The knives of my youth, part 2: Robert Parrish

Looking over the knives from Part I, I would be hard-pressed to call myself a collector.  I have a few nice knives, but nothing that amounts to a real collection.  Except for these, a group of seven knives from the custom knife maker Robert Parrish of Hendersonville, NC.

I’m not sure how it transpired, but at some point in the mid-’80s, the hardware store I worked in began selling Parrish knives.  I suspect that a frequent customers and rabid knife collectors had read about them in a magazine, or seen them at a show.  Either way, he asked if we could start selling Parrish knives.  It would be an overstatement to say that he bought every Parrish knife we had, but he did buy most of them.  A few were purchased by store employees, a few were purchased by people in the military who found out that we had a good selection of Parrish knives on hand at any given time, but I think better than 90% of all the Parrish knives we sold went to a single collector. 

Eventually, my father and uncle became friends with Robert and we would sometimes receive knives that he didn’t have any other outlet for.  Here are the ones that I bought and kept through the years:

Neither of these two Bowie-style knives appear in the circa 1986 RP Knives catalog I have.  The smaller fighter was made in February of 1990, but I don’t remember if it was included in Parrish’s regular offerings in the early ‘90s or was one-off.  One notable difference between this and the other micarta-handled RP knives I remember is this one uses hollow rivet to attach the micarta slabs to the tang.  It’s the same thing that Parrish was doing for lanyard holes on the other knives but I don’t remember seeing many (any?) others that were quite like this one.  The larger of the two was custom made in September 1990 and, based on the inscription, I think there is only other other like it in the world.

Closeup of the inscription on the larger Bowie-style knife:  “990 00x 1 of 2” and “SGT. MILAS CAUBLE USMC FROM MAC” I haven’t a clue who either Sargent Cauble or Mac might be, but the story I was told was that Mac ordered two of these large brutes and was either unable, or unwilling, to pay for them when they were finished.  They were sent up to the hardware store where one ultimately ended up in my possession.

Two Robert Parrish fighting knives, a Massasauga (top) from May 1986 and Tanto (bottom) from September 1987.  The Massasauga is 11” overall, with a 6” blade; the “choil fronts the lower guard and the back of the Massasauga is slightly arched with serrations placed for a thumb rest.” The Tanto is 12.5” overall, with a 7” blade.  Both have black linen micarta handle slabs bolted to the full tang.  The Massasauga has a leather sheath and the Tanto’s sheath is nylon.  Personally, I think Parrish’s Massasauga is one of the best handling knives I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning.  It fits perfectly in my hand. 

The top knife is Robert Parrish’s famous 8” “Survival-Combat” model, and the bottom is a Model 36.  Interestingly, these are the earlies and latest Parrish knives I have—the 8” was made in August 1985, while the Model 36 dates from June 1991.  The 8” Survival-Combat is 13” overall, with a 8” blade; the saw consists of three rows of teeth in a diamond pattern and the hollow handle has an O-ring seal.  I have a nylon sheath for this knife.  The Model 36 s smaller at 9.5” overall, with a 5” blade; the hollow tubular handle is narrower at 3/4” (vs. 1” for the 8” Survival-Combat) and the Model 36 lacks the larger knife’s serrated saw teeth, but otherwise they are similar.  Robert made at least on other survival/combat knives along the same lines, the 6” Survival-Combat.  This knife was the slightly larger than the Model 36 at 10.875” overall and included the saw teeth on the back of the blade.

And here is a Silver Sliver III from August 1988.  This Silver Sliver III is somewhat different than most due to its white linen micarta handle rather than the typical “hypalon” rubber.  The handle actually looks like old ivory and has fooled at least one person who should have know the difference.  In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that Robert didn’t polish this knife, I did.  I could never quite wrap my mind around having a matte gray blade with a white handle—is the knife supposed to be a working tool or more of a presentation piece?  I thought it was better a more refined presentation piece and polished the blade.  I should probably get in touch with Robert and ask if he would be willing to re-polish it for me.  No doubt he would do a better job than I did.  The Silver Sliver III is 10.5” overall with a 6” blade.  There were two smaller Silver Sliver models, the I and II, that were 9.5” and 10” respectively that I don’t own.

Overall, I think this is a good collection and representative of Parrish’s work.  There are some models that I don’t have (notably the 6” Survival-Combat, Indian Bowie, the smaller Silver Slivers and skeletonized hunting knives).  Regardless, I think these are among the best examples of what Robert was producing from the mid- to late-’80s and on into the early ‘90s.  By the late-’90s, Parrish was transitioning out of knife making and had begin to turn his attention to repairing astrolabes and other antique nautical equipment.

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