Subhilt's

Spec's:

Blade Length: 7"

Overall Length: 12"

Blade Steel: 0170-6

Blade Thickness: .1875" (3/16")

Weight: 10 oz.

Sheath: Lined Cordura (This according to the 1995 catalog. Most I have seen have leather sheaths.)

The only standard catalog offering for the Subhilt was in Micarta with butt cap.  If this were the only variation made it would not be worth a separate page. Luckily though there were many non catalog Subhilt offerings made over the years. According to Mike Stewart there only about 300 - 400 of these made. Which seems a bit low to me but might be quite close. Mike also states there were 250 done in stag with a Blackwood spacer. These were an A.G. Russell exclusive. Of course we know there were more variations.

Here we have the standard run of the mill catalog offering. There were only about 2000 of these made.

Next up we have an example with a green Dymondwood handle.  You can do a lot with Dymondwood and  BlackJack took good advantage of that fact. I know for fact there also some of these in a blue Dymondwood.  I just missed getting a couple of them by a matter of hours back when the company was still in business.  I used to get all sorts of interesting specimens out of the company's outlet store. I don't know how many of these were made. I did buy this one direct from BlackJack from their outlet store. If remember correctly the store only received 6 of these. All of them were sold before they actually hit the stores shelves.

photo courtesy of  Tom Carey

    Next up are these three examples of Model 5 Subhilt's. According to information I was able to dig up there were 1500 Model 5 Subhilt's made. The information comes from someone who should know. I do dispute this figure however. I have seen less than 7 of these since 1994 when I first became involved with BlackJack's. I own one and a friend owns another. I have not seen one offered for sale anywhere in about 2 years. I honestly feel there were only about a dozen of these made in each of the handle variations. I may be way off in my guess but I don't see how there could have been anywhere near 1500 of these made based on the few I have seen over the years. If you have one of these knives please email me. I want to try and get an idea of just how many of these knives are really out there. Thus far I have not seen any variations in stag. I have seen them in Micarta, leather, and Silverwood.

photo courtesy of  Tom Carey

photo courtesy of  Tom Carey

The "Big Dave Special".  Here we have an example of these interesting variations.  The story was supplied to me by Drew Gleason some time ago and goes like this. The two men behind it are Dave Nelson and Brent Robinson (note. Anthony Lombardo tells me he was also involved with this project when he was with BlackJack. PVKaT was one of his accounts when he was a sale's rep for the company.) back when Dave worked for Pioneer Valley Knife and Tool. They looked at the 1-7 subhilt and decided that it didn't need to be so big, and it
also could benefit from losing the double guard, allowing you to put your thumb along the blade spine in a Filipino grip style. Arrangements were made, and a small number of the knives were produced for sale through PVKaT. There were 6 Silverwood, 12 Rosewoods, and roughly three dozen Micarta-handled versions.  Here is what I know.  It was common practice for BlackJack to make a few extra knives for special orders such as this so that if a knife needed to be completely replaced under warranty they would be able to replace it with a true direct replacement.  The reason I know this is because I was able to buy two in Silverwood and two in Micarta from a young dealer in southern IL that got them direct from BlackJack.  This was not the only so called "exclusive I was able to buy or had seen for sale through the BlackJack outlet or from other dealers in IL.  This is why I feel that finding accurate production figures on BlackJack's especially rare ones is not possible. I do feel that at most maybe twice as much as was ordered were made.  There is always the chance not all the knives were delivered to the customer.  Though in this case I know that they were all delivered. Thus far I have not seen any variations in stag. I have seen them in Micarta, leather, and

photo courtesy of  Tom Carey

Back to the full Size Subhilt's. This is a nice example with Cocobolo handle. 

 This is a very nice example of the subhilt in stag. These were exclusives for A.G. Russell. These had a flat style butt cap that are found on some other rare variations. All BlackJack's that were made as exclusives for A.G. Russell had blade markings that differed from the standard BlackJack markings.

Below is one of the 250 Blackwood/stag combo subhilts. These were exclusives for A.G. Russell. All BlackJack's that were made as exclusives for A.G. Russell had blade markings that differed from the standard BlackJack markings.