Blackie Collins Signature Series

The Colonial / Blackie Collins Collaboration

One of Blackie’s Last Designs Becomes a Reality

Cutlery Hall-of Famer Walter “Blackie” Collins left his mark on the cutlery world long before he left us in July of 2011, but his ideas are still reaching fruition almost two years after his death.

Colonial Knife Co. first introduced a new automatic knife for U.S. military issue in 2006, a solid, simple design that took full advantage of modern materials in its construction. The military loved it, but Colonial’s Steven Paolantonio always felt that the knife had more potential in the commercial marketplace. What it needed, he felt, was the keen eye of an expert designer.

It became apparent during the mid-1990s that having a first-rate designer on your team is probably necessary to provide innovative designs that change the way people look at knives”, Paolantonio related. At the 2011 Blade Show, fate intervened. It was day two of the show, when Blackie Collins unexpectedly stopped by to say hello”.“Hi, I’m Blackie,” he said with a smile. Due to busy booth traffic and the need to return to his booth, our meeting was short with the consensus that we should work on a collaborative. The next morning, Steven, Blackie and Blackie’s wife Jane met and used the time before the show opened to get to know each other and begin putting a collaborative in place.

The area that I felt needed to be addressed was the blade being used on Colonial’s American made line of knives such as the automatics-the existing designs worked well for their intended purpose, but lacked spiff and cool factor-hence the need for Blackie Collins-designed blades. Blackie took home with him several automatics of the Ribbed™ and Ameba™ series to see what he could come up with, and several weeks later I received Blackie’s call. He had designed tanto and clip point blades for the knives.

With a licensing agreement in place, signed by both parties and blade patterns decided on, they were now ready to prototype the blades. But then came the phone call. The conversation was one of sadness in finding out my new friend had passed on. Over the next six months Jane and I would speak, nothing about business or knives but rather, how she was doing. As can be expected, it wasn’t easy and things got put on the back burner. The next spring, I approached Jane and asked if she was still interested in moving forward on the plans Blackie and I had laid out, and with her blessings, we’re now ready to present the Ribbed tanto and Ameba key chain knives.

The Ribbed ™auto features a tanto design both in silver and non-reflective finishes, both in half serrated and straight edge. The Ameba™ key Chain knife’s blade is serrated, the reason being that such a compact and convenient blade tends to get a lot of abuse and neglect.

The handles of both models are nearly indestructible- The following videos show a car driving over the Ribbed™ auto without damaging the handle or the operations of the knife.

The synthetic material is used in the manufacturing of hard hats, power tool casings and snowboard bindings. Blade material is a premium ATS-34 stainless steel. Each knife is made In the U.S.A. and comes with a lifetime warranty, MSRP for both Ribbed and Ameba $69.99

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