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.
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| 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."
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| 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.
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| 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.
