All About Pocket Knives

i just recently bought this bulldog brand canoe. shes got pearl handles with the pittbull fighting dogs etching on the main blade and stamped with the fighting dogs on both tangs. also stamped bulldog brand hammer forged surgical inst. and the small blade also stamped surgical inst.

i looked it up in the book i have (jim parkers pocket knife traders price guide volume 7) and found that they only made the ones with surgical steel blades during 1993-95. im not sure if the handles are genuine mother of pearl or not. the book lists the knife and says handle material pearl. it doesnt say mother of pearl or genuine pearl, it only says pearl. it also lists an oyster shell during that time too, but the oyster shell handled knives came with hc blades, i assume that means high carbon? and with no etch or holy bible etch which this one doesnt have....this one has the pittbull etch with the acorn shield as listed in the book. anyway, it also says that they only made 36 of these knives and 2 with a heart shield which i havent seen. anyway, i just wanted to post it here and see if anyone knows anything more about it. anyway, here she is.

I'm looking at the same book pages 62 and 63 and I hope I can shed some light on it for you. A lot of collectors (especially Bulldog) just say Pearl for MOP or Mother of Pearl, so the terms are used interchangeably. The Oyster Shell celluloid was introduced in 1993 by Bulldog. If this knife were Oyster Shell, it would not have a blade etch, or it would have the Holy Bible etch, since it doesn't it indicates that your knife has MOP handles and the HC does stand for a carbon blade. They used both Surgical Steel and Carbon Steel in these knives. Your knife has an acorn shield which would make it BKC#564 1 of 36 since your knife has a Pit Bull etch and should be pearl or mother of pearl, whichever term you prefer to use. You have a low run genuine pearl knife that is a third Generation Bulldog (1993-1995). Many experienced collectors get Oyster Shell and Pearl mixed up. I have purchased a few Pearl Bulldogs and had to return them because they were Oyster Shell. It can be impossible to tell if a material is pearl or Oyster Shell from a picture. The easiest way to tell is to get the knife in good light and move the knife back and forth, rotate and look for iridescence, the greens, blues, pinks, and other rainbow colors in the Pearl. Bulldog uses AAA quality pearl so you should be able to pick up the colors. Oyster Shell has no iridescence so it is easy to spot when you know what you are looking for. 1993 also marked the year that Jim Parker bought the Bulldog Trademark from Charlie Dorton. Hope this helps and I did not ramble to much.
Hukk
Darrell Hukkanen

thanks hukk. i was just confused by the term in the book pearl. i saw where they used the term mother of pearl in some other bulldog knives listed.....not for that section but other eras and i wasnt sure if it was mother of pearl or a pearl celluloid but i was leaning towards mother of pearl since the knife lists in pristine mint condition for 150.00, i kind of thought it had to be the real thing. anyway, i am pleased with the knife and knowing that they only made 36 of this run, makes it even better.

anyway, thanks again and if there are any other members that has one of these or other bulldog brand knives that they would like to show off, i would enjoy seeing some of them.

It's going to be hard to follow the beauty and collectability of your pearl canoe but since you "did" say you would enjoy seeing some other members bulldog knives here is a little stag to add to the action.

1st. Generation 3 Blade Trapper in genuine sambar stag

Single Blade Trapper. I was told by the folks at Bulldog, that it is 1 of 11 that were made in 1983. It has a Certificate Of Authenticity, signed by Jim Parker stating that the manufacturing date was between 1981 and 1986. The knife sat in Mr. Gronauers' vault, at the Bulldog factory, unsold until 2004, (the 25th anniversary of Bulldog).

20th anniversary 5 blade trapper

great looking knives suburst. i really like the unique shields on those trappers. you dont see any of those around and the stag handles are great. those are some really nice knives.

heres my other bulldog canoe. its a newer knife....1997 stag canoe with the standing bulldog stamp. i havent had it long, but i really like it.

hope to see more great bulldog knives.

Some great looking knives there sunburst. That 3 blade trapper is a 1st generation knife even if most people think that they only made 3 blade from left over 1985 parts during the second generation. Your knife I believe is a BKC 202 and it is a Charlie Dorton design. This knife has a diamond shield and thats how I can tell it is a true 1st gen. A 2nd generation 3 blade stag would have an acorn or a Bulldog Head shield. I promise to post some pictures of very rare factory Mammoth Bark Ivory Bulldog knives tomorrow. 5/2

Here are a few pictures of some Bulldog Brand Factory Mastodon (Mammoth) Bark Ivory that I promised to post, since someone said they liked to see pictures. These are pritine mint or like new and were purchased at our own knife forum. I am very happy to add them to my collection, wish the pictures turned out better.

Hukk wrote:Here are a few pictures of some Bulldog Brand Factory Mastodon (Mammoth) Bark Ivory that I promised to post, since someone said they liked to see pictures.

A couple more

Wow incredible knives folks thank you for taking the time to share them...

Hukk,

How did you manage to get all of those bark mammoth handles, you hardly ever see those for sale...

Thanks,

Sunburst

This could be a interesting story Hukk...

Has the Walking Horse etch on one blade and Tobacco etch on the other... Both blades are engraved "Prototype" on the reverse....One of kind I believe

Stag 1st Generation Canoe with Tobacco Etch

First Generation Cut Plug Etch....

Tiger Coral Cutting Horse Etch...

Dang it Boys, y'all are killing me.

Now I'm going to have to have some of those. That tiger coral is beautiful!!!!!!!

Keep 'em coming

Jeff

Beautiful knives fellas

I had 25 of these knives made for my Army units reunion.. some pearl some stag and buffalo horn I think... anyway they have all gone to good homes now..

Viking Warncliff whittler with mastodon ivory handles

Willy wrote:This could be a interesting story Hukk...

Yeah, Willy you could be right. About 90% of what I posted was purchased at the knife-auction.

I keep a close watch on this auction of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because the knifes mine, I walk the line

Mastodon bark ivory scales... Congress 25th anniversary knife

large Sunfish with genuine heart abalone scales full color etch...

Mastodon Bark Ivory presentation trapper 1 of 5 ... I don't own this knife any more buts its a good picture of a rare Bulldog..Thats a large piece of mastodon bark ivory its leaning on...

oustanding knives everyone. i agree with agteacher......ive got to have some of those!

Some very nice pieces, thanks for sharing.

Bill

This is the Prototype of the Manchu knife posted above...I had it rehandled with egg shell mastodon ivory...I made that name up..I dont know what its really called .. This is my knife of the bunch of Bulldogs I had made for the group... Its one I'll keep for sure