All About Pocket Knives

A friend of mine at work was telling me about a story about when he was living out in New Mexico in the mid 90's.

He met a guy drinking at a bar, and along with a few other people, went back to the guy's hotel room after bar closing to drink and party some more. It turns out the guy was a knife salesman, and he had a whole travelling case full of fixed blade knives with him in his room.

When the sun came up and it was time for my friend and his crew to head out, the knife guy was feeling so generous that he gifted my friend and his buddies each with a free knife from his case! Apparently he was bragging quite a bit about the knives, their build quality, edge retention etc...and fueled by a night of drinking and partying wanted to pass on some of his cutlery to some new friends, in hope that they would spread the word.....

So anyways, my friend is not a knife guy, so he has had this knife sitting in his closet for the past decade or so, and he dug it out the other day and brought it in to work to show me yesterday.

Immediately upon removing it from the sheath I could tell it was a quality made knife, great balance, nice heft, thick slab of carbon steel, micarta handles, brass guard and lanyard hole....

....so as I'm oooohing and ahhhhing and drooling over his knife, he says to me.."Go ahead ad keep it dude...add it to your collection"

I tried to tell him no, I can't take this from you man, after all there is a whole story to it etc etc....
But he insisted I take it, said he really has no use for it and knows I will give it a good home and actually use it etc....

So lucky me, I acquired a new knife completely unexpectedly!

etch on the tang (which didn't show up well in my pics) reads:

Colorado Scout
by
Colorado Cutlery

I had never heard of them before, so I did a little digging around on the internet last night and found the following information:

"Colorado Cutlery was a knife shop in Longmont CO in the early 90's. It was a two man operation. One was a salesman and the other a knifemaker that gained his experience as a knifemaker at the Western Knife Co in Longmont. They made great knives but just didn't have the business savy or the money to keep the company alive"

So that definitely falls line with my friends story about how he acquired this knife! Perhaps not the best business savy to be giving your knives away to drunken strangers after bar time!

The knife is 10" overall length, with a 5 1/2 " blade, with a nice thick spine. 1095 high carbon steel
Micarta handles, brass single guard and lanyard hole.
Great blade grind too...it is most visible in the pic taken from the side angle....

Is anyone else familiar with this company or it's history? Can anyone confirm the Western connection? Anyone possibly know the name of this knifemaker? Any further info or comments would surely be appreciated!

Very nice and handmade quality knife. I've had and seen small knives nearly identical to the all metal Marble's bird and trout knives that were etched "COLORADO" in an arch. Never could find much info on those little knives but I think there may a be a connection.

Congrats Mike!
That is a nice knife!

Oh yeah. That one just screams quality. You lucky duck.

Thanks for the comments fellas...she's a quality piece for sure. Very excited to get out in the woods with it and cut some stuff!

I believe that one of the people involved in this operation was a guy named Skip Bryan.He used to write articles for Knife World(the paper)back in the late 1970's.I recall he had a series ongoing that showed how to build a folding hunter.Went on for about 6 or 7 parts.I still have the papers showing how.He also did custom work on factory knives. I'll dig them out and post some pictures.

313 Mike wrote:Thanks for the comments fellas...she's a quality piece for sure. Very excited to get out in the woods with it and cut some stuff!

Any excuse to get out in the wood.nice knife Mike

OK guys..I've been doing a bit more digging this afternoon and came up with the following name: Jay Higgins

From his etsy profile:

Jay Higgins: Was a toolmaker for Western Cutlery starting in 1989, until Western closed. He owned Colorado Cutlery for 12 years, making his own production knives and grinding blades for other companies including David Boye Knives, Busse Combat Knives, Gerber, and Pro Tech. He closed Colorado Cutlery in 2002 to concentrate on hand ground custom knives. He currently owns "Higgins Custom Knives".

He's got a website with some fine looking blades, and seems to be pretty well respected in the industry! First I've heard of him. Anyone else familiar with his work?

Great find on the info, Mike. That should answerany info. He probably even knows the date the drunk salesman gave it away.

knife7knut wrote:I believe that one of the people involved in this operation was a guy named Skip Bryan.He used to write articles for Knife World(the paper)back in the late 1970's.I recall he had a series ongoing that showed how to build a folding hunter.Went on for about 6 or 7 parts.I still have the papers showing how.He also did custom work on factory knives. I'll dig them out and post some pictures.

Looks like you are on the right track. I met Skip though a knife collecting friend back in the early eighties. He wrote articles for Blade magazine as well. If I remember correctly he was from the Denver CO. area. He was also a very good knife mechanic.

Here is a knife with the same etch as on the little metal bird and trout knives.

No, I don't believe there is any connection to Western brand knives.

Wayne

nice pearl

I bit late to the game but Jay is still actively making blades. I'm a noob at all of this so I won't try to pretend, but I did buy one he made and absolutely love it.

http://www.higginscustomknives.com/

Tsatire wrote:I bit late to the game but Jay is still actively making blades. I'm a noob at all of this so I won't try to pretend, but I did buy one he made and absolutely love it.

http://www.higginscustomknives.com/

That mark looks a bit like the one T.J.Yancey used to use on his knives. Nice knife by the way.