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DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:53 am
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.
Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:22 am
by garddogg56
them are fine looking knives
Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 1:41 pm
by msteele6
Interesting knives, you can really see the Colonial DNA in those.
Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:00 pm
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.
Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 5:22 pm
by btrwtr
Very interesting post Steve!
Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 10:28 pm
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.
Re: DURANGO Knives Made By Colonial for Case
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2026 6:35 pm
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?