Return of the weirdo...

[Capt. Farrel]

After I was already lucky to find a Bulldog Brand Back to Back Muskrat six month ago, I now stumbled again over one of these rare patterns. When it comes to giving a price to the weirdest pocket knife pattern there is, the Back to Back Muskrat would surely be a contender!
Anyway, this time it was a Fight n´ Rooster in "Jamaican colors". It is in great unused condition with only a minor crack next to one of the pins. I am not quite sure if the handles are cello but until confirmation I won´t store the knife next to the rest of the collection.

[Miller Bro's]

Nice looking knife

I am not quite sure if the handles are cello but until confirmation I won´t store the knife next to the rest of the collection.

I am pretty sure they are Cell.

[1967redrider]

Great looking knife but be careful, those Fight'n Rooster cells have a bad history of grenading.

[jfarmer]

The handles should be acrylic on that one. It is only 4 or 5 years old.

James

[Capt. Farrel]

The handles should be acrylic on that one. It is only 4 or 5 years old.

James

Thank you James, that´s what I wanted to hear most!

[Capt. Farrel]

I just found out that the "candy stripe" handles are still in use and for sale from the Olbertz factory. So James should be right about the handles not being cello.

[jerryd6818]

Their not being Celluloid is great news Skipper. Makes the colorful handles much more appealing.

[TexasJack]

The handles should be acrylic on that one. It is only 4 or 5 years old.

James

What year did they start using acrylic?

[Capt. Farrel]

This picture from the Olbertz/Schlieper website convinced me. The handle material is described as "high-grade non-slip synthetic Candystripe material".
I guess that is a long name for "acrylic".

(picture borrowed from http://carl-schlieper.de/ - thank you!)

@Texasjack: I can´t remember when they switched over to acrylic but I have read about it somewhere on AAPK.


PS: I have just sent the Olbertz factory an email with the question when they have changed over to acrylic. Let´s wait and see....

[singin46]

Yeah, they used to call it Z-lox but that was too much for people to get their heads around, it's pretty much an acrylic material. I believe they changed over to this in the early 90s.

[TexasJack]

I have quite a few that were made around late 80's to early 90's.
I was wondering about them?

[Capt. Farrel]

Today I´ve got an email from Achim Gronauer, the head of the Olbertz factory. He stated that they always used Cello AND acrylic together. Unfortunately he wrote nothing about when they stopped using Cello which they apperantly did. The new material is a secret even tho them and their supplier is a bit secretive about it. All they know is that it is similar to acrylic but not as brittle.

Not very much information I am afraid, but this year I will try to make a trip to Solingen and visit them. Maybe I get to find out more then.

[singin46]

Sounds good Frank, even though I already got the info from Sterling Buster, a few years back. Don't know why they're being so secretive about it though.

[Capt. Farrel]

Maybe it´s a common material that could be find cheap from other sources. I am thinking of Corian made by DuPont that is used for kitchen countertops and was the latest rage
for knife handles a few years ago.

[singin46]

Very similar.