What knives would you include on an all-time landmark/watershed knife list?

[sabre cat]

Rather fond of my Cold Steel Recon 1 as an all-around work knife, although a solid argument can be made for the beautiful simplicity of the American Lawman too. Lots of CS guys EDC the Lawman.

If I was planning to purchase a Cold Steel knife, the American Lawman would be at the top of my list.

The key word here is “if.”

 

[cbach8tw]

The only ones I can imagine right now are the Buck 110 and the Tracker knife. The 110 speaks for itself. Not to say that I liked the Tracker, but either good or bad, it had an impact when it was seen in the movie. Sort of like the Rambo craze. A couple of others on my short list would be the Swiss Army knife, the Mora, the the Kabar Mark II (USMC fighting knife).

A few others, the Loveless drop point hunter, Spyderco Delica, Chris Reeve Sebenza and one piece hollow handled fixed blades.

 

[AlpacaWrangler]

I love this topic and think about it a lot. For me... my top 3 would be. Spyderco Military, Benchmade 710, and Randall model 1.

 

[DangerZone98]

If I was planning to purchase a Cold Steel knife, the American Lawman would be at the top of my list.

The key word here is “if.”

It’s fairly inexpensive compared to ZTs and Benchmades, so you don’t really lose anything if you try one out. Just some nitpicks though, the fairly stiff lockbar may turn off some users. I was discouraged at first especially coming from the very manageable Spyderco back lock. Over time however, you do get used to the Tri-Ad lock.

 

[sabre cat]

It’s fairly inexpensive compared to ZTs and Benchmades, so you don’t really lose anything if you try one out. Just some nitpicks though, the fairly stiff lockbar may turn off some users. I was discouraged at first especially coming from the very manageable Spyderco back lock. Over time however, you do get used to the Tri-Ad lock.

The extremely stiff lock bar is a problem for me. So is the fact that my local CS dealer never has the Lawman in stock.

 

[marchone]

Michael Walker Liner Lock.

 

[Ron Sabbagh]

This list should be small. It's not a list of your favorite knives...

There have been relatively few knives that have reached the status of "watershed"...in other words, that truly changed the industry....

others may have improved on the original design...but they most likely are descendants of the originals.

USMC KaBar and Randall 1 fighter - the exemplary military fixed blades
Loveless Drop Point - the ancestor to all modern hunting knives
Bill Moran Forged Damascus Bowie - started a revolution in damascus and forged blades in general.
Case Trapper - possibly the most used pocketknife pattern in history
Buck 110 - see above
Walker linerlock folder - revolutionized carry knives by creating a simple, strong one hand locking folder.
Reeve Sebenza - revolutionized carry knives by creating an integral frame lock along with a lightweight titanium frame and a simple, near indestructible construction that could be easily disassembled and reassembled by the owner.
Kit Carson Model 16 - the granddaddy of all modern flippers
Spyderco Police/Military - agree with the previous poster that these are not the earliest models but the models which put them on the map and afforded the world with a novel, high quality production knife affordable to the masses. The SpyderHole and SpyderEdge were also revolutionary along with the Sharpmaker (for ease of use)

others exist, but in less "popular" categories such as an English Barlow/lambsfoot, SAK, etc.

 

[GIRLYmann]

the folding utility knife was a first.
an incredible flood of knockoffs soon after