German Owl Head knives?

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ButchTN
Posts: 90
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:36 am
Location: Bristol, TN

Post by ButchTN »

I am going to tell you a story about OwlHeads that was told to me by Bill at Smokey Mountain Knife Works. First off I bought 100 of these knives from my brother who had 200+ from a storage unit auction. These knives came with faux abolone, faux pearl, sheep horn and black bull horn handles. They all had the Munich Ironworks and oil the joints tang stamp except for the bull horn knives they had the double owl head logo and Germany tang stamped on them. I drive down to SMKW at least once a month so I take a couple of these knives down there and ask them for some info on them, since they do sell them for $19.99 a pop. This is what I was told. At one time OwlHeads were made by Buck Creek along with Bear & Bull and Indian Heads. But now they were made in China by German Creek along with Bear & Bull and German Bobcat (IMO the use of the word German is being used very loosely in this case). I own several of the old Indian Heads that have the Buck Creek tang stamp and I have talked with Clarence Risner about this and he said that yes Buck Creek was the first company to make Indian Heads on contract for him (now they are made in the Olbertz factory). I have a couple of the old Bear & Bull Buck Creeks from the 1980's. As for whether Buck Creek ever made Owl Heads I cant say for sure as I could never find anything to prove that. I can only tell you what was told to me by the people at SMKW and tell you that there was a significant difference in the tang stamping on the bull horn models. I have sold or given away almost all of
these knives and people seem to like them . I would say they are on par with RR's and Frost but I am like Hukk I carry what I collect. Why have a big collection of quality knives and then carry junk. I have 3 that I rotate as EDC's a Indian Head stockman, Bulldog copperhead and a German Eye tiny texas toothpick that is my going to church knife. I hope this info helps shed some light on the matter but like I said I have not been able to prove it, I am just passing on what was told to me by people that know alot more than I do.

Butch
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johnnierotten
Posts: 9303
Joined: Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Tucson AZ.

Post by johnnierotten »

I bought a German Owlhead 4 blade congress several months ago just to see what they were and as I suspected, it was made in China..It says Munich ironworks on the tang of one blade but had a made in China sticker on one of the smaller blades.I wrote the seller and asked him why his ad didn't include the word China,not to my surprise, he hasn't written back!! In fact theres not an owlhead being sold on ebay that mentions the fact that they are made in China ...Makes you really wonder about people..don't it?
johnnierotten

So far,So good...So What!!
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nmikash
Posts: 253
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:14 am
Location: Lake Co. Ohio

Post by nmikash »

Just to clear things up, I do use American/German made knives & they make it into my EDC rotation 9 times out of 10. But, if I know I'm going to be doing my knife some harm I'd rather do it to a cheaper knife. I do not have the expendable income to use a nicer case, or fightn' rooster like it's disposable.

I would also like to point out that it is hard to find an American made knife that retails for $15 or less nowadays. If I could get a decent knife from an American company at this price, I'd prefer it. Most of the larger American manufacturers have moved production of their lower priced lines to China. Did the Chinese bump Americans out of this price category, or did the American companies abandon it for higher profit? I'm not sure.

-Nick
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