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According to the American Knife and Tool Institute (www.akti.org), sporting knives deliver a $5.9 billion dollar impact on the American economy.

Also, 35.6 million households own pocket knives while 24.8 million households own hunting knives. Hunting knife owners break down to 60.5 percent men, 39.5 percent women. Ninety percent of all hunters and fishermen use knives, often the same knives that they carry every day. Finally, 80 percent of new knife sales over the past five years consisted of one-hand-openers and assisted openers.
One statistic we can’t verify is that almost 100 percent of army/navy stores carry knives, but we’ll stand by that anyway.

Knives and multi-tools of every description and for every function are core to the army/navy store, and the hunting/sporting knife is smack dab in the middle of the inventory mix.
Of course, the sporting knife is not just for hunting and fishing only. Campers, hikers, spelunkers, divers and mountaineers alse require sporting cutlery.

There is also a thriving market for collectible sporting knives, blades that will never leave their display cases or owner’s homes. Some of these knives are produced by nationally renowned knife builders, others by craftsmen and hobbyists with only local followings. There is also a vibrant market for companies that supply raw materials to knifemakers for do-it-yourself expertise.
Here are some of the latest products from some of the companies most familiar to army/navy stores:

Buck Knives - Post Falls, Idaho (www.buckknives.com). This company recently introduced its PakLite FieldMaster, a self-contained sheath kit that contains three items - the 141 PakLite Large Skinner, the 135 PakLite Caper and the 499 PakLite Guthook. Each knife is of a minimalist design, but is surgically efficient. All three items are carried in one lightweight, durable sheath. For easy cleaning and de-scenting, the sheath itself is built with removable liners. Once these liners are removed the sheath is washable. Zipper pockets are included in the sheath for carrying tags and other necessary items.

CAS Hanwei - Sale Creek, Tennessee (www.cashanwei.com) This company’s sporting knife line centers around their proprietary Rock Creek line, introduced at the January 2010 SHOT Show.
One of their featured knices is the Caribou, a Rock Creek Hunter with a Nessmuk Style Blade.
This full-tang hunter features forged blades in HWS-1K with full taper tangs. Edge hardness is 58-60HRc. The handle scales are genuine Sambar stag. Sheath construction is bark-tanned leather with stainless steel reinforcing at the wear points.