History
The Sabertooth® Knife Story
By Jefferson Spivey
When
people see the knife I carry into the backwoods they immediately
want one. Unfortunately, the more than fifteen hundred I built are
gone. The knife is called Sabertooth. I invented it during a
horseback journey from ocean to ocean in 1968. That ride took seven
months and covered 4000 miles through all the seasons. Necessity
made me realize the kind of knife I needed. The Sabertooth at an
overall length of 12 ¾ inches, with a 7 ½ inch blade is perfectly
suited for wilderness survival.
The name Sabertooth, originally two words, (Saber tooth) came
from my memory of a saber-toothed skull I saw in 1965 at the Los
Angeles County Art Museum built on the La Brea tar-pits at Wilshire
and La Cienega Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The extinct saber
tooth
(Smilodon),
which was a foot shorter but nearly twice as heavy as a lion, did
not eat with its long fangs, it stabbed with them. It held on to its
prey and used its powerful neck and shoulder muscles to pound those
dagger-like teeth through the tough hide of its victim. With each
violent struggle of its quarry, the long fangs sank deeper. In my
hand, the knife I invented reminded me of those sharp, well anchored
teeth, so I named it Sabertooth.
A
rock chipped to a sharp edge is probably the oldest implement of
human design. No society, ancient or modern, has existed without the
tool we call a knife. It is as old as intellect and could very well
be partly the cause of it. Humans may have continued walking with
their knuckles on the ground had it not been for the discovery of
this simple tool. A good edge is as relevant today as it was in
prehistoric times. Unlike a gun, a knife is not always used as a
weapon. A knife has far more uses than a gun.
I used my knife for just about everything. I ate with it, dug fire
pits, built windbreaks, cut rope and leather straps, sliced bread,
bacon, elk steaks and stirred the stew. I drilled holes in leather
belts, scraped mud from my boots and many other small tasks. There
are times when one has to do things with a knife that they would not
ordinarily do. Once while crossing a fence, instead of cutting the
wires, I pried staples from a corner post so that I could lower the
fence and cross with my horse. That of course is not something most
people would have to do, unless they are traveling on horseback.
With that kind of treatment, the blade of any knife will be dull the
next time it is needed. Without a sharpener, streambed stones are
just about everywhere and finding the right one was easy. When the
grit of the stone was not right, I kept trying. It was either a grit
up or grit down. In rough country, I was always able to find the
right whetstone.
During my ocean-to-ocean journey, I sometimes had to hack my way
down to a river, cross and then hack my way out on the other side.
The knife I started my journey with was a Marble sheath knife. The
blade was made of fine steel and the handle was caribou horn that
had been carved into a mythical dragonhead. When my knife and gun
were stolen, all I had left was a limber blade pocketknife. Because
of that, I was forced to make choices I would not have made
otherwise. I realized how important a straight-blade was only when I
no longer had it. I brought it along because I thought it would be
handy. I wanted it back because by then, I realized it was a
necessity. Life in the backwoods can be difficult without a good
sheath knife.
One hot day after crossing a swiftly flowing stream, no deeper than
my knees in the saddle, my horse and I came out of the water in a
dense patch of thorny underbrush. While hacking my way out, I tore
open the skin of my knuckles to the bone. It was not a bad injury,
but very painful and that night, with my swollen hand throbbing, I
visualized a knife that could have prevented the pain. The next day,
I opened my logbook and the knife I sketched eventually became a
reality. I have carried a Sabertooth ever since.
While
still living in Hollywood, California not long after my ocean to
ocean ride, I got a call from
Gun World
publisher Jack Lewis. I had just finished writing an eight-part
series called “The Long Ride” for
Horse & Rider
magazine. Jack’s call had not come out of the blue;
Gun World
and
Horse & Rider
were produced by
Gallant Publishing
under the same roof. “Jeff,” Jack said, “how ‘bout doing a story on
that strange looking knife of yours?” I promptly agreed and titled
the story, SABERTOOTH! Then, a month later, lo and behold there it
was, a photograph of the only Sabertooth knife in existence on the
cover of the October 1969 issue of
Gun World
magazine. It did not occur to me at the time that I would ever make
any more than the one I had. But Jack Lewis was getting calls and
letters from all over concerning the Sabertooth. Jack advised me to
get a patent, which I received in 1972. By the time my Canada to
Mexico ride began, in August 1984, I had built more than six hundred
Sabertooth knives.
For a
very long time I had toyed with the notion of building the
Sabertooth knife on a custom basis. I had, over time, built about
four or five knives for friends. But I would never have gotten
serious had it not been for Dean Krakel, director, at that time, of
the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Years before, in 1968, at the end
of my ocean to ocean ride, I had been honored by the Cowboy Hall.
Before news cameras, Dean Krakel had presented me with a
commemorative inscription. He was fascinated with my story and we
became good friends. One morning the phone rang, and it was Dean
Krakel. He had a copy of that old magazine with my knife on the
cover. “Jefferson, I want to talk to you about your knife,” he said
and then added the magic words, “Lunch is on me.”
While we ate, Dean stared down at Sabertooth number one and compared
it with the magazine cover shot. In between bites, he turned the
knife this way and that and then he finally said, “I would like for
you to build a special edition for the Cowboy Hall. What do you
say?”
I
laughed. “Are you kidding?” I said. “I’m not a knife maker, I’m a
writer and a saddle bum…you know that.” What Krakel wanted had come
as a shock. I was all prepared to build one knife for Dean Krakel,
but to instantly commit myself to such a long term project muddled
my thinking.
Dean smiled. He knew I was a dreamer out of work and he was right. I
had a wife and family to consider. “Well think it over, okay?”
That’s where we left it, with my good sense telling me to grab the
offer and my sense of freedom standing in the way. After two weeks
of serious cogitating, along with a cold wind crying at the windows,
I caved in and to this day, I’m glad I did.
Okay,
I decided, it’s time to hang up the gun and spurs, unsaddle the
horse and become a real knife maker. I called Dean Krakel. “Dean,
you know my name is on that knife,” I said. “And, you know I will
not build a bad knife! What I’m saying is, I can’t just borrow the
neighbor’s tools and build knives for the National Cowboy Hall of
Fame. I’ve got to have my own tools, understand? That means I need
the money up front!”
“I understand, Jefferson,” Dean said, without hesitation. “Come down
Monday morning, there will be a check on my desk.” That’s how it was
and there was no turning back, I was committed.
I got in touch with Bo Randall. I needed to know what type of steel
to use. The legendary knife maker suggested Chromolly. “It’s as good
as any, and better than most,” he said. “If tempered right, it will
cut steel.” That was all I needed to hear. I ordered blanks made to
the Sabertooth design and put the blades to the grindstone.
In time, Bo Randall returned my call. He wanted to know how the
knives were coming along. As we spoke, I was working on Sabertooth
#015. When I finished it, I sent it to Bo. Later, I learned that it
was in the Randall Knife Museum.
I built knives that I thought people would really want to use,
really make the metal ring, and not just collect. But many people
who purchased Sabertooth knives locked them away in drawers and in
vaults. The Sabertooth is just too darn pretty to use, a collector
once told me.
The Cowboy Hall of Fame Sabertooth knives were all Smooth-spine and
satin finished with American supreme black walnut handles. I made
108 of them beginning with 6 proofs from A to F in 1976-1977; they
originally sold for $250 and have since brought as much as $1500 and
more. Way too much money for me, but I’m not a knife collector.
I
returned to the workshop one afternoon with a wooden Coke crate
stacked with recently tempered Sabertooth knife blades. I had
already ground the blades but there was still a lot of work to be
done. One of the blades was cosmetically damaged; the bloodline
(thermal-break) on half the blade had been ground too deep.
Subsequently, it presented an ideal opportunity to test the temper
of the steel without destroying a good blade. I placed the blade
flat on its side, bridging two cinder blocks with space beneath it.
Then, using a two pound hammer, I hit it so hard that it rang out
and leaped skyward. I ducked and it hit the gravel driveway behind
me. As I examined the blade, I thought to myself, it’s not too hard
or it would have broken. Also, it’s not too soft or it would be
bent, it was still perfectly straight. Now, I determined, it was
time to test the sawtooth spine. After fitting the blade with walnut
handles, I found a 1 ½ inch iron pipe in my junk box and clamped it
in a vise. I leaned the sawtooth slightly to start the cut and then
straightened it up and sawed steadily, more than halfway through the
pipe. I hit the blade on the workbench to free any loose shavings
and then I drew the sawtooth spine across the palm of my hand. The
double row of biangular teeth were still very sharp, no damage had
been done. The flawed blade contained the perfect temper. I wanted
all Sabertooth knives to be the same.
After completing the Cowboy Hall of Fame series, I continued
building the Sabertooth without the Cowboy Hall’s name on the blade,
and these became known as the Standard models. More than 300 of them
were made between 1977 and 1984, mainly handled in black walnut.
In the late 1970s to 1984 I made a hundred and ten Trail Models,
using old leftover Cowboy Hall of Fames blank blades, stilled
stamped with the Cowboy Hall name, which I turned into a fuller by
ditching out the name with a mill. And to that, I added to each of
the blade, a double row of biangular teeth on the spine. I cut one
tooth at a time with a half-inch, half-round Nicholson file. It was
the kind of work that made me want to shout out my praises for
hi-tech. The rarest series built was the Renegade, made in the late
1970s. If my memory is correct some were Smooth-spine, but not all
and ground and sharpened only on the right side. There were eleven
Renegades built; one test model, followed by numbers from one to
ten. Most of the early Sabertooth knives with the circle patent
numbers stamped on the blade are Smooth-spine, and all are
serialized on the finger-guard.
In
1984, after my Canada-to-Mexico ride, I began building the
Cross-Country models. They were marked with a “Najah” Indian symbol.
All Cross-Country Sabertooths have Sawtooth-spines, with the
exception of thirty-five that were a special order. Twenty-two of
the thirty-five were made in 1989 for the Oklahoma Centennial
series, the remaining thirteen were sold as Cross-Country
Smooth-spines.
The Cross-Country models are serialized below the cathead on the
left side of the blade. Sabertooth #883, which has a black blade and
stag handle, though not the last knife built, is the highest number
reached from the original order of one thousand blank blades. The
one hundred and seventeen blades never received either became
fallouts in the initial blanking, or made several side trips before
delivery. Recent history shows that one Sabertooth blank blade,
never delivered to Spivey Knives, sold on eBay for $150.00.
Over
the years, some models were sold not only by the old classic store,
TG&Y, but Oshman’s and Abercrombie & Fitch as well. Though black
walnut was predominantly used for the slab handles, other materials
are ivory, cape and water buffalo horn, American elk antler, moose
antler, India-stag, birds eye maple, rosewood, cherry, purple-heart,
pink ivory and other exotic woods, including box elder, bois d’arc
(Osage orange) and others. Moose is not good for it becomes too
flexible when wet.
In a class of its own, the Sabertooth is so distinguishable that
after fourteen years, when the design patent ran out, I applied for
and received a U.S. trademark registration for the knife itself,
which included both the sloping sawtooth spine and the Smooth-spine.
I also slid the two words (Saber tooth) together and obtained a
trademark for the single word Sabertooth.
At
a Gun & Knife Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1988 several helicopter
pilots purchased Sabertooth knives. I asked one what he planned to
do with the knife. “Because of the teeth on the curved spine and the
handgrip, it’s just the tool I need,” he said. “If I go down, I can
rip through the skin of the chopper and kick a door out.”
There has always been a military interest in the Sabertooth knife.
Since its first appearance on the cover of
Gun World in ‘69,
numerous letters have been received from various offices of the
military; the Department of the Navy, Department of the Army,
Aerospace Crew Equipment Department and other Special Units. At the
time, during all the correspondence, with only one knife on hand,
there was no way to respond appropriately.
Knives are objects of great interest to many people, and some
collect Sabertooth knives. G. Bradfield Sullivan, owner of a tag
agency, has more than fifty. George Gardner, now deceased, had even
more. His were mostly early models. David Glover, a landscaper, has
quite a varied collection. Patent attorney, Charles Codding,
collects exotic Sabertooth’s with brass lined handles, mostly ivory
and buffalo horn. Harley V. Duncan, a rancher who has more than a
hundred Sabertooth knives, keeps his collection on display
somewhere, most all the time. Thousands around the country have
viewed his collection, via the Department of Tourism. Incredibly, a
neighboring rancher traded Harley a prize bull for one standard
model Sabertooth knife.
The
only thing that matters to a user is a good sharp knife, but factors
that determine the price of a Sabertooth knife for collectors are
condition, model, serial number, and handle material. Cross-Country
Sabertooth #001 with brass lined ivory handles sold for $3,000. I
probably should have kept it for myself, but ‘ya can’t eat knives. I
have carried Sabertooth #284 since my Canada to Mexico ride.
On March 21, 1994, my birthday, the Sabertooth record book in my
overnight case was stolen from my motel room in Tulsa, Oklahoma
along with a Walther .380, PPK Stainless. I speculate that whoever
swiped them probably pocketed the .380 and threw all else in a
dumpster. After all the years of recording the serial numbers and
the names of those who had purchased each knife, I sorta lost heart
and stopped keeping records altogether. Incredibly, seven years
later, just when
Knife World
had gone to press with
Sabertooth Knives of Jefferson Spivey,
I learned that Sabertooth collector George Gardner had passed away
and his wife Helen had discovered a copy of the original record book
that had been stolen. Unknown to me, Gardner had made a copy of the
book to keep with his collection. Without George’s thoughtful act,
the history herein would not be possible. Most knives have been
accounted for, but not all. When an undocumented Sabertooth knife is
found, it will be added to the record book.
A
Sabertooth is more than a knife; it eliminates the need for carrying
a hatchet and saw. The finger-guard protects the finger while
cutting or chopping. It is a trail tool that can hack, skin, dig and
saw wood or bone. When I built the last few Sabertooth knives in
late 2001, I had reached an impasse. Now, five years later, I have
decided to re-establish the Sabertooth, but modernize to get the
knife into a wider market. Grinding blades in all kinds of weather
and then selling them one-on-one to pay the bills is not the way to
accomplish that goal.
The Trademark Sabertooth will be more utilitarian than the earlier
models. The new handle design will make it even more unique. It will
be a tool that anyone would want to use. There will be other minor
changes such as serializing, symbols, trademark registration. The
sheath will be redesigned. And, there will be a corner of the
workshop for personalizing the Sabertooth. As the Sabertooth knife
was created in America, that event will be honored by building it
entirely in the U.S.A. Over time, the new Sabertooth knives will be
just as relevant as the originals. Though modern technology may play
a role in the future of the Sabertooth, the basic design will remain
the same. It will simply be a continuation of a survival tool that
was conceived out of need, 39 years ago in the American wilderness.
This first Sabertooth started from an old roughed-out circular saw blade
Most ivory used in the Sabertooth knives, before outlawed, was
elephant, hippo, and walrus
Current Production—Sabertooth Trademark model