Bulldog Brand

 I recently bought a Texas Toothpick from Bulldog knives.  The handle is brown, gigged bone with a bar shield set in it.  The single blade is reversed etched with "Long Horn" and an image of the corresponding steer. 

Bulldog Texas Toothpick

The front tang stamp features two fighting bulldogs with "HAND MADE" underneath.  The reverse tang has a bit more information.  It's stamped "BULLDOG BRAND  HAMMER FORGED  SOLINGEN-GERMANY."

Reverse Tang

The bolsters are nickel silver, a tricky alloy containing no silver.  I grew up calling it German Silver, and it's a blend of 60% copper, 20% nickel, and 20% zinc.  Amazing!  German silver is valued for its bright, shiny appearance, strong, tough wear resistance, and tarnish resistance. 

Front tang - Two fighting dogs with Hand Made under it

It's a pretty cool knife and, as so many folding knives do, has a complex history.

Set the wayback machine for 1980.  Charles Dorton introduced Bulldog knives made at the Olbertz factory to the collector market that year.  They were a hit from the beginning.  Good manufacturing, interesting materials, high-quality blade etching, and the value-added property of being made by German craftsmen.

It appears Dorton caught the knife sales bug a few years earlier when he special ordered a small lot of knives saluting Henry Rifles.  The brand was called "Pit Bull."  Other companies have picked up the name, muddied the waters, but the original Pit Bull knives should be very collectible.  That's not where I'm going today.

S.&D. Enterprises took over the marketing of Bulldog knives when Dorton joined David Scot.  S.&D. still exists in Manchester, Ohio.  They have three divisions, Allstate Manufacturing, which makes aluminum display cases, Ruddles Mills Products, specializing in chipboard displays, and BlueGrass Cutlery.  Blue Grass specializes in Winchester trademark knives and John Primble Knives.

The knife has brass liners and a single spring

S&D began in the early 1970s and claims more than 32 years of experience.  I have a nice cherry wood case from them that I need to fill, but let's get back to Bulldog knife.

C. Houston Price in Collector Knives states Bulldog knives were made from 1980 to 1987.  "No Bulldog knives were made during the 1988-1990 period."  In 1991 and 92 Bulldog knives were assembled from parts made before 1988, and shipped from the German factory to America.  The tang stamp has two fighting dogs.  More on this later.

Thirty-two patterns were produced, yielding enough variation to produce 469 styles.  As a side note, collectors were so wowed that they created a Bulldog Brand Knife Collectors Club in the early 1980’s.  They stamped a number on each before shipping to members.  This time period, 1980 to 1987, is referred to as Generation One.  I believe I have this generation, but only because the seller thought it was from the 1980s.

Jim Parker purchased the Bulldog Brand Knife Company in 1991/1992.  This is called the Second Generation.

C H Price states that in 1993, marketing rights for the brand became the property of Billie (Mrs. James) Parker.  Collectors call this the Third Generation, which ran from 1993 to 1995.  The important thing is that the third-generation knives ended the era of the two “Fighting Dogs” stamp.

The Fourth Generation runs from 1996 to early 2000.  The tang stamp was switched to a likeness of Billie's purple ribbon bred American Pit Bull. 

The Pit Bull must have died because in 2000, the double dog head stamp was introduced, creating the Fifth Generation.  This ran from 2000 to 2003.  The death of the dog may be out of line on my part.  Jim Parker was an early adopter of marketing uniqueness.  A change in the tang stamp makes the previous knives and the new issue more collectible.

Are we done yet?  Not yet.  2004 Silver (25-year) Anniversary saw the reintroduction of the “Fighting Dog” Tang Stamp.  I was able to examine one advertised as an anniversary knife, but there isn't an indicator signifying it is a special Silver Anniversary Knife.  Buyer beware.

Front showing bar shield

In February 2005, Bulldog Brand Knives retired the Double Dog Head Tang Stamp and replaced it with a single Fighting Bulldog Stamp.  A trademark has to be used every three years to keep it active, so a few knives with the rare two “Fighting Dogs” stamp are released every few years.

Recently, I've seen tang stamps with the heads of two bulldogs.  I've also seen the date stamped at the spine edge of the tang stamp. 

But all things change.  The Bulldog Brand Knives were 100% Completely Handmade in Solingen, Germany, by masters of the craft.  Each carbon steel blade was individually hammer-forged, with over 240 hand operations going into each knife.  The main blade is reverse frost etched with an identifier.  Mine, as I said earlier, is a Texas Toothpick, and the blade says "Long Horn."  Nickel Silver Pins and Shield, and Brass Liners add to the top-quality craftsmanship.

2009 to Present; the Sixth Generation Bulldog Brand USA Knives are manufactured by Great Eastern Cutlery in Titusville, PA, and models are produced by Queen Cutlery in Titusville, PA. 

GEC is essentially a collectible manufacturer.

The knives are of high quality but made in limited quantities.  Many clubs will purchase a unique combination of blade, etching, style, and handle material. 

Notice the generation gap from 2005 to 2009?  What was going on?  I don't know.  GEC has purchased the brand name of other knives, and this may have happened.  I saw a Bulldog on Arizona Custom Knives, tang stamped 2007, which falls in this void.  I just don't know.