Choctaw Lockback

This is the infamous Choctaw lockback pocket knife. These are very special and unique pocket knives – you won’t find any frame even close to this design! It is both practical and useful. The Choctaw lockback is identified by its prominent finger grooving in the handle (typically a large finger groove for multiple fingers to grasp) and small single finger groove near the head bolster. The head bolster is significant and prominent, easily the strongest part of the knife. It mimics the copperhead bolster, with a raised “hump” at the top of the bolster.

To be considered an actual lockback pocket knife, the knife features a prominent locking mechanism adjacent to the back-end bolster (the lockback release “button”) and a single blade. As is the norm, that primary locking blade is a clip point. The two sizes for the Choctaw: a 3 3/4″ model and a larger 4 1/2″ frame.

There are very famous models of lockbacks, the Buck 110 (see the “Folding Hunter” description page), the Case Mako, etc. The lockback really made its “claim to fame” when Buck introduced the original folding hunter in 1964, marketing it as a pocket knife that was as strong as a fixed blade.