Home / Knife Companies / Ontario to Release New Lines of Ultra-Affordable, USA-Made Fixed Blades

Ontario to Release New Lines of Ultra-Affordable, USA-Made Fixed Blades

June 1, 2017

Ontario Knife Company (OKC) is catering to fixed blade fans with two new series of ultra-affordable, USA-made products for the summer. The new Hunt Plus and Spec Plus Alpha knife lines cater to users who want affordable and durable knives for a variety of outdoor and survival applications. Four different options are on offer and set to be released later in June.

Andrew Yates, Senior Director of Sales and Marketing at OKC, says that the goal with the new fixed blades was to offer American-made high performance at unrivalled prices. “What we did to get that to work is look at what adds value to a knife versus what just adds cost.” Knives that users will rely on in the wilderness benefit from simple, strong design. “We made sure that anything we did to the knife was adding value. We wanted to make the knife simpler, not worse,” Yates says.

The Spec Plus Alpha series consists of the SP-A Survival and the SP-A Machete (shown below NOT to scale). Both knives are modeled after classic OKC designs (the SP-2 and SP-8 respectively). 1075 carbon steel was chosen for the blades to emphasize durability, and a phosphate coating keeps rust at bay. The Machete stands out with a 7-inch chisel-shaped blade. Yates tells us that this knife has been scaled down from its predecessor to make it a tool with a lot of applications. “It’s versatile by virtue of being a plain blade shape. It gives you an open canvas for what you want to do with it.”

Ontario SP-A

For the Hunt Plus series, OKC focused on delivering two simple blade shapes popular with outdoorsmen: a drop point and a skinner. Both knives’ 4-inch blades are made from 420HC steel and, like the Spec Plus Alpha knives, leverage skeletonized full tang construction. “With the handle it almost gives you a one piece knife because the rubber is molded right through the tang,” Yates explains.

Ontario Hunt Plus

Ontario Knife Company has been making knives since 1889, and for the last 75 years has been a supplier of fixed blades and other tools to the U.S. Military. Although many newer members to the knife community may be most familiar with the RAT-1 folder, Yates tells us the 499 Air Force Survival knife is still their most popular model. The company says they remain committed to making products in the USA and at their price points, these new models prove it.

> > Keep your folders awesome. Grab a Pack of 5 Microfiber Blade Sleeves for $8.99 < <

All four new knives will be available at leading dealers shortly. The SP-A Survival has an MSRP of $42.75 and the SP-A Machete will sticker for $47.50. The Hunt Plus Drop Point will set you back $56.95 and the Skinner $57.50.

Knife featured in image: OKC SP-A Survival, Hunter Plus Skinner, SP-A Machete

Related Items