Rambo

In 1968 David Morrell began writing "First Blood" while in college. The book was published in 1972. In 1980 Carolco Pictures released the hit movie of the same name after hiring actor Sylvester Stallone to play the novel's lead character, John Rambo. (The name "Rambo" actually comes from the Pennsylvania Rambo apples.) Stallone also wrote the screenplay for the movie. Although the Rambo character in the book did not have a knife and died in the story, the movie character brandished a large "survival" knife that went on to become almost as much of a star as Rambo who survived to reappear in the sequels.

"First Blood" was followed by three sequels, "Rambo: First Blood Part II" in 1985 (screenplay written by Stallone) and "Rambo III" in 1988 (written by Stallone), and "Rambo" in 2008 (written and directed by Stallone). David Morrell wrote novels for Rambo II and Rambo III based on the screenplay for the movies. Each of the Rambo movies featured John Rambo and his big knife that was custom designed for each movie. The Rambo knives were revolutionary to the world of knife enthusiasts and collectors.

This is the story of the Rambo knives. This is the information that I have gathered in bits and pieces from various sources. I am certain that I am not the leading authority on the Rambo knives and I welcome and corrections or omissions from our readers. The knife, as with the knifemaker, has become legendary and as with any legend it is often hard, if not impossible, the separate facts from myths.

Stallone, who is a knife enthusiast and collector of custom knives, enlisted the services of two master knifemakers, Jimmy Lile and Gil Hibben, to design and make the custom knives for the movies. The knifemakers and Stallone collaborated on the design of each knife. Designs and prototypes were sent back and forth between the knifemakers and the movie studios until they came up with a knife that pleased Stallone and the movie prop people.

First Blood - 1980

There have been a lot of rumors circulated among knife enthusiasts about various knifemakers that Stallone supposedly approached to make a knife for the movie. One story even suggests that the legendary master knifemaker Bill Moran was approached and may have even made a prototype but then declined the offer to make the knives for the movie.

What we do know for sure is that a deal was struck for a master knifemaker from Arkansas, Jimmy Lile, to make the knives for "First Blood". Jimmy Lile had been a full time knifemaker since 1970 and had become one of the world's most respected custom knifemakers and operated a knifemaking shop in Arkansas until his death in 1991. Lile had other knifemakers working in his shop under his supervision so not every knife that came out of his shop was handmade by Jimmy Lile but those that were not were marked differently with a "dot" stamped above the "Lile" name. After Jimmy Lile's death in 1991, his wife Marilyn kept the shop open until 2003 when it closed for good. Knives produced by his shop after Jimmy Lile's death were also stamped with "LILE" but with a dot stamped above the name.

Lile came up with an innovative new design that incorporated features that he envisioned a person needing in a survival situation. The knife featured 14 split saw teeth along the spine, Philips and flat screwdrivers made into the cross guard, holes in the guard for lashing and a watertight hollow handle with a compass in the cap. The original design had a second small folding knife stored in the handle but they later chose to use the handle storage for survival items such as fish hooks, fishing line and matches.

In the photo below, the knife You see on top is a Prototype for the First Blood Movie. This is the only Prototype that was made with the same features as the movie knife. It has 14 sawteeth and a polished blade. The knife You see under it is serial number 055 of the First Blood knives with 12 sawteeth.

The knife was prominently displayed in the movie and used in several key scenes. The unique design was an instant hit with knife enthusiasts and the "Survival Knife" was born.

Jimmy Lile made 100 serial numbered copies of the original First Blood knife. Numbers 1-13 had 14 saw teeth along the spine. Numbers 14-100 had 12 saw teeth. Numbers 1-6 were stamped "movie knife" and sent to Stallone for use in the movie. It is rumored that all 6 were pretty much destroyed during filming and are stored somewhere in bits and pieces. Originally, Lile kept numbers 7-14 and Numbers 15-100 were sold to collectors around the world for $1,000 each with a top grain cowhide sheath. Those knives now command prices of several thousand dollars each in those rare occasions when they are offered for sale. Lile's shop also produced 800 unnumbered First Blood knives.

The original Lile knives were 13.8 inches in overall length with a 9 inch flat ground blade and a grey bead blasted finish except for the bright edges. The knifes were usually made from D2 steel but some custom orders were made from 440C stainless steel. The hollow handles were also D2 or 440C steel and wrapped with 36 feet of green nylon paracord sealed with a commercial lacquer for protection and waterproofing. All of the serial numbered First Blood knives had a compass in the handle cap but some of the unnumbered knives had the optional "skull crusher" pommel.

The original movie sheath was made by Jim Buffaloe but it was reportedly modified by the movie prop people to give it a more worn and abused look.

Lile's shop also sold the "Sly II Survivor Knife". These originally sold for $580 and were available in D2 or 440C steel and had a lugged guard. They were available with 6 inch, 7 1/2 inch or 9 inch blades. Other available options included polished edges and the screwdriver guard.

The First Blood knife design was licensed to United Cutlery to make factory reproductions of the knife. United Cutlery's replica model UC-RB1 is 14" overall and has a 9" long, 1/4" thick stainless steel blade.

Jimmy Lile once again made the knives for the second Rambo movie, "Rambo: First Blood Part II". The Rambo II knives are generally referred to as the "Mission" knives since they were stamped with "Rambo The Mission".

The movie knives were very similar to the First Blood knives, only slightly larger. They are a little over 15 inches in overall length and have a 10 inch blade. For the movie, they decided to use a black blade with polished edges so the contrast would show well in the film. The blades were available in various finishes such as black with bright edges, gray with bright edges and all gray.

Only 100 serial numbered "Mission" knives were made. They had black blades and bright edges, 14 saw teeth along the spine and the screwdriver cross guard.

Somewhere around 800-1000 un-numbered knives were made with a gray bead blasted finish. I read that there was one Rambo II knife specially made for a custom order with 13 saw teeth.

Lile also made a stilleto knife that was made from 440C stainless steel with a micarta insert in the handle. it was a little over 10 inches in overall length and had a 5 1/2 inch blade.

Again, United Cutlery was licensed to make factory reproductions. The United Cutlery replica model UC-RB2 was 15 3/8" overall and had a 10" blade.

My thanks to Jack Lucarelli and www.jimmylile.com for Lile information and assistance.

In 1988 Carolco Pictures released "Rambo III". Stallone again went to Jimmy Lile to make a knife for the movie. Lile could not or would not produce the knife that Stallone wanted so he went to master knifemaker Gil Hibben about making the knife. Stallone had previously purchased several of Gil's custom knives for his personal collection. Gil made some prototype knives and sent them to Sly.

An early Hibben prototype continued the Lile survival knife style. Notice the finger grooved hollow handle. The inspiration for the handle came from a bicycle handlebar grip.

Gil Hibben made at least 4 different versions of this knife each with different guards.

This knife was actually used in a couple of scenes in the movie. Stallone originally wanted the Bowie style knife, which ultimately became the now famous Gil Hibben Rambo III Knife. There was a point in which Stallone changed his mind and wanted Gil to make a polished saw tooth type, Gil added finger grooves to the handle. The mine field scene was one of the first filmed. Then came the phone call from Stallones' secretary telling Gil to sit down, Sly changed his mind again and we are going with your original model, the Bowie type. Well, by the time they realized that they had the saw tooth knife in the mine field scene, it was too late and cost prohibitive to go back and re-shoot it. Funny thing is, most people never even noticed it was two different knives.

Eventually, they decided to abandon the hollow handled "survival" knife and come up with a whole new design. Gil obliged with the now famous large bowie with the angled stainless steel guard and stainless steel butt cap.

The movie script called for Rambo to be seen forging his knife. Gil made a video showing Stallone how to forge a knife. In his example, he forged a blade from a piece of a truck leaf spring.

Gil sent Stallone several blades in various stages of the process to be used in the forging scene.

It's a shame the knife forging scene was deleted from the movie. Rumor has it that Rambo may be seen forging another knife in the new movie "John Rambo".

Have you ever wondered about the slot in the blade? This is one of the rarely seen prototypes. Gil made a removable second blade that fit horizontally into the slot in the main blade. It was held in place by spring loaded release button. Only two of these knives were made, Sly has #1 and Gil has #2.

Gil and Stallone communicated several times by telephone and faxes until they agreed on the now famous design. This massive bowie style knife features a 11 3/4" long, 2 1/4" wide, 5/16" thick blade of 440C stainless steel and a macassar ebony handle. The movie knife was 18" long overall and weighed 2 pounds. It featured a stainless steel guard and pommel. The unique angled guard is reminiscent of the knives that Gil had previously designed for use in Kenpo karate. Gil made approximately 20 knives for use in the movie. Some were used, some were not.

He also made a dagger that was briefly seen in the finished movie. The 10 1/2" inch dagger is one-piece construction of 440C stainless steel treated with a black non-glare finish.

Gil sells handmade copies of the dagger. Some were serial number to match his handmade Rambo III knives and some were unnumbered as seen above.

Gil made only two of these daggers with his famous mirror polished finish. One bears his "Louisville KY" stamp and is in the hands of a collector. The second knife bears Gil's current "La Grange KY" stamp and remains in Gil's possession.

After the movie was released, Gil made 350 serial numbered 440C stainless steel full size handmade copies and 101 serial numbered Damascus steel Rambo III knives. Each of these were sold with certificates of authenticity. The stainless steel models hand a hand rubbed satin finish except for the polished false edge on the top of the blade.

Gil also made one out of meteorite Damascus. It is not serial numbered but the guard is marked "Meteorite".

This knife was also licensed to United Cutlery to make factory reproductions. It became one of the biggest selling collector knives ever made selling over 250,000 copies. It also really started the trend of making reproduction movie knives as collectibles. The United Cutlery replica is 16" in overall length and has a 11" long by 1/4" thick blade thus it is a little shorter and has a thinner blade than the actual movie knife.

United Cutlery UC-201 Rambo III (Early models were cataloged as United Cutlery Model RB-3)

United Cutlery also produced a replica of the Rambo III Dagger and a miniature Rambo III knife.

The United Cutlery Miniature Rambo III shown with the United Cutlery Rambo III for size comparison.

The Rambo III was a huge success for United Cutlery selling over 250,000 copies worldwide. It opened up a whole new field of collectible movie memorabilia and set the stage for dozens of movie knife and sword replicas to be made over the next twenty years.

United Cutlery Rambo III Models (The top 3 Rambo III knives are the same size. The length looks different because of the angle of the photograph.)

United Cutlery continued to cash in on the success of the Rambo III replica by releasing two limited special editions in 1998 and 2000.

The original version - United Cutlery UC-201 was originally released in 1988 (although I have seen it referenced as RB3). The UC-201 model is still listed in the United catalog.

In 1998 United released the 10th Anniversary Edition UC-1162. It was serial numbered xxxx/5000, has a "John Rambo" signature etched on the blade, and the flat of the blade is mirror polished. This was a limited edition of 5,000 knives.

In the year 2000, United released another version, UC-1238 Rambo III Special Edition. This version had a black handle, the blade is etched with the "John Rambo" signature, it is serial numbered, and it came with a display plaque and a collectors card. This was also a limited edition of 5,000 knives.

For a comparison and review of the Rambo III replica knives
click THIS LINK

Once again Sylvester Stallone called upon Gil to make a knife for the upcoming movie "Rambo" scheduled to be released in 2008. In the movie script, Rambo loses his famous Rambo III and has to quickly forge a new knife from the materials he has available (a piece of spring steel).

Stallone had an idea of what he wanted the knife to be. Gil made at least 5 prototype versions of the knife before they finally arrived at the design that will be used in the movie. Gil made the first prototypes from pieces of old truck leaf springs to be authentic and faithful to the movie script.

It's hard to believe how much time and effort went into developing this knife. Over the course of a year, Gil made nearly two dozen handmade prototypes before they arrived at exactly the knife Stallone wanted for the film. And then when they finally had the final version, the studio needed several copies for filming.

Gil started out by making a knife that was reminiscent of the Rambo III knife. Stallone liked the blade design but said it was much too perfect. He wanted something much more crude looking, as if it had been pounded out quickly from limited available resources.

Gil went back to the drawing board. Since they were agreement on the basic blade design it was now a question of the handle and finish of the knife. Gil thought about what materials might be available to the character in the movie. He considered leather, wood, paracord, tape and even seat belt webbing for use on the handle.

He decided that paracord was the practical choice. According to the script, Rambo loses his previous knife (also designed and made by Gil) and has to forge the new one quickly. Without the time or resources to make a new sheath, he cuts the end off of his old sheath to allow room for the wider blade.

They were getting close but Stallone said the knife was still to "finished" looking. Stallone said, "the knife has to be brutal".

Gil finally decided that considering Rambo's skills and experience, and the materials that the character would have available, the knife would have a cord wrapped handle, perhaps covered with some tape for additional grip. The blade would be marked with depressions from the hammer blows from being forged quickly without time or resources to put a fine finish on the blade. Following the tradition of the Rambo knives, it would be a large heavy blade with a thick spine.

Here is the final product as will be seen in the movie. This is one of the actual knives that Gil sent to the movie studio. Since, in the movie, Rambo would be modifying his 20-year-old sheath from his previous knife, Gil weathered and aged the sheath for effect. The retaining strap was removed since it had no function with the new knife design.

In the original script, Rambo still has the knife from Rambo III. Stallone asked Gil to make some new ones from D2 steel for the new movie. D2 carbon steel is stronger than the 440C stainless steel that was used previously. Apparently Stallone had planned to put this knife to some heavy use but it apparently would up on the cutting room floor and was never seen in the new movie.

Maybe we will see it in the DVD version. In the original script, Rambo throws the Rambo III knife away into the fire when he burns the river pirates boat. He then has to make a new knife when he decides to go rescue the missionaries.

Gil will make a limited edition of 100 serial numbered handmade full size screen accurate replicas of the knife he made for use in the movie. The handmade copies are exact replicas of the knife used in the movie except that the sheaths are not "weathered and aged" as they were to emulate the 20 year old sheath for the movie. The handmade replicas come with a handmade leather sheath, Certificate of Authenticity and a special padded carrying case.
You can order your own handmade copy from his online catalog HERE.

J.R. 2nd Edition

The original Limited Edition series of 100 handmade movie knives quickly sold out. Due to the high demand, Gil Hibben is making a second unlimited edition the is the same steel and size as the movie knife but with a black sheath, different handle and Certificate of Authenticity.

United Cutlery is the ONLY manufacturer authorized by Gil Hibben to reproduce his designs.

Copies of Gil Hibben designs, including replicas of the knives that Gil Hibben designed for the movies, that are being sold by Master Cutlery, Hollywood Collectables Group or any other manufacturer other than United Cutlery are NOT authorized, endorsed, approved by or otherwise associated with Gil Hibben or Hibben Knives in any way.

CLICK HERE to see my comparison and review for the Rambo IV replica knives.

Gil also plans to sell handmade replicas of one of his original prototypes that was rejected by the movie studio for being to "finished" looking. The "Big John" knife will be available in a limited handmade version. There is also discussion about maybe offering this knife as a factory produced model based on Gil's design.

Click HERE for a look at Rambos BOWS

Rambo V ?

Rumors abound but it does appear that Stallone has signed a contract for "Rambo V" and is writing a script. He reportedly said that Rambo V would not be a war movie and he wants to take the saga in a different direction. There are persistent rumors that the movie would be set in the U.S. (although not necessarily be filmed here).

The ending of "Rambo" certainly left the door open for a continuation of the story with Rambo returning home. Although it was not a huge hit, "Rambo" grossed over $100 million in theaters worldwide and they haven't even gotten into DVD sales yet. Not too bad for a $50 million movie. $50 million + profit would have to get the attention of producers who might want to keep the cash train rolling. We'll see ........

The Rambo Knives

First Blood - 1980

For a comparison and review of the Rambo III replica knives
click THIS LINK

J.R. 2nd Edition

Click HERE for a look at Rambos BOWS

Rambo V ?

More Rambo:

The Rambo Knives

First Blood - 1980

For a comparison and review of the Rambo III replica knives click THIS LINK

J.R. 2nd Edition

Click HERE for a look at Rambos BOWS

Rambo V ?

More Rambo:

For a comparison and review of the Rambo III replica knives
click THIS LINK