There is a thread here on the Ring Pull Campolin Hunter. In searching for knives for my clients, I chose not to buy one of this model.
Wisconsin is a deer hunting mecca. We have a large whitetail population, and we cater to the tourist trade. If you're going to sell knives here, you should at least carry some hunting knives, in both folder or fixed blade.
However, the usual knife here is not a Bowie or Buck 119. More to the point, it's a knife akin to a Buck 110, or in a fixed blade, a Buck 102. It seems like a knife with a 3.75 or a 4-inch blade sells the best.
Additionally, working knives like this have their price-point ceiling somewhere between 100 to 200 dollars despite the fact the hunter might own a Weatherby and drive a 70K Ford F-350.
I have a client who is nuts for sambar stag. When I saw the 50th Anniversay Campolin Hunter show below (between the two Godfathers) I felt it was a better option for my customers that collect and use autos.
Reason one is simply the size and shape of the blade. This style is probably the best known by every hunter here since he was a boy.
It also locks, and for deer hunting a slip-joint isn't the best.
Now, you might think that a "collectible" has no place in the field. I think the price and style make me disagree. I'm not even sure this knife is a collectible.
As you know this Ring Pull design is going to set you back about 100 bucks. For only 25 dollars more (about the cost of a box of hunting ammunition), the client can get a better sized blade with all of the features he needs. The Anniversary model does come in stag and horn, but then, so do many of the other hunting knives people already use.
As for cleaning, any knife that is angled up into a deer's chest cavity is pretty much immersed in bodily fluids. All of these folders have to washed. And experience has taught me that an auto presents no more problems than any other folder. You wash it in a sinkful of hot suds, rinse it, shake it out, (I have an industrial blower for drying motorcycles) and apply a little lube to the joint. If you'd like, you can wipe the blade down with a Tuff-Cloth.
I'm not convinced that a knife of just a longer blade length is a superior idea.
