I'm told that Purdey does not make their own knives. Does anyone know the name of the company that manufactures them and where they are located?

I would not be surprised if they are Italian made knives, with the purdey name stamped on. I know they do this with their damascus over and under shotguns.

Isn't anything sacred anymore?

I have one I picked on EBay, nice knife and a good add to a cased gun, but I can’t see paying full price

Wait, who's making O/U's for Purdey?

Purdey.

Ha ha ha ha dhanks, hilarious! Read the post above!

Not sure what the post above has to do with O/U barrels. I seen the Purdey factory tour video, which is about 2 hours long, and you can clearly see the workers making O/U barrels throughout the factory tour.

https://www.purdey.com/purdey-event/london-craft-week-knife-making-purdey

Purdey has had number of different English custom makers do their knives, they are neither Italian,nor Indian.

A friend has two identical knives, built in the Loveless style, damascus blades, rosewood handles, one plain one bearing the company logo on the choil. The unmarked one was made in India. I will try to photograph them side by side and post.

I don't know where the Purdey knifes are made but they look good.

However I would not buy one from Holts if you live in the USA. Holts sent me the wrong Purdey knife from what I ordered and it was a complete boondoggle in trying to get it returned and the right one delivered, or for me to be given a refund.

A third party is making those knives for Purdey

If you look at the 2 websites, Purdey's 'DEER HUNTER WITH BRASS GUARD' is identical to CSMC's 'Thumb Groove Hunter Knife' aside from the handle's wood and the metal used for the bolster.

https://www.purdey.com/deer-hunter-with-brass-guard-and-lanyard-hole-walnut

http://www.csmcspecials.com/Thumb_Groove_Hunter_Knife_p/k0140.htm

I have the CSMC knife, it's a nice enough knife, but you can get Damascus blanks for under $50.

Yes you can get Damascus blanks for under $50 but who's making them and what kind of steel is used ? Made in China ? Well that would be a deal, wouldn't it ? I think good Damascus made in the US from known steels so it can be harden properly would cost a bit more. JMHO

Paul, they are coming in from Turkey and Pakistan, the steel they are using is what China rejects............ I'll buy a
Damascus blade made in the US

This is a CSMC damascus blade boot knife that I bought from Lou in April, at the Bray's Island Exhibition. Geoffrey Gourmet was engraving in the same tent and I prevailed upon him to personalize it for me with some scroll on all four sides of the grip bolsters, and my initials in the inset medallion. I have several hand forged damascus blades by Habersham Forge in Cornelia, GA, and I feel like I got my money's worth on this knife.

Don't know where it was made, don't care. Don't care how well it would sharpen, either. Boot knives are for sticking holes in "things", not slicing them open. The blade has a double spine to strengthen it.............. in case you hit bone, dontcha' know.





SRH

The knives I mentioned above are identical to the knives seen in the links posted by Chantry.

Brand names apparently carry a hefty premium. Which makes me wonder if the adage buy the gun not the name also applies to knives, thermos bottles, hip flasks etc.

Of course it does.

Brand names provide, in theory, an advantage for consumers by Indicating a known level of quality.

Brand names provide, in practice, an advantage for vendors by allowing a higher selling price for any given item at any given quality level, when compared to having no recognizable brand on the product.

Nice pig sticker Stan. Hope you don't wear it out...Geo

Purdey’s drop trigger o/u has been made by Peruginii & Visini in Italy. The guns were finished in England. Don’t know if that is still the case.

That was also my understanding. Various English 'top names' are made in other places, and some 'top names' are more open about it than others! (For example some Powell guns have for many years been made in Spain and Italy, something which Powells have always been quite open about).

I believe William Evans has some guns made in Italy or Spain also. The better guns could be uk made but i do not know for certain. Its a well worn path, BSA had guns made by SKB in Japan back in the 1960's, very good guns they were too. Some of the old Webley side by sides were made in Spain. Now they are made entirely in Turkey.

But even back in the great days of English gunmaking, a lot of parts and components were sourced from Belgium.

Don't quite get the joke myself. The Purdey o/u's are made in Italy. Very fine guns i am sure, but they are an Italian gun with Purdey stamped on them.

As for the knives, i'll bet they are made from Swedish Damasteel, its what Purdey use in their o/u.

http://www.damasteel.se/inspiration/

http://www.damasteel.se/patterns/

You can see inside the Purdey factory they are making their own O/U barrels. Maybe they have different types, but these you can see are being made inside of Purdey by the barrel maker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fac892fHBME&t=28m50s

That video was posted on youtube in 2011, 7 years ago and god knows how long it was made before that. Purdey were making the woodward o/u's, as they own the brand since the just after war.

How do you know they're made in Italy? Purdey rarely changes their design and process over decades. The video clearly shows the barrels being made in-house. I don't understand why they would outsource it to Italy; it isn't for cost reasons.

Purdey made 'their own design' o/u (done by Mr. Lawrence based on an Edwinson Green design) with Mr. Lawrence's fine work. The first were complex multi bolt units, beautifully, but made, but heavy and very expensive/demanding to make. Few were made, and later ones had a slightly simplified bolting system.
When Purdey bought out Woodwards, they made o/u guns on the Woodward design (slightly altered by the Lawrence family), which was elegant and lighter than Purdey's own, but still quite expensive to make. Both the 'true Purdey' and the Woodward are sidelocks.
Coming up to more recent times, a boxlock Sporter model with Italian input. See Purdey's own website. https://www.purdey.com/guns-rifles/the-sporter

There are more details on 'what is made/fitted where' here https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/reviews/shotgun/purdey-sporter-shotgun-review

They also make a trigger plate model which does seem to be London made, and of course the sidelock Woodward based model.

So, as I understand the present range, they have the 'Sporter', made partly by Perugini & Visini in Italy, and the 'Trigger Plate' and 'Purdey Woodward' made in London.

Two months ago I visited the Purdey factory .
I was told , the new trigger plate O/U was designed and built by P&V using some parts made by Purdey ( Barrels).
Thursday I was told in a Press release that the O/U Trigger plate gun was wholly designed and built by Purdey in London.
BUT it was a Press release.
From what I saw on my visit to the factory , a new broom and a time study engineer would work wonders , as would banning employees mobile phones. I think Purdey prices now include network charges and calls to Wives and Girlfriends.

Because Purdey admitted they make them in Italy, and i don't know what the problem is with that. The Italians make guns as good as anyone else. A quick shot of some barrels in a video doesn't mean much. They probably still make the woodward ou in house.
It isn't for cost reasons ? Why else ? Its the same reason Browning assemble their guns in Portugal and Schmidt and Bender make some of their scopes in Hungary.
A penny saved is a penny earned.

Purdey probably want to keep their employees sweet and onside. Its not like Purdey can run around to the local job centre to hire an actioner or stocker if they piss off the staff they have.

I have worked (briefly) in an engineering works where the management and workers were daggers drawn. Didn't make for good business or work environment, nobody would do anything other than their exact job, no goodwill or anyone willing to do anything beyond that expected.

I left and went to somewhere far better, i could go to the toilet when i wanted, use the phone, order tools and materials i needed, have classic fm on the radio, far more relaxed, but when i was asked could i work late or do a saturday morning ? No problem.

Question is, are Purdey knives legal in London?

Probably not, but then again, the police are too busy (hopefully) chasing those who carry knives with bad intentions to bother with the law abiding.

Must be a sad place to live. I can carry any type knife I want with any length blade, concealed, in GA since I have a CCL. If the blade is not over 5" anybody can carry it concealed without a CCL.

My self-opening "deacon's meeting knife" is completely legal.



SRH

And all we get in exchange for being so sad is, like the rest of western Europe, approximately a fifth the chance of being murdered as in the US. If you believe being armed prevents crime, the natural difference may be much greater. Don't mix up which came first, the chicken or the egg. The law arises because people think killing people is not quite the thing.

It would be legal to own any of the Purdey knives, but not to carry them in places and activities where they don't have some reasonable use, or to advertise them as suitable for combat.

Many dealers, ranging from ironmongers to mostly provincial "gunmakers" who never made a gun, bought in complete guns from the Birmingham or Belgian trade, and had them engraved with their names. Quality dealers, famous under their own names, rarely did so from Belgium, but my guess is that more of them had a basic Birmingham line than didn't.

My sidelock Gibbs, made around the time the modern shotgun was perfected in the 1890s, has steel barrels made by Webley, for a gun made by Gibbs. My guess is that that meant the tubes, rather than a part-finished assembly. Conversely there was a time, I don't know how long, when nobody but Gibbs made their own Farquharson actions, and everybody else's were bought as unfinished parts from Belgium.

The Colt factory, for example, made all of every Colt, and nothing but Colts. In contrast the Birmingham and Liège trade operated by an immensely complex network of the firm's factory work, subcontractors, outworkers etc. A self-employed tradesman might rent bench space etc. in the factory, and sell anything from all to none of his product to his host. I may have scratched the surface of the complexities which existed. My Webley-made barrels happen to be identified by a serial prefix, but most weren't, and the knowledge may be locked up in dusty ledgers, or gone forever.

Believe whichever reports you want to. This one says different, comparing London and NYC.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/20/london-now-dangerous-new-york-crime-stats-suggest/

Our differing views of liberty is the reason we are today a nation of our own, and not a colony.

SRH

New York of course deserves great credit for a great reduction in violent crime in recent decades, which owes much to policing and prosecution policies, and gun control, much like London's.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44807271

It is much the same with the occupational injury and road traffic death rates. Thinking death is a bad thing, other people's even, seems to be a help.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_injury#United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

You have to admire Australia, Canada and New Zealand for the amicable way they made their escape.

Tell that to Dan Nightingale.

New York deserves credit for being much like London...I think you've lost your dam mind.

No one has to agree and no one with any sense would ever admire Australia, Canada or New Zealand for any of their bull chit gun laws.

New Zealand is very pro gun, except for handguns which are tightly controlled. It is easier to buy a gun in NZ than the USA once you have you firearms card. They do the research before they issue you the card, once you have it you can buy long guns as you like. No delays, no limits on numbers. A wonderful country full of great people, unlimited sporting opportunities and delicious food and drink. I look forward to my return.

Won't be long before the English language is changed in England to some islamic gibberish....

I think real understanding of cause and effect would confirm that NYC gun regs have little to do with any crime reduction and the drop in crime rates have much more to do with policing policies and practices. Don't have to look hard....the reduction and it's cause have been widely celebrated and copied with similar effect. And which way is London's crime rates going? Yes, they have historically been lower than NYC and we know NYC's have dropped precipitously over the last 3 decades but what's happening in London. I don't think it's staying static and I don't think it's dropping.

Can't speak for Australia and NZ but Canada's escape from British direct rule had a lot more to do with Britain looking to get out of the responsibility than any methodical "escape" that soon to be Canadians planned.

Glib responses like "much like London", 'thinking death is a bad thing" or "amicable way they made their escape" rarely reveal the truth.

Sadly most of Europe is in the same sorry boat. Here in Dublin, walking the streets, i don't hear english spoken very much anymore.

Buy a Randall.....all-American made with a stellar history since WWII. I've carried my Model 14 in Vietnam, Pakistan, Congo, sub-Continent, Afghanistan, and on into Africa these last few years - younger guys don't much carry sheath knives anymore.

Thanksgiving Day, 1966, Vietnam


Thanksgiving Day, 2012, Afghanistan

Argo you are right, Randall is a great maker, I have several including a #1 I carried through Desert Storm, OIF, and OEF. I have a Purdey knife too and it is a decent knife which nicely goes with the rest of the accessories in the fitted case.

For serious work, the Randall is the way.

The challenge for Randall is still the wait, Sometime in the next few months I might finally get the next Randall I ordered two years ago.

The Randall knife sellers on Ebay don't appear to waiting very long on getting them.

Joe, is that a deduction on your part or are you aware of a shortened waiting period for eBay sellers?

What is your first hand experience in ordering from Randall?

I've owned two Randall knifes and bought both second hand...

It just seems suspicious to me that most models are readily available off Ebay and strangely at about the same prices that Randall sells them for.

Maybe they're counterfeits.

SRH

Shows 60 new Randall knives for sale on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ran...ItemCondition=3

50 buy it now

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ran...=3&LH_BIN=1

jOe, I have a very knowledgable Randall expert in the family - beware of forgeries. If you order a new Randall, you will wait a considerable time for it. However, there are always some used Randall's available. There are a couple of good sites where you can check the authenticity of the knife.

www.knifetalkforums.com

www.knifenetwork.com

www.bladeforums.com

Never had a Randall knife. I had no idea they were so expensive. I use my knives too much to want to own one that costs that much. I can admire them though...Geo

Almost be an honor to get stabbed by one of them.


_________________________
(Randall knife stabbin’) Blues stay away from me.
https://youtu.be/usiw4abV0GU

If you want a really good practical knife, for not much money, then buy a Mora. They are made in Sweden, of excellent steel, well designed rubberised handles. They have a really good reputation for holding an edge and being tough.



https://morakniv.se/en/

Is the the reason it takes six years to get a knife directly from Randall ?

https://www.ebay.com/str/SJJP-Knives?_trksid=p2047675.l2563