"Shoebox" OTF

[jerryk25]

The smaller knife may or may not have been an Edge Co kit from 1980's Rick Hamilton / Brattleboro Vermont.
In the bottom bolster there is a bottom plate.

You can see it in this view of the knife.

The knife was at one time a kit of parts, without the blade installed. allowing importation.
Someone bought this knife, inserted the blade into the bottom, and pressed the cover plate into place.
I have one in Blue.
They sometimes had white text printed on the front cover scale. "Police" or "Fire" or " U.S.A.F" . . .or the like. . .

The original design was intended to be a kit . . . .But now the "Era of kits" is over, or not as necessary.
This knife may be newer than 1985, but there is no reason to change the design . . .

[sammy the blade]

I have a couple lightings that are hands down better than the tomb raider. One is one JerrBear gave me and the other is his memorial knife which I'll never part with.

[whippersnapper]

All were junk. Now worth hundreds of dollars....lol

Inflation, you know.

[Tom19176]

Terry was correct about BQ and the dates. They sold for $10 at the end and came in 6 colors. Terry I did not know Cam sold the business as I use to talk to him years ago. They moved too?

[Tom19176]

IMG_2278 (1).JPG (45.79 KiB) Viewed 1783 times

These were my friends...Old picture

[JPD1998]

I still have both of mine, I added the grippy tape to the top one because the plastic insert started to crack.

The silver one was bought sometime in early 2000's for about $20 with the ring ( I had to install it).
It's marked "Solingen Germany" and the frame is a satin finished milled aluminum. I have no idea where it was actually made, but I doubt it was Germany.

The black one was bought in 2010 and the handle is cast zinc alloy with no markings.

[button_man]

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I had no idea that this thread was going to generate this much response! Thanks to everyone for the information and the great photos!

Bill, I realize that you're a busy guy.... whenever you have a chance to look up that company, I will be grateful to learn who it is.

jerry ~ So you think the story about bringing back the small OTF from Italy is bunk? It would not have been for sale in Italy?
....only available as a kit and sold in the USA?

I really appreciate all the replies on the 'Tomb Raider' knife.... I know it's pretty low in the hierarchy of automatics;
but apparently a lot of us bought them back when, and I guess there's some degree of nostalgia involved....

.

[TRYKER]

One company makes the Italian OTFs. I would have to look it up, and I have no time to do so today. Maybe Monday.
I have no clue who makes the Asian OTFs.

BILL WERE YOU THINKING OF SPARDON ???

[Bill DeShivs]

Yes, Spadon makes the Italian OTFs.
Thank you.

[jerryk25]

I did NOT dismiss anything as "bunk" . . .I try to be more scientific, and empirical.
I stand by "probability and statistics."
Nothing is Absolute.

how it got to America, , ,I have no idea.
I'm just sayin. . . .it was made as a "kit" for sales in America,. . .America required Kits. . .
A. . . I'm inclined to think that probability would show the majority of kits came to the USA
as they were most likely a sales order.
B. . . the later in time, farther away from 1986 we get, probability gets greater the knife
that. . . it was not "necessarily" shipped for "USA sales". . . .production overruns could ship elsewhere.
So the story COULD be true. . .