Pocket knives account for the majority of knives owned and used. Within this group, we find hundreds of different patterns. The Elephant Toenail is a pocket knife pattern. There are thousands of toenail enthusiasts who own one or more. Some folks only buy the old ones and others are equally satisfied with the newer ones.

We tend to think of toenail enthusiasts to be a small niche’ group, but it may surprise you to know, the group isn’t as small as we might think. And it is growing….

Tracking Knife Popularity

Trying to track interest in knives isn’t easy. If the knives are new, then we could look at the retail sales numbers. But what about old knives? Well, we could interview dealers, but that would be such a microcosm of info, plus we’d have to conduct the surveys in each region of the country to get its national appeal.

Knife Show traffic? Well, that would provide some info, but not interest in a specific pattern. Price trends would offer some info too, but not necessarily how popular the knives really are, plus popularity doesn’t automatically always translate into higher prices. 

With the advent of the Web, we have an additional resource to gauge their popularity.

2004- 2008 Visitor Trend at ElephantToenails.com 

ET.com Unique Visitors 2004- 2008

Click to enlarge

Go ahead and say it-

“Scott, you can’t take web traffic for one website and correlate it directly to an overall interest in a knife pattern.”

OK, I hear you. But, I do think the increasing number of folks coming to look at these knives is an indication of their interest.

Why else would someone come to a single knife pattern website??  

Sure, some visitors may be looking for a Pachyderm’s foot and not an Elephant Toenail knife.

The Numbers

Then we’d need to look at the number of visitors to visits ratio. 

ET.com Unique Visitors to Visits

The folks who visit come back.

One could say the increase is only a result of collectors just now finding the ET.com site and not a reflection of an increase in the popularity of the knife itself.

If toenails aren’t growing in popularity and there is only a finite number of toenail collectors, then why are the numbers increasing across the board, including the depth of research folks are doing?

Overall Traffic and Pageviews

Pageviews have increased year after year, and for 2008 they increased to 261,000.

So not only are more folks coming. They are coming back. And for 2008, each of the approx. 20,000 visitors viewed on average about 13 pages, and pageviews are the goal for a non-ecommerce site.   

Conclusion

Here’s the deal- I thought you would find these ET.com trends interesting. I know I did. 

To my knowledge, this is the first time there has been a tool of this scope to help track a specific knife pattern’s popularity on a national level (most visitors to ET.com are from the US). 

Is there any earth shattering revelation here for us? Not really, only that folks like Elephant Toenails!

But, I didn’t have to show all of this for us to know that, now did I?

ElephantToenails.com was launched in October 2003. 

Yesterday we celebrated a birthday. It wasn’t mine, or my wife’s, but it was one of my children’s, but not of the flesh and blood variety.

Actually, it was The News’ Birthday! Yes, that’s right. The News at ElephantToenails.com was born on Jan. 1, 2008.

Over the year we added 156 articles within 27 searchable categories and 484 tags for reference.

If you have a moment, take a trip down memory lane, but first let me say that I’m concentrating on being clearer and as succinct now as possible, so please take that into consideration as we step back in time, OK?!

The Elusive Platts Easy-Open Single Blade Jumbo

Another of the last few original toenail makers closes its doors

Gotta Watch Out

Dating the W R Case Jumbo Swellcenter 

Who was the first to make a toenail?

Tidioute: A Town with an edge

Here are links to February’s postings -

Feb 08: Group 1

Feb 08: Group 2

Feb 08: Group 3

It has been a fun year. 

Thanks for all your support!

They are ranked by number of times read (or at least clicked through to) out of the 155 stories published this year.

I’m going to list them in the order of most popular first. Drum roll, please: 

Cutlery News Journal- a new addition to our family

Toenail Trivia- What the heck is a Pumpkin-Seed?

Knife Company History- Lockwood Brothers and one rare bird

W R Case Toenail Reference List: TESTED XX - XX USA Lighting S Era

Featured Toenail- H. Boker & Co.

Rumor Mill- Case discovers a prototype toenail from its earliest days!

Welcome to my World- Early Toenail History

Knife Company History- Cattaraugus Cutlery Co., Little Valley, NY

Knife Company History- Napanoch Knife Company

History of Platts Cutlery Companies

Jeff Claiborne continues to keep us informed on the ones he makes.  Today he shows us a jigged peachseed bone handled easy open jumbo.

Jeff Claiborne Custom Jumbo

I’m sure if you want to order one to spec, he’d make one for you.

Oh yeah, I got me a knife 

This morn after we went round and everyone opened their presents, I let them know I got myself a knife (from the family, of course). I had decided not to wrap up the knife and then open it during our “Christmas.”  

See here is the knife I bought me

Instead of taking the knife into the room and letting my four kids, wife and her parents, fondle it, I took my laptop (this sounds weird, I know) into the room and showed them my previous post here at The News, cause it had the picture of it.

After I quickly flashed it around the room, my wife was the only one to speak and sure ‘nuf she asked, “How much was it?” I knew it.

Words and their meanings

Let me ask you, how many is a “few?” I know a few isn’t as many as a “bunch,” or even as many as “several,” but what came out of my mouth was - “A few hundred.”

I’m still here 

I knew intriguing minds would want to know if I’d still be here (writing from my desk here in the house), or if I was going to be posting to The News wirelessly from the dog house.

My Christmas present just came in. I had to open it to make sure it was a keeper. It is!

My wife knows I got myself a “pocketknife” for Christmas… I didn’t provide any additional info., like…. IT’S A TOENAIL!!! IT’S STAG!!!! IT’S A CASE BROTHERS!!!! IT’S 100 YEARS OLD!!!

It has a few age spots, but otherwise it’s KILLER!!! 

Now the question is do I make it a part of the Christmas ritual- wrapping it up and then opening it tomorrow morn? Once I unwrap it, you know what the question is going to be don’t you? “How much was it?” 

The shield is engraved with Eli Faber. It was purchased from an estate in Manistee, MI.

You know we are crazy about toenails around here, so I just couldn’t make a Christmas message without a toenail in it-

I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I have been apart of a few conversations about which knives are classified as a toenail and why, and yet, one style where there is no debate is the Jumbo Swellcenter.

It is universally accepted as the icon of toenails, and it is my favorite style. 

To date a couple of hundred folks over at YouTube have been interested enough to watch the Intro to Toenails I made. So, I decided to introduce them to the Jumbo. It is a high-level orientation, so for you guys it will be very basic, but hopefully you will find it a treat.

Again I’m reminded as I write this that toenails are out there, we just have to look for them. Rarely will a rare toenail land in our lap, but they are out there to be found. Personally, I think there will be some come back into circulation over the next couple of years so be ready.

Anyway, this particular knife was headed ” Old, rare knife Tidioute.” See what I mean about seeking…

No mention of “Toenail,” or “Sunfish,” instead the seller simply referred to it as a “folding knife.”

While the knife did sell for better than $700, my guess is only the Tidioute (Union Cutlery Co brand) buyers were in on this, and not the toenail collectors in general (save one). It probably would have brought even more had it been labeled for what it was- a Toenail.

For an extra bonus- it is one of the rarer of the Union stamps- Union Razor (1902- 1909!