Blanchard Eagle Police Model

[recoil]

While comparing my Spyderco Blanchards I noticed that the leaf areas on my Eagle Police differed from my others in that this area is gold rather then silver as on the others.
This is an old model police with no steel stamp and "POLICE MODEL" on the blade.
Is this common to older versions of the Blanchard series?

thanks
dave

[fellyjr]

I would venture to say that the early one's were gold leaf with no blade steel stamp, then they changed to silver leaf on the Gin 1/G2 models.

[jaislandboy]

wow ... that's a beauty Dave....

[zenheretic]

wow ... that's a beauty Dave....

Yeah Mr. Recoil has some of the greatest Spyderco collectables.

[pmel018]

Hi Guys
I believe Deacon has a few of these, perhaps he can clarify. Me, I only have one
Phil

[The Deacon]

Very nice Dave! One thing certain with Spyderco - nothing is certain.

Hi Guys
I believe Deacon has a few of these, perhaps he can clarify. Me, I only have one
Phil

Phil, I can't really help much, beyond confirming that both my Blanchard Flying Eagles which are GIN-1 marked, and thus of more recent manufacture, have the silver colored leaves rather than the bronze ones like Dave's. Only the scroll work around the eagle scene is bronze on mine.

[Fairlane]

Mine has the silver leafs as well, although hard to tell from the picture here:



Mine is numbered, though. Is yours numbered, Recoil?

[Fairlane]

Another interesting question arising from this would be how many different variants there actually is of the Blanchard Spyderco...

There seems to be the following:

Gold leafs, Police model on blade, PE and SE?, no steelmarkings
Silver leafs, Number on blade, PE and SE?, G-2 Steelmarkings
Silver leafs, Police on blade, PE and SE, gin-1 steelmarkings

Questions that are arising would be: Is there any gold leaf ones WITH steel markings? Is there any Silver leafs without steelmarkings? How many is made with a number? How many without? and a lot of others....

[The Deacon]

Another interesting question arising from this would be how many different variants there actually is of the Blanchard Spyderco...

There seems to be the following:

Gold leafs, Police model on blade, PE and SE?, no steelmarkings
Silver leafs, Number on blade, PE and SE?, G-2 Steelmarkings
Silver leafs, Police on blade, PE and SE, gin-1 steelmarkings

Questions that are arising would be: Is there any gold leaf ones WITH steel markings? Is there any Silver leafs without steelmarkings? How many is made with a number? How many without? and a lot of others....

That would be VERY hard to pinpoint, since, for all we know, Gary Blanchard may still have the mold and be willing to put that overlay on any stainless Police from a P.I.G. to brand new bladed VG-10 one that a customer supplys. He might even be willing to do it in all bronze, all silver, or any combination of them, perhaps even in gold.

Assuming it would fit (which it very well may not) he might even put it on an Endura for you - I know there's at least one Worker with one of the Blanchard overlays normally found on Hunters and ProGrips.

Aside from numbered ones like yours, I think it might be next to impossible to know for sure when a given piece was done, without a copy of the original bill of sale. Granted, it's safe to assume a VG-10 (or any other given steel) one could not have been embellished prior to the date Spyderco changed to that steel, but the converse is not necessarily true.

[Fairlane]

That would be VERY hard to pinpoint, since, for all we know, Gary Blanchard may still have the mold and be willing to put that overlay on any stainless Police from a P.I.G. to brand new bladed VG-10 one that a customer supplys. He might even be willing to do it in all bronze, all silver, or any combination of them, perhaps even in gold.

Assuming it would fit (which it very well may not) he might even put it on an Endura for you - I know there's at least one Worker with one of the Blanchard overlays normally found on Hunters and ProGrips.

Aside from numbered ones like yours, I think it might be next to impossible to know for sure when a given piece was done, without a copy of the original bill of sale. Granted, it's safe to assume a VG-10 (or any other given steel) one could not have been embellished prior to the date Spyderco changed to that steel, but the converse is not necessarily true.

That is a very good point, Paul!
Thank you for making it.

I will try and contact Blanchard and see if he can provide any additional information.

[Fairlane]

After a couple emails back and forth between myself and Mr. Blanchard i have been told that it would be possible for him to make a brand new Police with the overlays. He does not, however, make new overlays. He would be able to use some of the parts he has saved for repair work to make a new model.

He also told me that there were indeed a number of knives made after the Spyderco run which was sold through a now out of business company called ProCut and a few also sold through Blanchards own store.

And copied from his last mail to me a little information about the overlays:

The three knives made for Spyderco were: Police model "Eagle in Flight" which had sterling silver leaves (2), a sterling silver flying eagle with mountains in the background, and a decorative elipse made from jewelers bronze which held the eagle, a total of 4 parts.

The two Pro-Venator models were: "Screaming Eagle" which was a sterling silver profile of an eagle head, decorative jewelers bronze inlay with engraved leaves that fit around the head, and a full cast sterling silver plate with decorative deep relief rope pattern and leaves, a total of 3 parts.

And, "Lone Wolf" which was a sterling silver profile of a wolf with trees and a moon in the background fitted into jewelers bronze deep relief leaves which fit into a full cast sterling silver plate with a different rope pattern, a total of 3 parts.

[The Deacon]

Thanks for checking into that Fairlane, I vaguely remember reading something similar a while back, but could not recall the source. Good to have it "straight from the horse's mouth".

Guess the question now is, where does that leave Dave's knife?

[Fairlane]

In my interest to find out as well, so my pleasure, Paul!

I am at a loss as to why Dave's Police has Gold leafs, but it might be a clue in the last mail i got from Mr. Blanchard as to the fact that these are all separate parts. As such, they could probably be made with different alloys if anybody wanted to? Or maybe they just ran out of the silver one day? As with all things Spyderco- related, the only thing you can be certain of is that nothing is certain.

[The Deacon]

As with all things Spyderco- related, the only thing you can be certain of is that nothing is certain.

Ah yes "The Glesser Uncertainty Principle", far more important to us Spyderheads than Heisenberg's, not to mention considerably more frustrating.

[Fairlane]

Ah yes "The Glesser Uncertainty Principle", far more important to us Spyderheads than Heisenberg's, not to mention considerably more frustrating.

Exactly

[recoil]

Fairlane,

Thanks for the great research job on the Blanchard/Spyderco series.

After seeing the reply from Gary, I would tend to think that since the leaf area is a seperate piece, some of them (leaves) may have been made using the jewelers bronze rather then the silver, possibly at a customers request.
I may bring the folder to a jeweler to see if he can determine the metal used on the leaves.

thanks again
dave

[Fairlane]

Fairlane,

Thanks for the great research job on the Blanchard/Spyderco series.

After seeing the reply from Gary, I would tend to think that since the leaf area is a seperate piece, some of them (leaves) may have been made using the jewelers bronze rather then the silver, possibly at a customers request.
I may bring the folder to a jeweler to see if he can determine the metal used on the leaves.

thanks again
dave

My pleasure! And just as i thought Mr. Blanchard was getting tired of answering my mails i got this:

There were a total of 3,050 products made directly for Spyderco. The first 100 of each model were numbered by them.

There is no way to differentiate the rest with the ones that were done after Spyderco and we do not have an exact number of them. We also made special orders directly from customers that either came into our retail store and/or were directed to us by Spyderco.

[Fairlane]

And he did indeed answer my question about the color as well:

A few models got the "reverse" treatment - alternating colors. We even did both front and back versions and also left handed models for special requests sold through our retail store.

That's one mystery solved then!

I would like to point out what a GREAT guy Mr. Blanchard is, answering all these questions from someone who obviously has no intention of generating any business for his shop.

[MAT888]

well nothing is certain in life

Do you guys saw this VLastik Petak White shark police version somewhere ? stumbled upon at the german boker site:

http://www.boker.de/index.php?c=41,3...001H&p=2&pp=10

and scorpion


http://www.boker.de/index.php?c=41,3...SK&p=14&pp=130

and dinosaur

http://www.boker.de/index.php?c=41,3...DI&p=14&pp=130


They look nice to