All About Pocket Knives

What's the difference between a elephant toe and a sunfish?
The look the same to me.

Different names for the same knife. Sunfish sounds prettier. _____Dave

synonymous

I think they were more commonly refereed to as sunfish until case started making them with elephants on the blade?

......I may be wrong again, but the sunfish is equal end, the elephant toe is not, one bolster is smaller than the other.................... ............................

Ding, ding, ding. Give that man a shot of Jack Daniel's.

Wikipedia says: "The elephant's toenail is a large design similar to the sunfish but usually tapers on one end giving it the "elephant's toenail" shape. These knives, like the sunfish, usually have two wide blades."

.......that's not a bad idea, jerry!!!............ ................

Thought you might like that.

Aw jeez, you smart guys are gonna make me go back and fix my records because I'm sure I have some of each. This knife collecting is alot of work. ___Dave

They are the same.

OK I lied, I wasn't really going to change my records, but Case did call them Elephant toenails but I only have one Case and it is an equal end Tested XX, so would that be a Case Sunfish? And the rest (5 in all) are equal end except for a Larry Hayes custom, and that is a swell center whittler pattern with the large blade end slightly larger. Levine calls them all Sunfish but said they are also called "Elephant toenails", "Old English Rope knives" and "Vest Pocket Axes" the last two of which I've never heard before until you made me look this up______Dave

.....dj, not sure what you would call the swell center??....one reason I remember the difference in the sunfish and elephant toe was that one night on the old smkw knife show, steve koontz showed one of each and explained the difference in the 2 patterns!!........... ....................

Easy to tell the difference between a Sunfish and an Elephant Toenail:

Here is a swell center, whittler pattern Sunfish (or Elephant toe depending on who you are talking to) made by Larry Hayes. ____Dave

msteele6 wrote:Easy to tell the difference between a Sunfish and an Elephant Toenail:

......... ...............

Toes

...sunfish!!!!......... ..........

I'm going with "Sunfish" on this 1995 Bulldog

msteele6 wrote:Easy to tell the difference between a Sunfish and an Elephant Toenail:

Mark thanks for the best laugh I've had today.

It's beginning to sound more and more like the whittler controversy.

ken98k wrote:What's the difference between a elephant toe and a sunfish?
The look the same to me.

So Ken, are you still with us, or have we got you frustrated. I doubt everyone will agree completely but hopefully you've mined enough opinions to figure out what you want to call them. Sorry we weren't more concrete with an answer. I know more than I did before you asked the question. ___Dave

djknife13 wrote:

ken98k wrote:What's the difference between a elephant toe and a sunfish?
The look the same to me.

So Ken, are you still with us, or have we got you frustrated. I doubt everyone will agree completely but hopefully you've mined enough opinions to figure out what you want to call them. Sorry we weren't more concrete with an answer. I know more than I did before you asked the question. ___Dave

Yup, I got it now. They're the same except when they're different!

Good one Ken.

So according to rough rider standards?!? Is this a sunfish or elephant toenail? Is one more valuable than the other?? Also does anyone know if the Coca Cola and bottle were original to the knife or custom?????

There's no difference between a toenail and sunfish.
I will say the Coco Cola was added.Not much value,it's a Rough Ryder.

In my mind, the Elephant Toenail pattern is an equal-end knife, while the Sunfish is smaller on one end (shaped like an actual fish).
Now I will admit that this definition is mine, is not definitive in any book that I have read, and is worth every cent that you just paid for it.