The Warner-Moran

Specs:

Blade Length: 10" Weight: 23 oz.

Blade Thickness: .25"  Sheath: Leather

Overall Length: 15" Blade Steel: CS51

Rc: 57-59

First up is this information taken from a letter sent to a fellow collector from Mike Stewart. This information which has recently been passed along to me sheds some new light on several models including this one. There were approx. 600 Warner/Moran's made for BlackJack. I want to add here that this same knife is still being produced in Japan today by the original supplier of this knife. The knife is being sold in the US by Seki-Cut. Moving on Mike states that 100 of these were produced in Micarta and about 50 in stag, and that the stag  handles were put on the knives here in the US.  I take issue with this last number concerning the stag variation. I know based on my contact with others who worked at BlackJack as well as the Cutlery Shoppe which had an exclusive on the Micarta and stag models that 100 of these were in fact made. I also want to add that the only version currently being made is the standard Rosewood handled variation.

Here is a bit of general background info about these knives based on factory literature. The knife was based on one that was made by Bill Moran in 1967 for well known writer Ken Warner. The knife was used for some 20 years when it came into the hands of the folks at BlackJack who were very impressed with the knife upon testing it. They were impressed by the knives ability to equal and in some cases beat the BlackJack Mamba in extensive testing. So they decided to put a duplicate of the knife into production. There is a special batch of these done early that were serial numbered for Catoctin Cutlery which went out of business in about 1998. I have one of these in rather rough condition. The knife is in a nice walnut case. The lid has a retaining strap for the sheath and the blade of the knife was an image of both Bill Moran and Ken Warner etched on the blade. The blade says Limited Edition then below that Warner-Moran the below that Rio Grande then below that 1 of 300 and finally below the number of the knife which in my examples case is 033. I have only seen a few of these so I have my doubts about 300 ever being made like this. In fact I have heard that there were only about 50 or so.  Moving on. The standard handle material was listed as being "Premium grade  Honduran Rosewood". In addition there were 100 of these done with Micarta handles and 100 in Sambar Stag. These were done for The Cutlery Shoppe .

The Catoctin Cutlery piece is pictured below. This only shows part of the knife. This is number 40.

Below is an example of a portion of the Walnut case. Sadly I do not have a digital camera or a larger scanner so I can not show more than this as it is quite large.

Here is another example formerly in the Lombardo collection. This is number 17. To date the highest serial number I have encountered is number 40.

Below we have a typical example of the Rosewood version. My guess is that 2500 or so of these would have been made.

Below is a good view of the markings on the tang of these knives.

Here is an example of a stag handled Cutlery Shoppe version. This is a prototype from the Lombardo collection.

To finish things off here we have an example of one in Micarta handled Cutlery Shoppe version. This one is also from the Lombardo collection.

Here is another Micarta handled W/M from my personal collection. This is number 078. If you click on the links to the larger pictures you will be able to see much more detailed pictures of this variation than the above picture shows.