DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Colonial Knife was incorporated in 1926 by three brothers; Antonio, Domenic, & Fredrick Paolantonio. It grew to become one of the largest pocket knife manufacturers in the US during the 1960s. The company shut down in 1998, but was back into production under the Colonial Cutlery International Corporation in 2001. Colonial Cutlery International, Inc. brand is the imported line of knives and tools while the U.S.A.- made products fall under the Colonial Knife brand.
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knifeaholic
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DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by knifeaholic »

I have posted about these before but I finally have some examples to show.

Colonial made these using the RANGER tooling for Case in about 1980-81. The knives themselves are marked DURANGO with no case markings, but the boxes that they came in had the Case logo.

I think that this represents all of the patterns made, except that there may have been a scout/utility knife as well.

Brass plated bolsters and maroon sawcut plastic handles.
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Steve Pfeiffer, author of Collecting Case Knives: Identification and Price Guide published by Krause Publications.
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garddogg56
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Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by garddogg56 »

::tu:: them are fine looking knives ::nod::
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Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by msteele6 »

Interesting knives, you can really see the Colonial DNA in those.
ThatWeirdKnifeGuy
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Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by ThatWeirdKnifeGuy »

knifeaholic wrote: Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:53 am I think that this represents all of the patterns made, except that there may have been a scout/utility knife as well.
Indeed. I just bought this one. I knew these were made for Case, found your post here while looking into it more.

The hawk blade is unmarked. Spear has DSI on the mark side and Durango stamped on the pile side. Is exactly like other late model Colonial Mountain Guides that I have.
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That's my Etsy store where I sell old knives and sometimes handmade knife accessories to support my knife habbit. Thanks for looking my friend. ::tu::
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btrwtr
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Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by btrwtr »

Very interesting post Steve!
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knifeaholic
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Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by knifeaholic »

ThatWeirdKnifeGuy wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:00 pm
knifeaholic wrote: Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:53 am I think that this represents all of the patterns made, except that there may have been a scout/utility knife as well.
Indeed. I just bought this one. I knew these were made for Case, found your post here while looking into it more.

The hawk blade is unmarked. Spear has DSI on the mark side and Durango stamped on the pile side. Is exactly like other late model Colonial Mountain Guides that I have.
Interesting knife!! Yours I believe is actually a factory error or an "end of days" knife. The Durango scout that I saw long ago had the same sawcut maroon handles as did the other patterns. So I'm guessing that yours is a "Swiss Master" that got the wrong blade.

I currently have a number of those with the Colonial stamp on the spear blade and the HIGH CARBON STEEL USA (Sears) stamp on the hawk blade. I got them in collection from a fomer Colonial employee.
ThatWeirdKnifeGuy
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Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case

Post by ThatWeirdKnifeGuy »

knifeaholic wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2026 10:28 pm
ThatWeirdKnifeGuy wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:00 pm
knifeaholic wrote: Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:53 am I think that this represents all of the patterns made, except that there may have been a scout/utility knife as well.
Indeed. I just bought this one. I knew these were made for Case, found your post here while looking into it more.

The hawk blade is unmarked. Spear has DSI on the mark side and Durango stamped on the pile side. Is exactly like other late model Colonial Mountain Guides that I have.
Interesting knife!! Yours I believe is actually a factory error or an "end of days" knife. The Durango scout that I saw long ago had the same sawcut maroon handles as did the other patterns. So I'm guessing that yours is a "Swiss Master" that got the wrong blade.

I currently have a number of those with the Colonial stamp on the spear blade and the HIGH CARBON STEEL USA (Sears) stamp on the hawk blade. I got them in collection from a fomer Colonial employee.
That's an even more interesting origin story than I thought. Did the camp utility you witnessed have a spear blade? This hawk could otherwise be a blade for a knife that never made it to production. I have another mountain guide that has Colonial on the spear and High Carbon Steel on the hawk like you mentioned, did Colonial make some knives for Sears or do you assume those were more knives cobbled from parts.

Also, do you happen to know what DSI stands for?
::nod:: https://newlifeknives.etsy.com ::nod::

That's my Etsy store where I sell old knives and sometimes handmade knife accessories to support my knife habbit. Thanks for looking my friend. ::tu::
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