carry and use it (for largest tasks I use my Kukhri and an SRK as a sidekick) to chop branches and the like. For a knife I paid the equivalent of $ 30-32 USD in 1985 (I added the inflation too), it seems good to me. Moreover, I used it during my Survival Courses with Italian Paratroops when I was younger (in younger days...).

3) Some friends of mine have some FOX Rambler knife, a better version of my knife, quite different from Ka-Bar. Heavy Aluminium handle, very well fixed to the blade with a large exagonal screw (I cannot give you the exact dimension, I have the Italian measure) from the inner of the handle, HRC 55-56. It makes the some tasks of Adventurer, obviously even better. If I had a scanner, I would try to put something on the Net, but I hope the Big Italian Site will be opened very soon.

To ALL: if you will come in Italy, send me a message, I'll give you the addresses of good knifeshops in Rome, Milan, Florence and Perugia (do you know Umbria Jazz Festival? We have had Miles Davis, Sting, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin and much more), and some advices on what you can buy and what is a "lemon" instead. I'll post something on this as soon as I can.

Falcenberg

[This message has been edited by Falcenberg (edited 24 June 1999).]
 
Falcenberg:

Muela is a good spanish brand..... but like all of then they are very bad in comercial magnament ( they have very "particular" ideas about the conmerce...).At this moment only one spanish´s brand have a site on the internet: Aitor ( another good brand, who supply spanish´s army and german and anothers ....) http://www.aitor.com

There are some internet shops that show a very little selection of Muela Knives ( but this sites are bad too, ...the reality is that the electronic conmerce aren´t significant in Spain and all of this businnes is by catalogue or by direct shop ). http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/ http://www.shermansurvival.com/muelashermansurvival.htm

Like all the brand Muela sometimes make a mistake:
Now Muela have a folder with aluminiun handler and a one hand blade ( a god blade )
You can disanble the folder for cleaning....

But this knive have a terrible problen in his design: the lock .... it isn,t enougth hard for a minimun. I don´t now why Muela cotinue shoping it. The others Muela knive
that I now are enouth good... but I supouse that if the first Muela Knive that you buy is this erronneous knive probably you don´t buy more Muela Knives.
I supouse the problem it is the market pressure for been Tactical ( their tradcional market was the hunting knives ).

Pedro


 
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