Bulldog Question

[texx39]

Does anyone know the story on this particular blade etch?
I have a hundred or so Bulldog's and none have this etch.
The rear tang stamp is 1994 dated.
Not really very important but, I just cant stand not knowing.

[Hukk]

That looks like an etch of "Lucky" the Parker's Blue Ribbon Bulldog as a puppy. First I've seen that etch but heres a picture of their puppy from a 1993 catalog so that makes sense to me. I don't know how many knives had this etch. The only 1994 Stockman I can think of is a 3-3/4 inch square bolster stockman. Nice third generation knife!

They also did a 4-1/4 Jumbo Congress with an etch of Lucky's Congress in 1993. That was with Surgical Instrument Steel and 2 different handles of 60 knives each were made. Here is a picture of a prototype of that congress.

[texx39]

Thanks for the reply Hukk. It is 3 3/4" and obviously square bolster but my only good reference book makes no mention of this etch at all.
Is the Volume 8 Trader's Guide buy Parker the best Bulldog reference available?

[Hukk]

They left out a lot of imformation in #8 and that was by James Parker (son) and Ed Henley - not Jim Parker who is deceased. All other volumes are by Jim Parker. I favor volumes 3 and 7. Volume 3 contains the colors and names of many celluloids and also shows some "interesting" genuine first generation Bulldog knives. If you look at just these 2 volumes you will find that some stag first generation knives are not really first generation. Some are referred to as Gronauer vault knives but many of these appear to have European stag, not India or Sambar. I have posted this picture many times and what's in this picture can be seen in volumes 3 and 7.

The real first generation Tobacco King Serpentine stockman knives are on the right. The knives on the left are vault knives that came with a written guarantee. However the stag is wrong, as is the tobacco leaf sheild. The shield should be pointy not blunt. The first generation knives with celluloid handles have the blunted leaf sheild, the stag knives for the Tobacco King Serpentine stockman knives should always have a pointed leaf. There are a few other differences, but these are easiest to spot.

This is why I favor volumes 3 and 7. But you can spot which volume that they changed pictures in from real to ? if you have all the volumes. Notice 2 of the real first generation Tobacco King Serpentine stockman have an extra pin.

[texx39]

Thanks for the info and I will see if I can track down those 2 volumes.
Maybe one of them will have a little more info on the 1996 thru 1999 knives,,,volume 8 just seems to skip over them.

Also, has there been any talk of an updated book devoted to Fightn Rooster knives that would cover 1994 to present or is there one available that I am not aware of?
Thanks again for your help.

[Hukk]

I don't know much about the Fightn' Rooster books, even though those knives are made at the same Freidrich Olbertz factory in Solingen Germany as the Bulldog Brand knives. I don't think there is much about the fourth generation Bulldog knives. 1996 through mid 2000 is very poorly documented - almost anything can and will show up. The tang stamp is a standing dog (I think that is Lucky also) that ended in mid 2000 with the start of the double doghead that lasted through 2003. They went back to the original tang stamp.

The fourth generation is by far the most poorly documented generation of all, IMO.