Help, need info on police 1007 RSA aluminum

spydercojoe · #1

Hi all, it's been a long time. I'm back,,,, I retired a month ago. My fine company gave me a little going away check and said take the wife to dinner and get a knife. They know what I like! So, I just came back from a gun and knife show. Laying in a display case of a trusted vendor is this mint with box Spyderco 1007 RSA aluminum handle police knife.
It is mint and it is in my pocket! Three questions please. Does anyone know some history, when made, how many etc. it has Spyderco G -2 stainless on one side of blade and SEKI-CITY Japan on the other. The rest of the blade is plain. No POLICE engraved anywhere.
I paid 150 US for it. I'm happy which is the important thing but would love to learn more from you experts! Thanks so much. Joe Maddox, alias spydercojoe.

Bladewacked · #2

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Nice score Joe, this is mine it sounds like you have the one produced about 1993 or 1994 if it has no police label on the blade. Mine is from prior to 1990. congrats on your score great price as far as I'm concerned.

spydercojoe · #3

Thanks Bladewacked. Any ideas on the number of these without "POLICE" on the blade?

spyderedge · #4

It was some other model before it was called the police.
You said it was aluminum first then stainless steel. If its aluminum it's worth a Pretty penny. Is its the ladder, it's just an old police. The aluminum handled ones are a rare sprint run.

FrankH · #5

According to an information timeline in the 1997 catalog, the aluminum handled Police was developed in 1989. It is in the 1994 catalog as a regular item. The Police was the fifth model made by Spyderco and has always been called the Police. I don't have any earlier catalogs.

The Deacon · #6

Hi Joe, unless prices have tanked in the past couple years you made out very well, IMHO. Last time I was paying attention to such things, the going price for an uncoated, pinned, aluminum Police in that condition, with a box, was considerably higher than what you paid. The G-2 marking would put it between '92 and '95. What's interesting, to me, is that I thought the "1000" based SKU system had been dropped in favor of the current one before blade steel marking came into use. Only goes to show that so much of what I think I know regarding older Spydercos is conjecture, rather than fact. As I'm sure you've already guessed RSA stands for Right handed Serrated Aluminum.

IG-88 · #7

Nice find! Congrats!

spydercojoe · #8

Thanks Deacon, and the rest of you. Appreciate your help. This uncoated flat pinned aluminum handled is mint and locks up like a vault, no play vertical or horizontal, which also delights me. The red small box has a white label over the one end of the box that has the info.... 1007 RSA on it. I still would love to know about how many of these were made. Thanks again Deacon,,, you are the encyclopedia of Spyderco! Take care, Joe Maddox,, collaborator of FB-10

Bladewacked · #9

spydercojoe wrote:Thanks Bladewacked. Any ideas on the number of these without "POLICE" on the blade?

I have no info on the numbers produced for yours or mine. Sorry. :o

The Deacon · #10

Bladewacked wrote:I have no info on the numbers produced for yours or mine. Sorry. :o

Based on Joe's description, and your photo, I would think it's safe to conclude there were at least two runs of these. The fact that the "Through the Years" timeline in several Spyderco catalogs dates the introduction of the uncoated Aluminum Police at 1989, well before steel marking came into use, makes me strong suspect the existence of at least a third run, prior to both of yours. Normal run size was 1200-1500 pieces, so the minimum grand total would most likely be at least three times that. But that's just a mixture of research and guesswork, take it for what it's worth.

spydercojoe · #11

The Deacon wrote:Based on Joe's description, and your photo, I would think it's safe to conclude there were at least two runs of these. The fact that the "Through the Years" timeline in several Spyderco catalogs dates the introduction of the uncoated Aluminum Police at 1989, well before steel marking came into use, makes me strong suspect the existence of at least a third run, prior to both of yours. Normal run size was 1200-1500 pieces, so the minimum grand total would most likely be at least three times that. But that's just a mixture of research and guesswork, take it for what it's worth.

Deacon, thanks much. We moved awhile back so I will have to dig out my big hard backed Spyderco book of its history. Maybe I can find some added info there. Unless the " Big Man" , no disrespect of course, wants to chime in which would be fantastic as I'm sure he has some extra insight. Thanks again and "stay sharp",,, Joe

rycen · #12

In case anyone is interested here are the weights of the different "metal" handled Police models.

Aluminum 106gm
Titanium 125gm
Stainless Steel 155gm Police Model Stamp
Later version Police with lanyard hole 154gm
Fairly new version VG-10 Police with bug on the blade 162gm
Vintage flat grind G-10 single-liner Police 116gm
Carbon Fiber Police 119gm PE
Carbon Fiber Police 118gm SE

Bladewacked · #13

rycen wrote:In case anyone is interested here are the weights of the different "metal" handled Police models.

Aluminum 106gm
Titanium 125gm
Stainless Steel 155gm

thanks for the info :)

Bladewacked · #14

So I was just researching a little more about the G-2 on the blade of your police Joe. You have sparked my curiosity a little more. My model has Spyderco on one side of the blade and Seki-Japan on the other, no steel type stamped. Ill figure out when the g2 was used if I can.

spydercojoe · #15

Bladewacked wrote:So I was just researching a little more about the G-2 on the blade of your police Joe. You have sparked my curiosity a little more. My model has Spyderco on one side of the blade and Seki-Japan on the other, no steel type stamped. Ill figure out when the g2 was used if I can.

Nice Bladewacked, nothing like a bit of detective work, thanks,,, let's find the answer! It is a great knife, feels great in the pocket. I am left handed, the next step I will consider doing is moving the clip for tip up- left hand carry,,,,,, I have done this successfully before,,, but don't want to if this is one of fifty and has a great value. I assume, and I might be wrong, that since I am a Spyderco collaborator that if a collaborator were to alter a Spyderco it might be slightly " more official",, that I guess is a whole nother topic. Good luck on our info quest, thanks, Joe

rycen · #16

While I don't believe it is anywhere near 1 of 50, it certainly has value to it.The collector in me cringes at the thought of drilling and tapping on that particular model.If you want left-handed carry I believe the newest version of the stainless Police has the 4 position clip.

The Deacon · #17

Bladewacked wrote:So I was just researching a little more about the G-2 on the blade of your police Joe. You have sparked my curiosity a little more. My model has Spyderco on one side of the blade and Seki-Japan on the other, no steel type stamped. Ill figure out when the g2 was used if I can.

The consensus is that Spyderco started adding steel markings to their blades in the early 90's, most likely sometime in 1992. As with most of this stuff, it's an inexact science, at best. What is certain is that the 1990 catalog illustrations show blades marked SPYDERCO only, while those in the 1993 catalog show SPYDERCO plus steel markings on most models, G-2 on the Police and a number of others, AUS-6 on the Standard.

Bladewacked · #18

The Deacon wrote:The consensus is that Spyderco started adding steel markings to their blades in the early 90's, most likely sometime in 1992. As with most of this stuff, it's an inexact science, at best. What is certain is that the 1990 catalog illustrations show blades marked SPYDERCO only, while those in the 1993 catalog show SPYDERCO plus steel markings on most models, G-2 on the Police and a number of others, AUS-6 on the Standard.

You are the man that is great info. Thanks for setting that straight.

Meshuggah · #19

spyderedge wrote: If its aluminum it's worth a Pretty penny. Is its the ladder, it's just an old police. The aluminum handled ones are a rare sprint run.

Is it ? Because I have been trying to trade some "rare" Polices for some time now, including an aluminum handled one and nobody seems to respond to it.
Could anyone give any indication of the rarities of the Police models please ? Stuff like the aluminum, P.I.G. model, ATS-55 model etc etc...

spydercojoe · #20

The Deacon wrote:The consensus is that Spyderco started adding steel markings to their blades in the early 90's, most likely sometime in 1992. As with most of this stuff, it's an inexact science, at best. What is certain is that the 1990 catalog illustrations show blades marked SPYDERCO only, while those in the 1993 catalog show SPYDERCO plus steel markings on most models, G-2 on the Police and a number of others, AUS-6 on the Standard.

Thanks Deacon. I appreciate your research. I just visited your wonderful home site. You do have quite the collection. I was tickled to see the Maddox FB-10 , my design, in your collection. Point of interest yours with 071 on the blade is a third or forth batch. First two were made in Golden and the third batch of about 600, I think, we're made in Taiwan. All of the Taiwan knives were marked with 071. I still have a couple of the original Golden Co. Knives in my shop. Take care, Joe Maddox