Blackie Collins

Blackie Collins started making custom (handmade) knives in the mid 60’s and helped organize and start the Knife makers' Guild in 1970. He published and edited America's first magazine devoted to cutlery, "Blade Magazine" in 1973. Collins wrote and published "How Knives are Made" in 1975, America's first How-to book on making cutlery. That led Blackie to write and published "How to Scrimshaw and Carve Ivory", "The Pocketknife Manual", and "Throwing Knives for Survival and Defense".

 He then designed and manufactured Smith & Wesson's first cutlery products and patented the first positive lock and release knife for SCUBA diving in 1980. Designed and patented the first folding knife with injected molded handle of glass filled Nylon (checkered LST) in 1983 for Gerber Legendary Blades. This quickly became Gerber's all time best seller and literally changed the way pocket knives were made. It is still one of Gerber's biggest selling models after more than 20 years.

Blackie designed and patented for Meyerco, the cutlery industry's first assisted opening folding knife in 1995. Over twenty cutlery companies have manufactured knives and multipurpose tools designed by Blackie and his first of over 75 patented designs has been in continuous production since 1968. In his later years of knife making Blackie designed exclusively for Meyerco and continued to defy the odds and create groundbreaking designs.