D’Holder knives, like the knives from almost every custom knife maker, bear a “Maker’s Mark”. This “Maker’s Mark” is the mark, be it a name, initials, and/or logo that the maker puts on each knife to identify the knife as being made by him or her. Sometimes this mark is etched, sometimes stamped and sometimes it is engraved or scribed onto the knife. Generally the mark is placed upon the blade just ahead of the guard or handle, but it can often be found on other areas of the knife.
D generally places his mark on the right-hand side of the blade when one holds the knife in the hand, with the tip of the blade pointing away from oneself. However, from time-to-time, D will place the mark on the left hand side, on the ricasso area or the top of the blade near to, or, between the bolsters.
The Marks:
D’s latest mark is the one to be placed upon the 40th Anniversary Knife. This mark was designed by D in conjunction with his daughter-in-law, to adorn the 40 knives that D will make to commemorate his 40th year making custom knives. These forty knives are the fewest number of D’Holder knives to bear any one mark, with the exception of the ‘LONGHORN’ mark from 1966. This is the 40th mark, etched onto the knife:
Since April, 1999, D’Holder knives have predominately carried the Peoria, AZ mark. I use the term “predominately”, because not every knife produced by D during this time-period carried the same mark. From time-to-time, for various reasons, D would place another mark upon a knife produced during this time period. For the most part, however, D’Holder knives produced during this period would bear the mark below, etched onto the knife.
From June, 1988 until he moved to Peoria in April of 1999, D’Holder knives predominately carried the Phoenix, AZ mark. Again, I use the term “predominately”, because not every knife produced by D during this time-period carried the same mark. Sometimes, for differing reasons, D would stamp another mark upon a knife produced during this time period. For the most part, however, D’Holder knives produced during this period would bear the mark below, etched onto the knife.
Occasionally, sheaths made by D during the Phoenix period ( June, 1988 to April of 1999) carried his Maker's mark also. While sheaths so marked are not rare, they are not common at the same time. Here is the mark on a sheath.
Between 1986 and 1988 when he moved to Phoenix again, D’Holder knives predominately carried the Farmington, NM mark. D’Holder knives produced during this period would most often bear the mark below, etched onto the knife. Other than the D’Holder knives that carry the 40th Anniversary mark, and the very early Denver knives that carry the Longhorn mark, D’Holder knives carrying the Farmington mark are the fewest in numbers, with the majority of the Farmington knives being produced the last 6 months or so of D’s time there.
From June 1980 to 1986 D’Holder knives mostly carried the Amarillo, TX mark etched onto the knife. For the most part, D’Holder knives produced during this period would bear the mark below, etched onto the knife. Here is the Amarillo etch on two different knives and on different sides. This was the first time D'Holders were marked with the City and State.
D’Holder knives made between 1972 and 1980 were from when D lived and made knives in his first Phoenix residence time-period. These knives had a stamped script style maker’s mark for the most part.
During part of this period(1977 to 1980) the stamp that D used mostly was about one-half inch across as is shown in the photo below This knife has the maker's mark stamped across the ricasso area.
And, as shown in the photo below, he used a stamp about 5/8” between 1975 and 1977
Below is shown the stamp used between 1973 and 1975, the stamp being about 1” across. This stamp is known to have been used on both fixed blades and folders. This 1" stamp was retired (actually, it was incorporated into a Western Belt buckle that accompanies the 1,500th knife made by D'Holder, and it was the last knife stamped with it) in 1978.
Between 1972 and early 1974, D used a pantograph engraving for his maker’s mark. This mark is shown below.
Around about the end of 1966 or very early in 1967, D switched to a hand-made stencil etching of "D'holder" for his maker’s mark, and he used this until 1972. This mark is about 1 ½” long and about 5/8” high, but, as you can see, it’s subject to a lot of variation. Here is a photo of this mark.
The first maker’s mark used by D was the Longhorn mark used in late 1966 and only used on around 30 knives. I haven’t been able to obtain a photo of a knife with this mark, and no-one I know has one of these early knives. Here is a photo of D’s card from that time, however.
And here we see several examples of D’Holder knives with differing maker’s marks.
As it has been repeatedly said and shown, the maker's marks used on D'Holder knives can only be very roughly tied to a time period to establish when a particular knife was produced.
I wish to thank Mike Benton, Bob Betzner and Pete Spitzner for their assistance with the photos on this page.
Home Page | D'Holder Info | D CATALOGS | Contact Me
©2006 315599 Alberta Ltd..