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Old 06-25-2017, 02:32 PM
crutchtip crutchtip is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 104
I may stand corrected on my statement that the nylon handles were riveted on. Again, I have not looked at those knives in years, but I seemed to recall rivets. In a conversation yesterday, a natural question would be how could you use molten lead or tin and not melt the nylon? So by photographic evidence, it does appear they were bolted.

I don't know the exact chronology, but the nylon handles were obviously hand made, whereas Tenite handles were molded with the slot for the tang. The prototype 15 appears it could be slotted for the tang but under a magnifying glass on the photo, maybe not. I will have to look at it again at the shop.

I disagree Jack, white tenite has been addressed. It lasted for a very short time, perhaps only a matter of months as a standard color handle and possibly not much beyond the knives submitted. Perhaps it was the feedback from the powers that be didn't like the white I know I heard it somewhere. Was some still used after green was introduced? Probably, as Bo didn't waste too much. That being said, 2 bolts, three bolts, not really too important. What is important is that Bo realized he could save time and materials using two bolts and probably used feedback as the impetus to change the handle color. I will repeat that the only three bolt I know of in a collection is in Gary Clinton's. If the numbers you came up with are anywhere near accurate, you would think another would have shown up by now.

My opinion is three bolts and white tenite went the way of the dinosaurs very quickly in that order.

Edited to add: Tom Clinton had a 16 tenite that had what he called a red or black handle. He had it for years thinking it was "super rare" special mojo tenite. One day he took some polish to the handle and lo and behold, the polish took off the "dye" and it was white underneath. More that one way to skin a cat I suppose. Don't know if it was done at the shop or by a previous owner, but someone didn't like the white handle. This was probably a 1958 or 59 knife so if original to the knife, white tenite handles were still in the shop. In fact, I would bet you could find a couple there to this day.

Last edited by crutchtip; 06-25-2017 at 02:46 PM.
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