UNITED CUTLERY DESIGNS BY KIT RAE

Outside of the Kit Rae Fantasy Art brand, Kit has designed numerous knives, weapons, and tools for various companies, mostly in the tactical and sporting catgories, and he supervised the replicas for many licensed film and video game weapons. After constant inquiries about these items we started sort of a scrapbook list. The Brands Kit has designed for include Honshu, M48 Kommando, United Cutlery, Combat Commander, Black Ronin, Tailwind, Rigid Knives, Colt, Harley-Davidson, Stanley, Remington, Gil Hibben, among others, going way back early in his career. It is by no means complete, but most of his designs are listed, to the best of our memories. The list goes back to approximately 1985 when Kit first started in the knife business. Click on a Brand to go to that section.

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UNITED CUTLERY 2007 - present

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UNITED CUTLERY 1984 - 2006

Much of this work was done in the early days of my career, doing quick and cheap design work for quick and cheaply made products. One day I would be asked to come up with some boot knives, the next some throwers, then paint some box art or an ad, next a novelty knife shaped like a shotgun, then a survival knife, et cetera. It was all quick and dirty import design business. Some of it is so bad that it makes me laugh now, but as the years went by I was allowed more time to develop designs, hire staff in my product development department, and the quality impoved vastly. Most of the early products were stricly cheaply made novelty knives, but we progressed into some rather nice, high quality collectible knives in later years, and lead the way for fantasy collectibles. Eventually China came along, killing that whole market with knockoffs, but by that time United had brabnched off into specific brands covering a wide category of knives, quality levels, and price points - Kit Rae

UC46 Fang
UC47 Quick Draw
UC48 Gunrunner

UC78 Smuggler Shoulder Harness Knife - An early nutty idea - turn a knob on the handle to unscrew a hidden pommel blade. Hand painted box art.

UC148 Bladelight – This was actually the very first knife I designed for UC, and I had no clue what I was doing. The president of UC, Kevin Pipes, had an idea to combine a flashlight into a knife handle, along with several other features, so I made this sad attempt to combine everything. This knife is so bad it is laughable now, but none of us knew what we were doing at the time. It was certainly a learning experience. At least I got to have some fun painting that goofy box art.
UC184 Double Hunter

UC196, UC197, UC221 Tarantula Boot Knives – One of my early UC boot knives with a little fantasy styling thrown in, and my hand painted box art.
UC200 Buckshot
UC202 Invisible Knife – A clear plastic knife, for personal protection.

UC204, UC205, UC208 Black Widow Boot Knives – A few of my very first knives, and my hand painted advertisement art. A standard UC boot knife for many years.

UC206, UC214, UC215, UC217, UC210, UC216 Little Protector - a cheap survival knife, and my hand painted advertisement.
UC209 Scorpion – Another standard UC boot knife for many years.
UC213 Forest Ranger
UC232 Defender

UC234 Igniter - One of Kevin Pipes ideas. A case to hold a lighter with a sliding knife blade in the back. Around this time miniature sized cigarette lighters started appearing everywhere on the market, so we were the wrong size.
UC243 Little Bowie

UC252 Liberty Eagle Bowie - My take on a vintage America west bowie. I was till hand painting box art, and not improving much.
UC459 Elite Forces Combat Folder
UC460 Elite Forces Bowie
UC465 Crown Jewel Dagger – The plastic jewels were not my idea.
UC469 Serpentine Bowie – Originally I designed this as a United knife, then it got converted into the Gil Hibben Highlander bowie.
UC520 V-44 Bowie
UC632 Young Indiana Jones Folder
UC632-BB Young Indy Belt Buckle
UC686 Fang II
UC687 Game Zipper
UC691 Triton Three Blade Dagger – One of the ugliest daggers ever made. This is what happens when design is dictated to me. I cannot stand jelwels in knives, specially cheap plastic ones, but that is what I was asked to do.
UC696 Black Cobra Boot Knife
UC698 Mermaid Knife

UC699 Dragon Claw – My first real UC fantasy knife from 1991. I had designed the knife when United had me come up with a series of fantasy inspired boot knives in the late 1980's, but it sat unmade until I swiped the blade to use on the Gil Hibben Double Shadow. Since I could not put my name on the Double Shadow knife, this version went into the UC line.
UC720 Stealth Defense Comb
UC721 Sierra Club Commemorative
UC723, UC724, UC787, UC788 Black Hornet Lockbacks

UC725 Crusader Dagger (on right in photo) – My first Legends in Steel dagger, although we did not use the Legends name at that time.

UC726 Phoenix (AKA Bird of Prey) – My version of the Klingon D’k Tahg knife from Star Trek. I took some of the clunkiness out of the original and redesigned my own handle. We tried and tried to get a license to do an official version from Paramount but they had a “no weapons” policy from the Rodenberry days. Our version did eventually get used in the Star Trek: Generations movie and was featured in Star Trek: Deep space Nine. See the Hibben knife list for more Klingon stuff. I also painted an advertising poster that was sent to dealers.
UC728 Wasp Dagger – Another variation of my split blade Double Shadow design.
UC729, UC730, UC731, UC838, UC839, UC840 Key Ring Knives
UC732 Stealth Defense Brush
UC734, UC735, UC736 Hunting Knives
UC775 X-Tra edge Hunter
UC784 Sentry Shoulder harness Knife – My first real shoulder harness and knuckle knife design.
UC785 Elite Forces Combat Dagger II
UC789 Chinese Sea Dragon Dagger – Based on jade carvings I had seen in China.
UC805, UC806, UC807, UC808, UC810, UC843, UC971, UC972, UC974 Samurai Swords
UC834 Sidekick Skinner
UC841, UC915, UC916, UC1088, UC1089 Special Agent Stinger
UC842 Stingray II Diving Knife
UC864, UC865 Bullet Knives
UC870, UC871 Neptune’s Pearl Daggers – Originally this was a design for the Mortal Kombat film, based on a description in the script. It did not make it into the film but we made it anyway.
UC875, UC876, UC877, UC878 Mini Six Shooter Knives
UC895 Medieval Axe
UC896, UC897, UC995 Dragon Samurai Swords – My version of the Highlander style swords.
UC899 Stingray III
UC917 Push Dagger
UC925, UC926 Lightening Bolt Throwers
UC927 Double Duty Push Daggers
UC937, UC938 Tomahawks

UC943, UC1261 Stargate Ra Dagger (2nd knife from bottom in photo) – The night I saw the film I was blown away with the visual imagery and the incredible design work. The film itself needed some story help in the third act (the directors cut is better) but the art and sets were stunning. Partick Tatopoulos was the production designer who created the look of the sets and props (he also did Underworld, Pitch Black, Bram Stokers Dracula, and the Chronicles of Riddick). I had alwasy been an ancient Egypt buff and when I got home that night I started drawing Egyptian knives. This was the first design I came up with. I liked it so much that I went to the boss at United and told him we must get the Stargate license so we can call this the Stargate knife! After the license was secured I updated the design to include Patricks engraving style I remembered from the film. I still get asked which scene it was in.
UC951, UC952, UC953 Never Surrender Bowies – My version of what I saw as a traditional bowie knife.
UC954, UC955 Sidekick
UC956 Whittlin Jack Deluxe Carver Series - ergonomic carving knife set.
UC969 Round Table Dagger – My second Legends in Steel design. My favorite one. This knife got a lot of play in television shows and movies. Prominently featured in the film End of Days, several episodes of the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Witchblade.
UC970 Talisman – The first KR branded knife in 1997. Two versions, antique silver and antique red were made, and later a kris blade version.
UC988 Thor Dagger
UC1090, UC1091, UC1092 Polaris Lockbacks

UC1093 Orion Liner Locks (top knife in photo)
UC1095 Oriental Dragon Knife – Based on jade carvings I had seen in China.
UC1102 Tibetan Dagger (KR brand) – Elements of this knife were based on some jade carvings I saw in China. Used in an episode of Chris Carter’s tv series Millennium.
UC1110 Elite Forces Tactical
UC1120, UC1120-B Sword of Darkness (KR brand) – I originally designed this as a Lord of the Rings sword when UC was trying to get the license from the Tolkien estate.
UC1121, UC1121-BR Sword of Vaelen (KR brand) – Also a Lord of the Rings design originally. This was my version of Narsil/Anduril.

UC1123, UC1227 Fossil Hunter (left knife in photo above) – The first knife I designed in the Relic collection. I thought it was very unique until I later saw that a few custom makers had done something similar years before I thought of it. I think everything has been done at least once before. The knife was seen briefly in the film Queen of the Damned.
UC1124 - 1128 NASCAR Folding Knife Collectibles - Licensed novetly knives shaped like NASCAR stock cars.
UC1142 Isis dagger (KR brand) – I consider this to be one of my best full blown fantasy knives. Everything came out right with this one. There are probably more copies of this knife than any other fantasy knife I have designed.
UC1142-MIN 1/4 Scale Miniature Isis Dagger (KR brand)
UC1143 Toro Dagger

UC1144 Knight’s Dagger (1998) – My second, and probably most popular Legends in Steel design. This one was featured in the Spider Man 2 film, used by Harry Osbourne. Unfortunately, the knife in the film is the China knock-off version. It was also featured on the cover of the January 2002 issue of Playboy magazine and I was told it appears in a pictorial inside.
UC1146 Omega Liner Locks
UC1147 Skull Hunter
UC1148 Dragon Tooth Dagger

UC1149 Leviathan (upper left knife in photo) – The first knife I designed for the Blades of Atlantis series. Originally it was going to be a Gil Hibben knife.
UC1184 Black Ronin Sword
UC1193 Heavy Metal Knife – I designed this for the second animated Heavy Metal film. It appeared only for a few seconds of the film, in animated form.
UC1228 Sabertooth Dagger
UC1229 Horus – Another design I created the night I saw the film Stargate.
UC1230 Lancelot’s Dagger – My third Legends in Steel knife. This one did not come out very well due to tooling issues. We made a revised version a few years later that was much better.
UC1231 Posiedon’s Blade
UC1232 Tanto – The first in my Black Ronin collection of simple martial arts weapons.
UC1233 Tanto
UC1234 Double Bladed Sword
UC1235 Skull Dagger
UC1239 Kilgorin (KR brand)
UC1239-MIN 1/4 Scale Miniature Kilgorin (KR brand)
UC1240 Elexorien (KR brand)
UC1240-MIN 1/4 Scale Miniature Elexorien (KR brand)
UC1251 Sorcerer
UC1253 Dragon Flame Dagger
UC1257 Black Ronin Thrower
UC1258 Samurai 3000 Katana – First of the Samurai 3000 series, my hokey futuristic Samurai swords. I always wanted to design my own light saber so I guess this is as close as I will get.
UC1259 Samurai 3000 Ninja
UC1260 Samurai 3000 Tanto
UC1270 Volkoth Battle Sword - United attempted to get the license to make Klingon knife replicas from Start Trek many times. After it became clear Paramount was not going to grant a license to anyone, and after seeing several of my own designs used in the film and televisions shows, we decided to make an inexpensive line of fantasy weapons that fit the look. These were strictly to appeal to the Klingon collector and the convention crowd that wanted accessories for their costumes. We did not want to outright copy anything from the show, but the Volkoth battle sword was obviously a reverse Bet'leh. For the rest of the line I simply designed weapons that I would have liked to see in the show.
UC1271 Kraken
UC1274 Cretacious Bowie
UC1289 Volkoth Battle Axe – The second design in my Volkoth series, which was my take on Klingon weapons.
UC1290 Volkoth Battle Claw - A design to use up extra blade lef over from the UC1270 production run.
UC1292 Volkoth Simikath Fighting Axe - The third Volkoth design of Klingon inspired weapons.
UC1303 Trelek – First in the Steel Apocalypse Collection.
UC1305 Lancelot’s Knife
UC1374 Volkoth Simikar - The fourth Volkoth design of Klingon inspired weapons.