Low Down, Dirty Nasty Knives (LDDNK)

[SgtTowser]

Have you ever seen a knife that was so abused that you felt bad for it and bought it and gave it a home the way you might a really hungry stray dog, or cat?

That’s the kind of knife this thread is about.

Low down, dirty nasty knives.

Knives so tough, no matter how humble the blade steel, a serial knife abuser just could not break them.

Not bad knives.

Not crappy made knives.

But not valuable knives.

Knives that were disrespected and deserved better.

Knives so cheap they were disposable.

Mediocre knives, but not bad knives.

Knives that don’t accidentally open in your pocket and that cut what needs cutting.

Knives you can throw on the pavement after you suppress your urge to get in a fight, walk away cursing to yourself for not being willing to get sued, drive home and throw the knife against the foundation of your house to vent.

Knives with the anodizing chipped and worn.

Knives that someone stripped the studs off of for another knife.

Knives with holes in them that were not drilled at the factory.

Knives someone used and abused the piss out of, and finally gave to someone else that lost it, or whose ex wife threw it in a box during the trial separation and took to the thrift store to get even.

Low down, dirty nasty knives (LDDNK) that you carry some days just to be contrary, to say you don’t give a flying flip about anything or anyone that day....

Today I carried my current LDDNK: a thoroughly beat Smith & Wesson 24-7 lock back (CK199) with a blade (what’s left of it) now legally just under 3 inches. Found in a thrift store. $2.00 and maybe over paid!

But this S&W is to low down, dirty nasty knives what a 300k mile Ford Crown Vic police interceptor brought back from Tiajuana is to Demolition Derby cars. Perfect!

Cue the music...

“Well, my pad is very messy/
 and there's whiskers on my chin/
And I'm all hung up on music,
and I always play to win/
I ain't got no time for lovin'./
“Yea, well, I’m a man/
Yes I am/
And I can’t help/
But luv ya girl...”
—Steve Winwood, “I’m a Man”

[Doc]

Here are a couple I would like to submit as examples.  The one on top was made some place so primitive that there are no apparent identification marks whatsoever.  However, it is a flippin’ solid blade (nope not even type of steel marked).  The scales are aluminum, textured very nicely.  As you can see there is a glass breaker pommel, and a belt cutter.  The black finish on the blade is still quite good.  I got it as a freebie, throw down annual gift from the LE agency for which I worked about twenty years ago.  I threw it in my glove box and carried it with me for the rest of my career, hardly ever used it, but it was there on the rare occasion.  I now EDC it in a pouch on my dog walking sling bag with the crap bags, etc..

The one on the bottom is a “LifeKnife” I bought when I was a kid.  I am 59 years old now.  The items between the knives are the original matches, bandaids, and fishing line, hooks, that came with it contained in the hollow plastic handle.  The handle actually has Morse code and rescue symbols etched on it.  For years I was ashamed I bought it, but it’s been around so long I’m sorta attracted to it now.  The blade is 440 “made in Japan”, but the knife is US patent pending (pending decades ago that is).  It now rests on the work bench in my garage, and I actually reach for it on occasion, even though I always have other blades and MTs on me.  It’s just become part of the collection, in ALL its humility.

[SgtTowser]

Here are a couple I would like to submit as examples.  The one on top was made some place so primitive that there are no apparent identification marks whatsoever.  However, it is a flippin’ solid blade (nope not even type of steel marked).  The scales are aluminum, textured very nicely.  As you can see there is a glass breaker pommel, and a belt cutter.  The black finish on the blade is still quite good.  I got it as a freebie, throw down annual gift from the LE agency for which I worked about twenty years ago.  I threw it in my glove box and carried it with me for the rest of my career, hardly ever used it, but it was there on the rare occasion.  I now EDC it in a pouch on my dog walking sling bag with the crap bags, etc..

The one on the bottom is a “LifeKnife” I bought when I was a kid.  I am 59 years old now.  The items between the knives are the original matches, bandaids, and fishing line, hooks, that came with it contained in the hollow plastic handle.  The handle actually has Morse code and rescue symbols etched on it.  For years I was ashamed I bought it, but it’s been around so long I’m sorta attracted to it now.  The blade is 440 “made in Japan”, but the knife is US patent pending (pending decades ago that is).  It now rests on the work bench in my garage, and I actually reach for it on occasion, even though I always have other blades and MTs on me.  It’s just become part of the collection, in ALL its humility.

You hit it outta da park on your first cut!

That top one looks like a really good knife. It is like the Man with No Name of Knives! You should photograph it on Clint’s poncho next to a bitter root cigarette. Maybe we should band together and get it scanned into a 3D Print file and bring it back to life marketed as THE KNIFE WITH NO NAME by THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SHARP CUTLERY also doing business as A FISTFUL OF CUTLERY and as A FEW SLICES MORE KNIVES!

I’m serious. It seems ahead of its time.

The knife from childhood would be a good way to explain how much more hope there was back in our childhoods than today.

Thanks for sharing these two LDDNKs.

[SgtTowser]

Here is another of my beloved LOW DOWN DIRTY NASTY KNIVES.

This is an early Gerber 650–an Ur-Gator with its rubbery handle chewed by a dog. Half serrated blade made of Gerber mystery metal. I love the egos of this knife as much as any I have owned. Or tried. Cuts rope, too! Who ever designed this 650 should take a bow and be acknowledged.

[SgtTowser]

Here are a couple I would like to submit as examples.  The one on top was made some place so primitive that there are no apparent identification marks whatsoever.  However, it is a flippin’ solid blade (nope not even type of steel marked).  The scales are aluminum, textured very nicely.  As you can see there is a glass breaker pommel, and a belt cutter.  The black finish on the blade is still quite good.  I got it as a freebie, throw down annual gift from the LE agency for which I worked about twenty years ago.  I threw it in my glove box and carried it with me for the rest of my career, hardly ever used it, but it was there on the rare occasion.  I now EDC it in a pouch on my dog walking sling bag with the crap bags, etc..

The one on the bottom is a “LifeKnife” I bought when I was a kid.  I am 59 years old now.  The items between the knives are the original matches, bandaids, and fishing line, hooks, that came with it contained in the hollow plastic handle.  The handle actually has Morse code and rescue symbols etched on it.  For years I was ashamed I bought it, but it’s been around so long I’m sorta attracted to it now.  The blade is 440 “made in Japan”, but the knife is US patent pending (pending decades ago that is).  It now rests on the work bench in my garage, and I actually reach for it on occasion, even though I always have other blades and MTs on me.  It’s just become part of the collection, in ALL its humility.

Today I stumbled on a knife that looks a lot like your Knife with No Name. It is called the Rover Tac knife. On one level it sounds like a dumb name, but the great, twisted crime novelist James Ellroy name a novel “Blood’s a Rover.” The title is from a line in a poem by A.E. Houseman who was a decent poet but not the kind of poet you usually associate with knives, eh? The poem went like this:

“Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;
Breath’s a ware that will not keep.
Up lad; when the journey’s over

There’ll be time enough for sleep.”

Make of that poem what you will. It inspired a great crime novelist to write a pretty good crime novel.

In the world of knife naming today, blood’s a rover got reduced to Rover and they added a “Tac” to signal “tacti-cool.” Gotta make a living.

More specifically the Rover Tac’s full name is: RoverTac Pocket Knife Folding Fishing Emergency Stainless Steel Blade Survival EDC Camping Hiking Outdoor Tool with Safety Lock G10 Handle Cord Cutter Glass Breaker Reversible Pocket Clip. I wonder if your knife might be a prototype for the Rovertack. Or alternatively, maybe the old company that made your Knife with No Name hired a marketing firm to rebrand and promote the knife more aggressively in the market place?  Or maybe someone copied the Rovertack? It would take a better knife detective than me to unsnag that genealogy.

Below is a picture of the Rovertack. Rovertacks buyers seem pretty happy with their Rovertacks in the Amazon reviews. I have not posted an Amazon link, because I could not recall if that were okay to do on our web site. But if you search “Rovertack knife Amazon”, it will come up.

[Jim the Brave]

Man, I deal with these kinds of knives all day every day. I sell them for $1-7 apiece at the jockey lot. There's some pretty solid no-namers out there, and yeah, there's times when "a knife's a knife, for all that"

[Jim the Brave]

BTW, I am a big fan of the Gerber Gator. Besides making a great doggy chew toy, that big old grip fits nicely in my hand. I got one in, put it on the Bay, and bam it was gone in just a few hours. Must have been asking too low.....

It had not had it's chew toy function utilized, though....

[SgtTowser]

Yes! Gerber’s Gator is like the Jane Russell of knives. Jane Russell usually had big, long,wavy raven colored hairdo and a figure with curves in places where other actresses didn’t even have places!!! The Gerber Gator has big, rounded, raven colored scales with curves in places where other knives don’t even have places. And, yes, I will probably be canceled for this, but I loved her, as an actress, and I love the Gator, as a knife, and I had to confess it here and now.

[SgtTowser]

I actually think the Gator will be recognized as a classic someday, same as a Spyderco Delica sort of already is. Plastic handled knives have been looked down on in this era the same way stamped steel “shell knives” were looked down on in the Great Depression when they were born out of necessity to find a way to make a knife cheap enough that persons with their incomes collapsed by Deflation could afford them. It is rare,  when a product developed as a cheaper alternative to a product that people already like ever get the love they deserve for the inventiveness, and goodness, of their good designs.  Sometimes value engineering really does suck the greatness out of a product. To anyone that ever drove a Mustang Mach I with and Cleveland head and then laid eyes on a Mustang II, it was really was a nightmare transition that ended with car guys losing their lunches. And I’m not saying that a Spyderco in FRN is as good as a Spyderco in proper frames and G-10, but a Spyderco Delica is a good solid knife that is definitive in its category of affordable knife that flat out works. Same with the Gator. I know there were Gerbers that were better, at least before they tried to become the General Motors of knives, but a Gerber Gator is darned near unbeatable for folding knife cleaning fish or small game, where your hands get really gooey and slippery. And damn the things just feel fabulous to pick up when I’m sitting in my chair reading a book. It’s not so much a fidget toy, like some of the high end flippers, as it is a tension reduction foam pill like my doctor gave me to squeeze after surgery for my torn elbow tendon. Once you start squeezing the Gator, and just feeling it in your hand, I cannot hardly stop. And its a magically right design, because I have picked up other knives finished in the same rubbery stuff and they don’t do it for me. Gator = 

[SgtTowser]

Here are a couple I would like to submit as examples.  The one on top was made some place so primitive that there are no apparent identification marks whatsoever.  However, it is a flippin’ solid blade (nope not even type of steel marked).  The scales are aluminum, textured very nicely.  As you can see there is a glass breaker pommel, and a belt cutter.  The black finish on the blade is still quite good.  I got it as a freebie, throw down annual gift from the LE agency for which I worked about twenty years ago.  I threw it in my glove box and carried it with me for the rest of my career, hardly ever used it, but it was there on the rare occasion.  I now EDC it in a pouch on my dog walking sling bag with the crap bags, etc..

The one on the bottom is a “LifeKnife” I bought when I was a kid.  I am 59 years old now.  The items between the knives are the original matches, bandaids, and fishing line, hooks, that came with it contained in the hollow plastic handle.  The handle actually has Morse code and rescue symbols etched on it.  For years I was ashamed I bought it, but it’s been around so long I’m sorta attracted to it now.  The blade is 440 “made in Japan”, but the knife is US patent pending (pending decades ago that is).  It now rests on the work bench in my garage, and I actually reach for it on occasion, even though I always have other blades and MTs on me.  It’s just become part of the collection, in ALL its humility.

Doc,

It seems your KNIFE WITH NO NAME  has another relative.
 
Look at the Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops First Response Rescue Folding Knife 3.3" Black Tanto Combo Blade.

[Jim the Brave]

Funny how some of the knives with names look amazingly like the fatherless fivers ($5 knives) that show up all over the place.... Found a lot over the last few months that were clones of something with a name on it.... Then in some cases you ask, was it made on the same machinery....? and Which came first, the no-name design which a company comes along and says, "Yeah, I like that one, put my name on it" or the company develops a knife, has factory in Asia make it, then factory in Asia says, we can sell more on the side, to other customers....

[SgtTowser]

:

Funny how some of the knives with names look amazingly like the fatherless fivers ($5 knives) that show up all over the place.... Found a lot over the last few months that were clones of something with a name on it.... Then in some cases you ask, was it made on the same machinery....? and Which came first, the no-name design which a company comes along and says, "Yeah, I like that one, put my name on it" or the company develops a knife, has factory in Asia make it, then factory in Asia says, we can sell more on the side, to other customers....

 

[Doc]

Doc,

It seems your KNIFE WITH NO NAME  has another relative.
 
Look at the Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops First Response Rescue Folding Knife 3.3" Black Tanto Combo Blade.

Yeah, that Smith resembles the pattern closely.  I didn’t bother to research so I don’t know how long The Extreme Ops has been in production, but as I stated, the Knife with No Name (KWNN) is pushing twenty years old.  So, I don’t know which one is the chicken and which is the egg.  It has been my experience with S&W (except for revolvers [AWESOME!]) that they can be somewhat hit or miss when it comes to heft.  I venerate overbuilt items in all categories, and the KWNN is to drool over in that characteristic.  It is as solid a knife as can be hoped for in that size range.  I have a Victorinox Resue Tool in my Jeep, and it’s okay for what it is.  I look to it more for general cutting tasks when I don’t want to undo my seatbelt to grab the knife in my pocket, or potential seatbelt cutting, etc..  However, if I knew I was going to be confronted with a scenario where I was really going to have to break a window to get to someone, or drive a blade through a windshield repeatedly to make a hole, then cut a seatbelt.  I would leave the house that day after having switched out the Vic RT for the KWNN.

BTW, I am truly impressed with the eclectic nature of the analogies you use in your posts, from poetry to movie history, very nice.

[SgtTowser]

Yeah, that Smith resembles the pattern closely.  I didn’t bother to research so I don’t know how long The Extreme Ops has been in production, but as I stated, the Knife with No Name (KWNN) is pushing twenty years old.  So, I don’t know which one is the chicken and which is the egg.  It has been my experience with S&W (except for revolvers [AWESOME!]) that they can be somewhat hit or miss when it comes to heft.  I venerate overbuilt items in all categories, and the KWNN is to drool over in that characteristic.  It is as solid a knife as can be hoped for in that size range.  I have a Victorinox Resue Tool in my Jeep, and it’s okay for what it is.  I look to it more for general cutting tasks when I don’t want to undo my seatbelt to grab the knife in my pocket, or potential seatbelt cutting, etc..  However, if I knew I was going to be confronted with a scenario where I was really going to have to break a window to get to someone, or drive a blade through a windshield repeatedly to make a hole, then cut a seatbelt.  I would leave the house that day after having switched out the Vic RT for the KWNN.

BTW, I am truly impressed with the eclectic nature of the analogies you use in your posts, from poetry to movie history, very nice.

Thx. I try to make it fun when I can.

Forgot to look where you hail from.

Re: overbuilt, I get it. I marvel at European finesse. English rightness and elegance. Japanese precision flawless ness. And now the Chinese strength of doing it every which way possible well. The Swedish notion of extreme functionalism relieved by some natural surfaces at point of interface. I try to learn some of the above from other cultures preferences.

But at the end of the day I am American and when I have to rely on something through thick and thin, I gravitate to overbuilt and flexible, rather than brilliantly refined. I like SAKs, because they let me have both, but if America ever went back to making utility knives with lots of tools, I could probably be drawn back to a big burly Remington scout. Even my old Imperial Scout feels more trusty to me than my SAK, THOUGH IT PROBABLY ISNT. It still feels more right to me than a SAK, but I want  I the tool density of a SAK.

Maybe it’s the old GM pickup truck paradigm. It’s over built compared to a GM car. In a car I would like some style and ruggedness is secondary. In a pickup truck that I am going use rough, and rely on for work, I want something so simple and rugged it runs bad forever and I can just keep fixing it with bailing wire, a big socket wrench, an owners manual, and a junk yard nearby. Too many cylinders. Too much weight. Too light in the rear till you load it. A little too rough riding. A little too noisy. A bed scratched and rusted. But you just never have to baby it, or think about whether to drive across that pasture, or up that washed out road, etc. But a GM truck is under built compared to a DIAMOND T. If you have never ridden or seen one in the metal, try to. Those were like shrunk down over the road rigs. But I digress.

Pick up an M-1 Garand, or a BAR. OR A 1911. Over. Built. Even for the worst war conditions.

Hell, get in a wwii vintage US trainer! Over. Built.

Look at a B-17. Hardly the best bomber. But man could that thing take hits and keep flying. Over. Built.

Americans like overbuilt stuff even though our accountants and financiers forced us into value engineering (cheapened crap).

Alden shoes. Over. Built.

What was good about early Gerber, Benchmade and Spyderco? Over. Built.

Look at old Sunbeam toasters, electric skillets, and vacuum coffee pots. Insanely over built. They were built to last 50 years.

We even have a tendency to admire foreign made products that are over built.

Ever since E Tripper showed me an Off Grid knife from the Bestech folks I can’t get it out of my head because of how overbuilt it looked. I went to their website. OMG! Their brand should be OVERBUILT, not Off Grid.

Love me some overbuilt.

What do I keep by me at night on the night stand when I sleep, or hike with? A military surplus Camillus fighting knife! Over built. If I thought I could get away with it, I would carry it everywhere. Best knife ever? Not by a mile. But over built? You bet!

[Jim the Brave]

Thx. I try to make it fun when I can.

Forgot to look where you hail from.

Re: overbuilt, I get it. I marvel at European finesse. English rightness and elegance. Japanese precision flawless ness. And now the Chinese strength of doing it every which way possible well. The Swedish notion of extreme functionalism relieved by some natural surfaces at point of interface. I try to learn some of the above from other cultures preferences.

But at the end of the day I am American and when I have to rely on something through thick and thin, I gravitate to overbuilt and flexible, rather than brilliantly refined. I like SAKs, because they let me have both, but if America ever went back to making utility knives with lots of tools, I could probably be drawn back to a big burly Remington scout. Even my old Imperial Scout feels more trusty to me than my SAK, THOUGH IT PROBABLY ISNT. It still feels more right to me than a SAK, but I want  I the tool density of a SAK.

Maybe it’s the old GM pickup truck paradigm. It’s over built compared to a GM car. In a car I would like some style and ruggedness is secondary. In a pickup truck that I am going use rough, and rely on for work, I want something so simple and rugged it runs bad forever and I can just keep fixing it with bailing wire, a big socket wrench, an owners manual, and a junk yard nearby. Too many cylinders. Too much weight. Too light in the rear till you load it. A little too rough riding. A little too noisy. A bed scratched and rusted. But you just never have to baby it, or think about whether to drive across that pasture, or up that washed out road, etc. But a GM truck is under built compared to a DIAMOND T. If you have never ridden or seen one in the metal, try to. Those were like shrunk down over the road rigs. But I digress.

Pick up an M-1 Garand, or a BAR. OR A 1911. Over. Built. Even for the worst war conditions.

Hell, get in a wwii vintage US trainer! Over. Built.

Look at a B-17. Hardly the best bomber. But man could that thing take hits and keep flying. Over. Built.

Americans like overbuilt stuff even though our accountants and financiers forced us into value engineering (cheapened crap).

Alden shoes. Over. Built.

What was good about early Gerber, Benchmade and Spyderco? Over. Built.

Look at old Sunbeam toasters, electric skillets, and vacuum coffee pots. Insanely over built. They were built to last 50 years.

We even have a tendency to admire foreign made products that are over built.

Ever since E Tripper showed me an Off Grid knife from the Bestech folks I can’t get it out of my head because of how overbuilt it looked. I went to their website. OMG! Their brand should be OVERBUILT, not Off Grid.

Love me some overbuilt.

What do I keep by me at night on the night stand when I sleep, or hike with? A military surplus Camillus fighting knife! Over built. If I thought I could get away with it, I would carry it everywhere. Best knife ever? Not by a mile. But over built? You bet!

Nice. Now put that to music! 

[SgtTowser]

Oooh! A new LDDNK!!

Old single blade with wood scales and a bail tange stamped:

Camillus
Cutlery Co.
Camillus N.Y.

Blade ground with a drill abrasive!!

Either a sheep’s foot, or a hawks beak with the beak ground off.

The blade looks like hell, as if it came through a worm hole in time with plasma burn!!

But it said, “Hey, pal, I will cut for you, if you get me out of this rust bucke tool box in a thrift store. I at least deserve burial at sea! They’re only asking 75 cents! Get me outta here!!!!”

 

[cody6268]

Oooh! A new LDDNK!!

Old single blade with wood scales and a bail tange stamped:

Camillus
Cutlery Co.
Camillus N.Y.

Blade ground with a drill abrasive!!

Either a sheep’s foot, or a hawks beak with the beak ground off.

The blade looks like hell, as if it came through a worm hole in time with plasma burn!!

But it said, “Hey, pal, I will cut for you, if you get me out of this rust bucke tool box in a thrift store. I at least deserve burial at sea! They’re only asking 75 cents! Get me outta here!!!!”

 

That's a 1944 pattern Coast Guard Knife. I've seen a guy selling those suckers for $30 in just as bad of a condition.

[SgtTowser]

That's a 1944 pattern Coast Guard Knife. I've seen a guy selling those suckers for $30 in just as bad of a condition.

Thanks for identifying it.  A CG knife? Never had one. I actually like it enough I might search for one in good condition. It feels like a straight edge razor in my hand. Very handy, like I could shave with it if it were a new blade sharpened properly. I am convinced the old knife makers understood a lot more about the subtleties of knife ergonomics than many give them credit for. I know they made incredibly solid and durable knives, but this thing just feels right in my hand, despite how bland it’s shape appears. Maybe we have some one here that has studied the old cutlers and been schooled in what it was they knew about the human hand and pocket to make them feel so right.

[SgtTowser]

One extremely weird shaped high carbon LDDNK  that cuts like a guilotine.

Anyone seen a blade shape like this? It’s super thin steel. Half tang handle. No manufacturer marks,

Thing takes a wicked edge in like three swipes on a fine  stone and three swipes on a kitchen steel.

Home made?

Insanely long sharpening choil. Maybe 1.5 inches.

Looks like hell. Cuts like heaven.

[Alan K.]

That's a 1944 pattern Coast Guard Knife. I've seen a guy selling those suckers for $30 in just as bad of a condition.

And probably looks like that because it was sharpened on a grinding wheel in a cutter's machine shop. They all were.

[SgtTowser]

And probably looks like that because it was sharpened on a grinding wheel in a cutter's machine shop. They all were.

I have grown to LOVE this knife!

Why these are not made anymore 3.5 inch blade length with a true coping blade pattern and sway back handle is beyond me. All I can find are 2 1/2 inches 3 inch Klein versions with swaybacks.

Artisan cutlery makes a good for 3 1/2 inch D2 steel razor blade that approximated, but the handle is all wrong.

Oddly Ken Onion came closest with his 2-3 year old  CRKT Swindle—a gentleman’s folder with a swayback handle combined with a sheep’s foot/wharncliffe blade. So close. But the sheep’s foot/wharncliffe style rounds the tip and looses a spine near the tip. Also the Swindle handle is too slippery for a serious work knife.

Serge Pachenko came close. with his recent slippies. But he traded off blade length (a measly 2.75” ”for high grade steel, which utterly misses the point for a serious, slashing work knife.

Even the military screwed it up back in 1944 or so and changed over to a puny wharncliffe packaged with a marlin spike. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Should have kept the classic rope knife and added a spike to it.

My kingdom for a new bosun knife with sway back handle and atrie 3.5” coping blade.

[SgtTowser]

And probably looks like that because it was sharpened on a grinding wheel in a cutter's machine shop. They all were.

Forgot to tell you: a guy in Ewa Beach sells nonground ones for $65. Lesser condition for $50.

People are snapping random singletons up on EBay unfortunately for $50-$60.

Either way, got mine for $.75 cents and it cuts like a sunnuva  gun, which is what I want  it for.