Benchmade
Oregon City, 1988 — a family-owned American knife company that will sharpen your knife for the rest of its life, and whose signature lock is now out of patent.
Spyderco
Golden, Colorado, 1976 — invented the round opening hole and the pocket clip, and publishes the country of origin on the product page instead of hiding behind an American address.
Sal and Gail Glesser founded Spyderco in 1976 and settled in Golden, Colorado in 1978; the C01 Worker of 1981 introduced three things that are now simply what a folding knife is — the round opening hole, the pocket clip, and a serrated-edge option. The round hole remains a Spyderco trademark. What earns the brand a page here beyond its designs is the disclosure: Spyderco states outright that it has manufacturing resources in five countries and identifies country of origin at model level, which is the opposite of the origin silence that runs through much of this roster.
- 1981The C01 Worker introduces the round hole, the pocket clip and the serrated option
- 5Countries Spyderco names as manufacturing resources — US, Japan, Taiwan, Italy, China
- Round holeA registered Spyderco trademark, not a generic feature
What we'd reach for
- Para Military 2The compression-lock folder that most enthusiasts would name first, and the model the brand's own retrospectives center on.
- Delica and EnduraThe Japanese-made pair that has been in the line for decades and taught more people what a Spyderco is than anything else.
- Salt seriesCorrosion-resistant steels aimed at saltwater use — the line that matters if the knife lives on a boat rather than in a pocket.
- Tri-Angle SharpmakerThe sharpening system, and arguably the most-recommended maintenance tool in the whole knife world.
- byrdThe value line, with its own mark — a comma-shaped hole, not the round one.
- Mule TeamBare-blade runs in varying steels, sold for people who want to test steel rather than buy a finished knife.
More in Camp & carry
All brands →The nearest neighbors on the shelf — same categories first, same department after that.
Böker
Solingen since 1869 — a chestnut tree on the blade, a trademark that crossed the Atlantic twice, and four production lines that are not the same country of origin.
Case
Bradford, Pennsylvania — the traditional American pocketknife, owned by Zippo since 1993, and datable to the year by the marks stamped on its tang.
COAST
Portland, Oregon, since 1919 — a salmon knife sold out of a Model T that became the light on every hardware store shelf in America.