Case Bros Little Valley, NY

[TatteredCrows]

Hello all,

I was hoping you would be able to help me with an auction find. I have a two blade Case Bros Little Valley, NY little gentleman's knife. It is clearly marked on both blades. The main blade also say Hand Forged but cannot make out what's above it. Looks like " ... Something.... Hdw Co's" I have tried to include photos. I could not find the XX mark I see on most Case Bros knives. Does anybody have info as to the style knife this is, age, maybe what the blade says. What is value? Thanks.

[gsmith7158]

to AApk Your knife favors a Case Bros 8268. Clear in focus pictures of the tang stamps would be helpful. A pristine mint example has a book value of $2500 according to Sargent's 7th edition.

[RobesonsRme.com]

An attempt, but not much better, I'm afraid.

[TatteredCrows]

Thank you all for such a quick reply. I took some better pictures. Would you recommend cleaning? I have wiped the blade down lightly with some semichrome metal polish but nothing more. I do know a gun smith friend that does professional restorations, would you restore it or leave as is? I do plan on resealing it so want to do what is best for another collector and its value.

[djknife13]

Don't restore it. You would lose most of it's value and collector interest. If the rust spots are still active rust you can remove that with a number 2 pencil (lead end, not the eraser) but you have cleaned it well enough with the metal polish. Nice knife. ___Dave

[peanut740]

If you clean it much more harshly you could lose the etch which is alot of the value.It would be worth a fraction of the stated mint price in my opinion.

[gsmith7158]

I agree. Do not clean. The secondary blade already has some blade loss issues and cleaning the master would be disastrous to that etch.

[TatteredCrows]

Thank you everyone for the help. Glad I came across this site.

Have always had a love of knives but never dealt with anything this old. Just ran across it at an auction and had a gut feeling about it. It looked and felt good, so had to go for it.

I am going to leave everything as is. Just keep finger prints wiped off with a cloth. If the buyer want to do anything else to it, its up to them. So off to ebay it goes.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Case-Bros-Knife ... RK:MESE:IT

[RobesonsRme.com]

You are probably not going to get any bids.

Take a published "Pristine Mint" price and cut it in half if the knife has been sharpened or used just once.

Multiply that by the abuse your knife has seen and you're way below one thousand dollars.

Good luck, though.

Charlie Noyes

[peanut740]

In a lot of cases the pristine mint guide price is double what it will bring to start with.

[TatteredCrows]

Thanks again everyone.

I took advice on what you all said about pricing and edited my listing. I think this should get some action on it now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Case-Bros-Knife ... RK:MESE:IT

[Blade Runner]

In a lot of cases the pristine mint guide price is double what it will bring to start with.

Words of wisdom