1970's Smith & Wesson handbuilt knives designed by Blackie Collins

S&W Survival series.



In 1972 Smith and Wesson worked with well known and innovative knife designer Blackie Collins to introduce the company into the knife business. This program was announced in 1975 and seven knives were initially offered. Called the Survival Series they included a Bowie, Outdoorsman, Survival, Skinner a folding hunter knife, a fisherman knife and a filet knife. The Outdoorsman and the Survival knife featured a Hollow Handle for the storage of Survival supplies.




The blades were forged from modified 440 Series Stainless Steel. A total of 47 operation from forging to hand polishing are performed on the blade before fitting to the handle on the Survival knife. The amount of work necessary for these knives caused S&W to fall behind on production and delivery to the retailers. Smith and Wesson produced in house a few other knives but none that required the amount of hand fitting as this series. The most beautiful knives S&W ever produced in house. The exception to in-house production was the Folding Hunter Knife The factory did not have the capability to manufacture this knife; therefore, they contracted with Alcas or Bowen Knife to produce the folding hunter according to Smith & Wesson’s specifications. All knives were limited in production and featured beautiful leather sheaths.






For a detailed history of these knives, C.E. Rinke produced 1,000 copies of his book, "The Knives of Smith & Wesson."  A beautiful book with intensive research done by Mr. Rinke

If interested in purchasing some of these models go to: www.fitzwillies.com





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