Give-away knives

[Armored farmer]

Remember the good ol' days when businesses would give away knives as advertisement or customer appreciation?
Does anyone ever do that anymore? It seems to me like a thing of the past.
As a kid i started collecting them. I wish i had pursued it harder now. Most of the businesses on my knives are long gone, but i still remember them.

 

[troy fairweather]

when i worked for some well drilling companys the salesman we got all the pumps and pipe and wire from gave us them all the time. i dont have many left because we used them and lose them to. we got jackets every winter a carhart and some kind of windbraker. collers tshirts clocks u name it. we did about 10 to 15 water pumps per day and drilled about a new water well every 1.5 days. the boss sent lots of money there but it was nice for them to give just stuff its very rare today to see this happen. o and 12 maine lobsters every year for each off us. that pen knife is neat.

 

[Mn Fats]

That's a cool little collection. I have two laying around here somewhere. One of them looks like the second one from the top, the other looks just like the one directly to the left of it. Good old days indeed. Now that I think about it, I believe they're both in tackle boxes in the barn. Good tackle box knives.

 

[WestKentucky]

My dad had a zippo knife with a local battery distributors logo on it. He lost that knife several years ago and he hasn’t found one to replace it. What is interesting though is that there are still companies doing this type thing. Usually around Christmas or so. I have seen a few come through the office with maintenance guys names on the C/O line. The last ones I saw were spyderco and were pretty impressive. I owned a benchmade with a vendors logo on it but it creatively disappeared from my locked desk. I still have a Stanley multitool that came in an embroidered nylon sheath where the embroidery was of the vendors logo. It’s junk, but because of how that one happened I appreciate it the most. I use the pouch with my gerber.

 

[labnoti]

I haven't seen them given away like pens, but more like free with orders over $99. Imported "tactical" folders. Those kind of freebies typically have a ~$20-30 retail value, and I figure they're about $5 wholesale if you buy 1000, maybe 2 or 3 dollars if you buy more. Personally, I greatly prefer Victorinox Classic SD, Morakniv, or Opinels. The retail value is about $15, but I doubt they're as easy to source wholesale for a lot less than that.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

The local Pawn & Gun Shop does laser engraving. They have an order to engrave a Company’s logo on 50 knives. They look great.

 

[Armored farmer]

Here are a few others that i had stashed.
The Leatherman Supertool 300 is the best promo knife i have ever been given.
The Victornox is nice too.

 

[JShirley]

The NRA does it frequently, but the knives I've seen are junk.

 

[Old Dog]

Here's one for a product you don't see anymore:

 

[1MoreFord]

I have one(or more) of the little brass penknife(s) w/ fingernail file lost around the house somewhere. They came from Hermes Abrasives. Then I have a small Wenger Swiss Army Knife from a local electrical/electronics supplier. Then another abrasives guy gave me a nice Buck folder and sheath that's not privately branded. Finally another guy gave me one of those tall insulated travel mugs. When I got it home and opened it there was a Buck folder inside. Don't think he meant that one to get away as it was used.

 

[Browning]

I remember those. I have a few of them in the garage.

A couple of them look like this ...



One of them was from a bunch of blue chip stamps than my grandmother had and they were going out of business (late 70's) and so we went down there to cash them in so that she'd be able to get something out of them. I ended up with that knife.

The other one was basically a duplicate of the one above with a slightly different blade style and was from some hardware store that was giving them out. I don't even remember which one.

 

[entropy]

They do, but like J Shirley says, they're junk knives.
Not sure why this company sent one to the Ag shop SWMBO works at, but it looks just like the one on the RH side in your pic, AF:


Pleace excuse SWMBO's table setting; she collects Fiestaware and likes to show it off.

When I worked at a laser engraving shop ('82-3) , we did knife scales/slabs all the time.

 

[Fiv3r]

I get one from time to time. My supplier used to give us little black Victorinox Classics with their logo in white on the side. Handy size.

A pump manufacturer gave us our choice of a knife or ball cap after a training. The ball cap was much nicer than the knife. However, my rep went ahead and gave me both. The knife, despite being a combo edge made in China beater of mystery steel, has surprisingly good lock up with a decent amount of steel on the liner lock. It reminds of the same type you see on the Cold Steel Ti Lite. Pretty impressive for a $5.00 knife.

The finish on the handle is a bit fragile, but it's a pretty metallic blue. I've used it several times when I didn't want to bugger up my ZT.

 

[ericuda]

Barlow, everyone had to have one of those. Recently u found a made in the USA keychain knife, fingernail clippers, file and i believe bottle opener.

 

[jeepnik]

We did that a few years ago. Sadly many customers are no longer allowed to accept "gifts". And one said they couldn't have knives on the company property. So now we do ball caps and ballpoint pens.

How I miss the old days in the oil industry when at Christmas time my desk was literally covered with bottles of very expensive booze. These gifts never determined who got contract work. They were simply thank yous from the guys you did business with. And, those bottles sometimes came in handy when one of the guys was having a bad time. A good stiff belt and some conversation helped a lot of guys a heck of a lot more that a session with a therapist.

I suppose now they keep a stuffed puppy and a flannel blanket in the drawer.

 

[Sistema1927]

I wonder if you can still order Swiss Army knives with logos. Might be a neat give away for church, and would be more memorable than the pens we order.

 

[If1HitU]

I remember those. I have a few of them in the garage.

A couple of them look like this ...

View attachment 803747

One of them was from a bunch of blue chip stamps than my grandmother had and they were going out of business (late 70's) and so we went down there to cash them in so that she'd be able to get something out of them. I ended up with that knife.

The other one was basically a duplicate of the one above with a slightly different blade style and was from some hardware store that was giving them out. I don't even remember which one.

I always liked those.