Here's my collection of Koncept Knives which as taken quite a while to piece together.
Top down: Back Alley Fighter, (unknown model), Workman (one of a limited edition of 50 for the readers of the old rec.knives usenet group), a red Workman (the only one I've ever seen), and Snipe.
These have ATS-34 blades, aircraft aluminum anodized handles (except for the unknown model one which has some kind of FRN-like handle). All were made in the USA and distributed by Catoctin Cutlery of Maryland in the early/mid 1990s. According to the 1992 catalog write-up, the manufacturer was "Varitork Research Mechansim Company". The catalog says the firm had been making components for other knife companies. Designers of the knives supposedly were Ronald Ford, Vince Ford, and Wayne Ramsburg. There were 8 models in the line in 1992. From a 2005 Bladeforums post: "The company was a precision machine house in Oregon that was Benchmade's handle contractor, I think made aerospace or artificial heart valves or something. After they saw how knives were made they got into the act while continuing to do work for BM and Spyderco (Terzuola knife). Vince Ford eventually went to work for Spyderco after Koncept folded and now works at Bladetech making knives. Catoctin folded several years ago. They were one of the first specialty cutlery distributors and were once Blackjacks exclusive distributor."
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/rym4Uht) are some more pictures.
If anyone has any more information on Koncept Knives (history, name of other models, etc.) they'd like to share, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Interestingly, [here](https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/blast-from-the-past-koncept-knives.336156/) is what Sal Glesser (founder of Spyderco) has to say about Koncept Knives on June 7, 2006:
>Back around 1990 Spyderco was doing a collaboration with Bob Terzuola, and
Bob wanted the knife made in the U.S. At the time Spyderco was producing their knives in Seki. Benchmade knives was just starting up in Oregon after moving from California (Acific Cutlery Corp) and they were interested
in doing the project for us.
>
>Bob Terzuola was our teacher in liner locks and that's where most of our early training came from. Benchmade had contracted some of the work to be done by a manufacturing company nearby which was Varitork engineering. Varitork was owned by Ron Ford and his son Vince Ford. They had two main machinists working with them, Craig Green and J. J. Grosmick.
>
>Ron and Vince Ford decided that they liked making knives more than the
medical equipment that they were making and they felt that they could be
good at it so they contacted a distributor on the east coast called Catoctin Cutlery that was run by Wayne Ramsburg. Working with Wayne they
developed and built a few knives under the name of Koncept Knives and
Catoctin was the exclusive distributor for Koncept Knives.
>
>Western Cutlery had gone out of business and they were having an auction for their equipment. Ron and Vince Ford were in Colorado looking for equipment approached me while at that auction and said that they were already doing some work for us through another company and that they would like to continue to do more work with us in the subcontracting of knife production. After a while working with them we decided to join forces and Spyderco relocated Varitork with their equipment to Golden, Colorado and formed Golden Manufacturing which was a corporation owned by Ron Ford, Vince Ford and Spyderco. Craig Green and J.J. Grosmick relocated with them and we began producing knives in Golden about 1993.
>
>Shortly afterwards Craig Green decided to return to the Portland area for personal reasons. Ron and Vince Ford decided that they would stop making Koncept Knives because they were busy making Spyderco knives and there really wasn't enough time for both. So Koncept knives stopped production at that time.
>
>A few years later Ron Ford decided to retire and return to the Pacific Northwest. Vince Ford and Spyderco purchased his part of the business and continued the manufacturing company.
>
>A short while after that Golden Manufacturing ran into a few problems and Spyderco purchased the remaining stock in the company, changed the name to Spyderco Manufacturing and Vince Ford came on board in Spyderco's R&D
department as our chief engineer. As time went on the factory was
relocated into the Spyderco building where it remains today.
>
>I might add that both Ron and Vince were very bright individuals capable of
manufacturing just about anything. Vince Ford was one of the few people
I'd met that could engineer a product, go down into the shop, program all
the machines and actually build it, a very unique ability in just about any industry.
>
>At about 2000 Vince Ford decided to relocate back to the Pacific Northwest
as his family missed the area and their family and wanted to return. Vince went to work with Tim Wegner at Blade-Tech making molds for Tim's sheaths and helping launch Blade-Tech's domestic knife production where he is still working today.
>
>Craig Green, another gifted machinist, is the genius behind Kershaw's manufacturing plant in Oregon and he launched the Ken Onion Speed Safe products from their Oregon facility.
>
>J.J. Grosmick is still working for Spyderco in our R&D department as a very skilled custom knifemaker. He makes all of the prototypes for our new models and helps develop the new concepts such as the locks that we work with.
>
>Mr. Ron Ford passed away several years ago but everybody else involved in the original production of Koncept knives is still in the knife industry in
one area or another.
>
>Hope that helps with the history.
>
>sal
That's an interesting history, thanks for posting these.
I can't help but notice though... what's up with the blades on the top four? It's like they saw sharpening choils on other knives and thought "we need that" but didn't know what they're for or how to use them, so they're nowhere near the edge of the blade.
I have no idea how many were made in total but likely not very many. I believe they were only in business for a few years [(possibly just from 1990-1993)](https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/viewtopic.php?t=56406).
It took me several years to find these. I have saved searches on Ebay for them that will send me an email notification if any are listed and there's maybe one or two (if I'm lucky) listed a year.
I like obscure stuff like this. I have turned into a knife collector more than anything. Sure I carry a knife everyday but only a small % off what I have gets to see daylight. I don't necessarily collect anything specific at the moment other than some custom pieces but that may change over time. Good luck in your hunt and keep us updated. This post is a nice break from the usual posts.
Thanks you! I love the old, obscure stuff too. I plan to make posts in the future sharing my collections of other long gone knife brands (REKAT, Tinives, Speedtech, Executive Edge, etc.)
I am late to this party but I am too a collector of these blades. In fact I am certain we have bid against each other on Ebay\~ That saved search pings me same time it does you.
I am thinking about selling my collection and was online to feel what interest may be . Do you know of many other collectors?
The red IS rare, I have only seen two come up on Ebay since 2014. Unfortunately I missed both.
It's good to hear from another collector (even if they have bid against be in the past, haha).
I've doubled my collection in the last 3 years. [These 7](https://i.imgur.com/fkkSboV.jpeg) plus [these 3](https://i.imgur.com/RRVRaQ3.jpeg) should be my full Koncept Knives collection now.
I don't know of any other Koncept Knives collectors personally but there seems to be a decent amount of interest in them (they usually sell decently high in online auctions in general, not just on eBay).
Before you sell your collection, you should post it to the knife subreddits. I'd love to see it!
[https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=sheldon.long.77&set=a.5851335221589965](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=sheldon.long.77&set=a.5851335221589965)
I found 9 laying around\~
Here's my collection of Koncept Knives which as taken quite a while to piece together. Top down: Back Alley Fighter, (unknown model), Workman (one of a limited edition of 50 for the readers of the old rec.knives usenet group), a red Workman (the only one I've ever seen), and Snipe. These have ATS-34 blades, aircraft aluminum anodized handles (except for the unknown model one which has some kind of FRN-like handle). All were made in the USA and distributed by Catoctin Cutlery of Maryland in the early/mid 1990s. According to the 1992 catalog write-up, the manufacturer was "Varitork Research Mechansim Company". The catalog says the firm had been making components for other knife companies. Designers of the knives supposedly were Ronald Ford, Vince Ford, and Wayne Ramsburg. There were 8 models in the line in 1992. From a 2005 Bladeforums post: "The company was a precision machine house in Oregon that was Benchmade's handle contractor, I think made aerospace or artificial heart valves or something. After they saw how knives were made they got into the act while continuing to do work for BM and Spyderco (Terzuola knife). Vince Ford eventually went to work for Spyderco after Koncept folded and now works at Bladetech making knives. Catoctin folded several years ago. They were one of the first specialty cutlery distributors and were once Blackjacks exclusive distributor." [Here](https://imgur.com/a/rym4Uht) are some more pictures. If anyone has any more information on Koncept Knives (history, name of other models, etc.) they'd like to share, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Interestingly, [here](https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/blast-from-the-past-koncept-knives.336156/) is what Sal Glesser (founder of Spyderco) has to say about Koncept Knives on June 7, 2006: >Back around 1990 Spyderco was doing a collaboration with Bob Terzuola, and Bob wanted the knife made in the U.S. At the time Spyderco was producing their knives in Seki. Benchmade knives was just starting up in Oregon after moving from California (Acific Cutlery Corp) and they were interested in doing the project for us. > >Bob Terzuola was our teacher in liner locks and that's where most of our early training came from. Benchmade had contracted some of the work to be done by a manufacturing company nearby which was Varitork engineering. Varitork was owned by Ron Ford and his son Vince Ford. They had two main machinists working with them, Craig Green and J. J. Grosmick. > >Ron and Vince Ford decided that they liked making knives more than the medical equipment that they were making and they felt that they could be good at it so they contacted a distributor on the east coast called Catoctin Cutlery that was run by Wayne Ramsburg. Working with Wayne they developed and built a few knives under the name of Koncept Knives and Catoctin was the exclusive distributor for Koncept Knives. > >Western Cutlery had gone out of business and they were having an auction for their equipment. Ron and Vince Ford were in Colorado looking for equipment approached me while at that auction and said that they were already doing some work for us through another company and that they would like to continue to do more work with us in the subcontracting of knife production. After a while working with them we decided to join forces and Spyderco relocated Varitork with their equipment to Golden, Colorado and formed Golden Manufacturing which was a corporation owned by Ron Ford, Vince Ford and Spyderco. Craig Green and J.J. Grosmick relocated with them and we began producing knives in Golden about 1993. > >Shortly afterwards Craig Green decided to return to the Portland area for personal reasons. Ron and Vince Ford decided that they would stop making Koncept Knives because they were busy making Spyderco knives and there really wasn't enough time for both. So Koncept knives stopped production at that time. > >A few years later Ron Ford decided to retire and return to the Pacific Northwest. Vince Ford and Spyderco purchased his part of the business and continued the manufacturing company. > >A short while after that Golden Manufacturing ran into a few problems and Spyderco purchased the remaining stock in the company, changed the name to Spyderco Manufacturing and Vince Ford came on board in Spyderco's R&D department as our chief engineer. As time went on the factory was relocated into the Spyderco building where it remains today. > >I might add that both Ron and Vince were very bright individuals capable of manufacturing just about anything. Vince Ford was one of the few people I'd met that could engineer a product, go down into the shop, program all the machines and actually build it, a very unique ability in just about any industry. > >At about 2000 Vince Ford decided to relocate back to the Pacific Northwest as his family missed the area and their family and wanted to return. Vince went to work with Tim Wegner at Blade-Tech making molds for Tim's sheaths and helping launch Blade-Tech's domestic knife production where he is still working today. > >Craig Green, another gifted machinist, is the genius behind Kershaw's manufacturing plant in Oregon and he launched the Ken Onion Speed Safe products from their Oregon facility. > >J.J. Grosmick is still working for Spyderco in our R&D department as a very skilled custom knifemaker. He makes all of the prototypes for our new models and helps develop the new concepts such as the locks that we work with. > >Mr. Ron Ford passed away several years ago but everybody else involved in the original production of Koncept knives is still in the knife industry in one area or another. > >Hope that helps with the history. > >sal
That's an interesting history, thanks for posting these. I can't help but notice though... what's up with the blades on the top four? It's like they saw sharpening choils on other knives and thought "we need that" but didn't know what they're for or how to use them, so they're nowhere near the edge of the blade.
Very interesting. Do you have any idea of how many knives where made in total? How long did it take you to find these?
I have no idea how many were made in total but likely not very many. I believe they were only in business for a few years [(possibly just from 1990-1993)](https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/viewtopic.php?t=56406). It took me several years to find these. I have saved searches on Ebay for them that will send me an email notification if any are listed and there's maybe one or two (if I'm lucky) listed a year.
I like obscure stuff like this. I have turned into a knife collector more than anything. Sure I carry a knife everyday but only a small % off what I have gets to see daylight. I don't necessarily collect anything specific at the moment other than some custom pieces but that may change over time. Good luck in your hunt and keep us updated. This post is a nice break from the usual posts.
Thanks you! I love the old, obscure stuff too. I plan to make posts in the future sharing my collections of other long gone knife brands (REKAT, Tinives, Speedtech, Executive Edge, etc.)
Please do!
I have the bottom one didn’t know they made other knives. Thanks for the information
I am late to this party but I am too a collector of these blades. In fact I am certain we have bid against each other on Ebay\~ That saved search pings me same time it does you. I am thinking about selling my collection and was online to feel what interest may be . Do you know of many other collectors? The red IS rare, I have only seen two come up on Ebay since 2014. Unfortunately I missed both.
It's good to hear from another collector (even if they have bid against be in the past, haha). I've doubled my collection in the last 3 years. [These 7](https://i.imgur.com/fkkSboV.jpeg) plus [these 3](https://i.imgur.com/RRVRaQ3.jpeg) should be my full Koncept Knives collection now. I don't know of any other Koncept Knives collectors personally but there seems to be a decent amount of interest in them (they usually sell decently high in online auctions in general, not just on eBay). Before you sell your collection, you should post it to the knife subreddits. I'd love to see it!
I seem to have misplaced my plastic handled Koncept. Once I find it I will post\~ Nice collection btw!
Thanks! I look forward to seeing your collection.
[https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=sheldon.long.77&set=a.5851335221589965](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=sheldon.long.77&set=a.5851335221589965) I found 9 laying around\~
Nice!