Challenge Cutlery Co., Purchase

[Maintain]

I bought on EBay the following knife. It was not identified with a manufacturer. As a hobby I restore antique pocket knives.
I like knives with a celluloid material for scales. It is a 3-blade canoe in pretty fair condition. One blade is snapped off at the tang.. to my astonishment, it was identifiable by a tang stamp! I hardly paid anything for it. From what research I did, I found this manufacturer to be rare, and valuable. I decided to post for the first time to get some further input from fellow collectors.
Please find attached a couple of pictures.

[Ivoryman]

Good old knives from what little I know. Here's one about a hundred years old and still in pretty good condition. Welcome to the club.

[QTCut5]

It is a 3-blade canoe

Cool old knife, but I don't think it's a canoe

[Mumbleypeg]

Welcome to AAPK. Challenge Cutlery is a very collectable name. The company’s origins go back to Sheffield, England in 1867. The company and its trademark, name, etc were purchased by an American who opened a cutlery in Bridgeport, CT in 1889. They made knives with the Challenge Cutlery stamp plus several other trade names. They also made knives on contract for others such as Clauss Cutlery. They ceased manufacturing cutlery in the late 1920s.

You can find a great deal of info about Challenge plus pictures of their knives, by doing a keyword search here on AAPK. Search is located under Quicklinks on the upper left of this thread.

BTW the knife you bought is a stockman pattern, not a Canoe. Unfortunately the collector value is severely diminished by the broken blade, but otherwise it’s a nice example.

Below is a favorite Challenge Cutlery example from my collection.

Ken

[bestgear]

Below is a favorite Challenge Cutlery example from my collection

the patina on those copper covers are magnificent Ken - don’t ever polish them!

[Maintain]

Welcome to AAPK. Challenge Cutlery is a very collectable name. The company’s origins go back to Sheffield, England in 1867. The company and its trademark, name, etc were purchased by an American who opened a cutlery in Bridgeport, CT in 1889. They made knives with the Challenge Cutlery stamp plus several other trade names. They also made knives on contract for others such as Clauss Cutlery. They ceased manufacturing cutlery in the late 1920s.

You can find a great deal of info about Challenge plus pictures of their knives, by doing a keyword search here on AAPK. Search is located under Quicklinks on the upper left of this thread.

BTW the knife you bought is a stockman pattern, not a Canoe. Unfortunately the collector value is severely diminished by the broken blade, but otherwise it’s a nice example.

Below is a favorite Challenge Cutlery example from my collectio

Thanks Ken! Still getting used to types. What if I was to replace that broken blade? No good?
Ken

[Mumbleypeg]

You can find replacement blades (some folks can even make them) but you can’t duplicate that tang stamp. At least not authentically. If you’re simply wanting to restore it to being a good user, you can of course replace the broken blade, with a suitable blade from a similar knife made by any maker. If you want to restore its collector value, you’ll need to find an authentic Challenge Cutlery “donor knife” having a suitable good blade. That will likely take diligent and patient searching. There is a donor “out there somewhere”, you just have to find it.

Ken

[Reverand]

I always cringe when I see that someone has snapped off the blade on such a beautiful and valuable old knife. It is definitely worth keeping for parts, and searching for a donor.
Try the Knife Mechanics Swap thread -
viewforum.php?f=54
I do not have any Challenge stockman knives for parts, but it is possible that someone here does!

[Maintain]

Thanks everyone.

[G_Keys]

Good old knives from what little I know. Here's one about a hundred years old and still in pretty good condition. Welcome to the club.

You got a beautiful knife there friend.

[Ivoryman]

Good old knives from what little I know. Here's one about a hundred years old and still in pretty good condition. Welcome to the club.

You got a beautiful knife there friend.

Thanks a lot, very nice of you to compliment. Glad you like the pics, and nice to see some new names around here.

[G_Keys]

Good old knives from what little I know. Here's one about a hundred years old and still in pretty good condition. Welcome to the club.

You got a beautiful knife there friend.

Thanks a lot, very nice of you to compliment. Glad you like the pics, and nice to see some new names around here.

I haven't been here long. I just inherited my grandfathers estate that contained hundreds of case collectible knives and it gave me the fiz so I decided to roll with it lol. Nice to meet you.

[Ivoryman]

You got a beautiful knife there friend.

Thanks a lot, very nice of you to compliment. Glad you like the pics, and nice to see some new names around here.

I haven't been here long. I just inherited my grandfathers estate that contained hundreds of case collectible knives and it gave me the fiz so I decided to roll with it lol. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you and you're a lucky man to pick up hundreds of Case collectible knives. We all would love to see some of those babies, the older the better, but will be watching to see what you post. Can feel the drool already without even seeing them yet. Sounds delicious.

[G_Keys]

Thanks a lot, very nice of you to compliment. Glad you like the pics, and nice to see some new names around here.

I haven't been here long. I just inherited my grandfathers estate that contained hundreds of case collectible knives and it gave me the fiz so I decided to roll with it lol. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you and you're a lucky man to pick up hundreds of Case collectible knives. We all would love to see some of those babies, the older the better, but will be watching to see what you post. Can feel the drool already without even seeing them yet. Sounds delicious.

Oh yeah there's some very nice ones for sure. I have a case congress that I just had looked at. It is valued at around 7500 dollars. Knives are like my guns. I'll never get rid of em but it's good to know what ya have also lol. I'm still getting everything together to get ready to go to the Shepard Hills knife show in Lebanon MO on the 16th. There will be plenty of pictures from my own thread then. I will probably set the thread up on Friday or so.

[Ivoryman]

I haven't been here long. I just inherited my grandfathers estate that contained hundreds of case collectible knives and it gave me the fiz so I decided to roll with it lol. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you and you're a lucky man to pick up hundreds of Case collectible knives. We all would love to see some of those babies, the older the better, but will be watching to see what you post. Can feel the drool already without even seeing them yet. Sounds delicious.

Oh yeah there's some very nice ones for sure. I have a case congress that I just had looked at. It is valued at around 7500 dollars. Knives are like my guns. I'll never get rid of em but it's good to know what ya have also lol. I'm still getting everything together to get ready to go to the Shepard Hills knife show in Lebanon MO on the 16th. There will be plenty of pictures from my own thread then. I will probably set the thread up on Friday or so.

Are you taking them to the show to show off, or are you selling too? Would love to browse your table, but won't be in that neck of the woods. Good luck, if they are all like that Congress you've got a gold mine there. Would love to see the pics, will be looking for your thread. Thanks.

[G_Keys]

Nice to meet you and you're a lucky man to pick up hundreds of Case collectible knives. We all would love to see some of those babies, the older the better, but will be watching to see what you post. Can feel the drool already without even seeing them yet. Sounds delicious.

Oh yeah there's some very nice ones for sure. I have a case congress that I just had looked at. It is valued at around 7500 dollars. Knives are like my guns. I'll never get rid of em but it's good to know what ya have also lol. I'm still getting everything together to get ready to go to the Shepard Hills knife show in Lebanon MO on the 16th. There will be plenty of pictures from my own thread then. I will probably set the thread up on Friday or so.

Are you taking them to the show to show off, or are you selling too? Would love to browse your table, but won't be in that neck of the woods. Good luck, if they are all like that Congress you've got a gold mine there. Would love to see the pics, will be looking for your thread. Thanks.

The Congress and others like it will be in my double wall locked glass shadow box. But like any collector I have some items that allow me to trade around. Canoes are my bread and butter. I have a bunch and they are very easily obtainable and mostly hold their value around 100 bucks. They allow me to trade around quite well. I will have around 16-20 of those on me as well some others that I would be willing to trade. Not really into selling.

[OLDE CUTLER]

Yes, I would also like to see pics of some of your collection, especially the $7500 congress you have.

[Ivoryman]

Oh yeah there's some very nice ones for sure. I have a case congress that I just had looked at. It is valued at around 7500 dollars. Knives are like my guns. I'll never get rid of em but it's good to know what ya have also lol. I'm still getting everything together to get ready to go to the Shepard Hills knife show in Lebanon MO on the 16th. There will be plenty of pictures from my own thread then. I will probably set the thread up on Friday or so.

Are you taking them to the show to show off, or are you selling too? Would love to browse your table, but won't be in that neck of the woods. Good luck, if they are all like that Congress you've got a gold mine there. Would love to see the pics, will be looking for your thread. Thanks.

The Congress and others like it will be in my double wall locked glass shadow box. But like any collector I have some items that allow me to trade around. Canoes are my bread and butter. I have a bunch and they are very easily obtainable and mostly hold their value around 100 bucks. They allow me to trade around quite well. I will have around 16-20 of those on me as well some others that I would be willing to trade. Not really into selling.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, gotcha. Thanks for the info, fascinating hearing how guys view the subject. I like your take on trading around instead of selling. Good luck and hope you score some cool ones. Pics, pics, pics, now don't tease us forever bud, you have me on the edge of the seat.