Single blade Custom

[Randy1944]

I recently bought this knife and would be interested in information about builder. The only marks on it are the initials shown.

[herbva]

Randy, from your picture, the initials S/B clearly look to me like they were done by hand with a rotary tool. I did a quick google search for you and there are several "SB" knife customizers. Perhaps this one may be an early custom work by Bondarenko Stanislav (I borrowed this from Arizona Custom Knives website):

SB Knives
Hi! I am Bondarenko Stanislav, and I live and work in Russia. I have been working as a customizer of knives since 2013, and in 2014 I have started to work with Custom Knife Factory as an official customizer. In my work I prefer a mix of the most modern technologies of treatment of materials and using of manual labor, which leads to unusual and interesting results. As I am constantly experimenting and finding out new techniques in the processing of modern materials, some of the techniques are unique. In addition to the customization I am working on my own knife projects.

[Randy1944]

Thank you for your help. I will research and try to find out if this is one of his knives. Thanks again, Randy

[Wonderboy]

Randy, I believe that what you have there is a knife kit supplied by Jantz Knife Supply Co. I put this one together several years ago and it's a dead ringer for yours. Closed length is 4 inches, overall with the blade open is 7 inches. Jantz called these the "Bighorn" model, but it looks like Jantz doesn't offer lockback or slip joint folder kits anymore. The opposite side of the blade says Japan, so it must have been produced by the J.A. Pan Company. Maybe they are out of business now, probably taken over by the C.H. Ina Company. I used to buy Jantz kits at a local gun show for $20, and have a half dozen or so, both lockback and slip joint. Most didn't come with handle material, so that was up to the builder to choose what he wanted to use.

[Randy1944]

Thank you for the information and picture. You are spot on with the information. My knife doesn’t have Japan on it but that would have been easy to buff off. I’m sure the initials were the ones of the man that assembled the kit originally. It is a nice solid example and I am glad to have it along with the information about it.
Many Thanks,
Randy