Near and Dear to your heart.

[knife7knut]

When l used to troll e bay, one of my favorite viewing areas was the letter opener section. It was amazing how many people would list old daggers and bowies as letter openers! I missed out on an 1840s era A. DAVEY & SONS that sold for 25 dollars because l refused to bid more than 20 bucks for anything! Last time l did that!
Anyhow one day l spot an ad for a letter opener and 2 knives from a shop in Florida. Did a quick check on them and see they have several hundred items advertised but no other knives or letter openers. Looking at the pictures, l spot the tell tale thumbprint mark of the V-42! The handle is a lump of plastic similar to a bowling ball. The blade looks rusty but full. The other knives are a German stag hunter and a newer KAI.
As l dont use paypal, l contact them and asj if they will accept a postal money order. They say yes. I bid forty dollars and win! Total with shipping is 51 dollars for the 3 knives.
When they finally arrive, l find that the dagger is unsharpened, has a slight bit of rust(removed with a #2 pencil), the pommel nut is missing the skull crusher point. I remove the old handle and temporarily fit one made of clear LEXAN. One day l hope to find the correct thickness of leather to make a proper handle. And that is the story.

[doglegg]

Although these 2 knives were acquired several years apart, they do share a commonality in my mind anyway.
The KA-BAR folder is one l have coveted since the early 1970's. A co-worker had a near mint one he insisted on using to gouge out Bondo to do auto body repairs! I offered to buy it and give him another to use. He refused and continued to use it for this purpose.
What ties these two is he also had a JOHN EK MODEL 6 that his dad had carried in WWll. That he never would have sold and l would never have attempted to buy it.
I often wonder what happened to them as he died quite suddenly awhile back.
My KA-BAR I found at an antique store. It was advertised for $ 225 and l hesitated for a day. Thinking l would likely never find another in my lifetime, l went back the following day and bought it.
The EK was gifted to me in appreciation of my appraising a large lot of knives for an older gemtleman l met at a yard sale. I told him what it was worth, but he insisted l take it.
And those are my stories. The next one will be of my seventeen dollar CASE V 42!

What a gift!!!

[doglegg]

When l used to troll e bay, one of my favorite viewing areas was the letter opener section. It was amazing how many people would list old daggers and bowies as letter openers! I missed out on an 1840s era A. DAVEY & SONS that sold for 25 dollars because l refused to bid more than 20 bucks for anything! Last time l did that!
Anyhow one day l spot an ad for a letter opener and 2 knives from a shop in Florida. Did a quick check on them and see they have several hundred items advertised but no other knives or letter openers. Looking at the pictures, l spot the tell tale thumbprint mark of the V-42! The handle is a lump of plastic similar to a bowling ball. The blade looks rusty but full. The other knives are a German stag hunter and a newer KAI.
As l dont use paypal, l contact them and asj if they will accept a postal money order. They say yes. I bid forty dollars and win! Total with shipping is 51 dollars for the 3 knives.
When they finally arrive, l find that the dagger is unsharpened, has a slight bit of rust(removed with a #2 pencil), the pommel nut is missing the skull crusher point. I remove the old handle and temporarily fit one made of clear LEXAN. One day l hope to find the correct thickness of leather to make a proper handle. And that is the story.

Wow!!!

[knife7knut]

This knife came to me from a fellow knife collecctor whom l had just met through another collector and good friend. He was showing us some knives he had for sale and when l saw it l had to have it! It was more than l wanted to spend but l bought it anyway. Mike wound up knocking a bit off the price and said he hoped l wasnt buying it just to flip it.
My friemd Bob told him not to worry as l never sell anything!
Many years later l ran across Mike on another rsite and he asked if i still had the knife. I semt him a picture. Almost forty years! In that time the value has increased almost tenfold. No matter: l still wouldnt sell it!

[knife7knut]

This is the last one l will post.
Went to an estate sale(fancy name for, " get rid of all this junk on some other hoarder ". Bought a couple knives but passed on one. On reflecting, l decided l probably should have bought it. Decided to go back the next day.
Went back but the knife was gone. Decided to do a walk around before l left to see if l had missed anything. In an outbuilding in back, there was a table with a bunch of old tools for a buck apiece; marked down 25% on the 2nd day of the sale.
On the table almost buried was the Marbles mnmodel 81. Blade is full but pitted; the fish emblem was missing but for 75 cents, l wasnt going to pass it up!
A good friend offered me a hundred bucks for it as is. I passed and was offered considerably more later. I still own it.

[knife-nut]

I hope that wasn’t your last post. I enjoy the stories. Seeing pictures of your vast collection makes me wonder how many knives you must own. Wow..

[knife7knut]

I hope that wasn’t your last post. I enjoy the stories. Seeing pictures of your vast collection makes me wonder how many knives you must own. Wow..

Still have a few more posts left in me. Started inventorying awhile back; still have more cases to go but l think there was a bit over twenty one hundred at last count.

[glennbad]

Some wonderful knives and stories recounted so far!

I've shared this before....this Case hunter belonged to my grandfather (dad's dad). I only met him once, when our family drove across country from NH to CA to visit. 2 adults, 4 kids, and a Great Pyrenees. We stayed in KOA campgrounds along the way, and had a cool adventure. Anyways, they would send us Christmas gifts, and more than once I received Queen pocketknives. That was quite exciting as a young lad. This particular knife was one my dad got when my grandfather had passed. He had returned to Montana to help his mom(stepmom) with some of the estate stuff, and came back with a bunch of his possessions. (I also ended up with 12-string guitar of my grandfather's. Not an expensive model, but still priceless to me) Anyway, here is the knife...

[wlf]

Great knifing adventures Ray.

It's wonderful to still have memories John.I like to equate about everything with people.

That's a great keepsake to have Glenn.

[knife-nut]

Some wonderful knives and stories recounted so far!

I've shared this before....this Case hunter belonged to my grandfather (dad's dad). I only met him once, when our family drove across country from NH to CA to visit. 2 adults, 4 kids, and a Great Pyrenees. We stayed in KOA campgrounds along the way, and had a cool adventure. Anyways, they would send us Christmas gifts, and more than once I received Queen pocketknives. That was quite exciting as a young lad. This particular knife was one my dad got when my grandfather had passed. He had returned to Montana to help his mom(stepmom) with some of the estate stuff, and came back with a bunch of his possessions. (I also ended up with 12-string guitar of my grandfather's. Not an expensive model, but still priceless to me) Anyway, here is the knife...

my case hunter.jpg

that Case hunter has some beautiful red bone handles. And it was your grandfathers, thats cool.

[MOKNIVES1]

1. A Swiss Army knife my late wife got me for my birthday before we were married back in the 80's.
2. My Dad's old Queen pocket knife he cut everything with!
3. A Parker Little Bandit with sheath that I found on a river bank 40 years ago. Four of us trouble makers were going on a float trip and this brand new knife was just there in the middle of nowhere. I almost drowned that day trying to recover a submerged john boat but got pulled from the water by one of my friends. When I see this knife I think of that dude!

[glennbad]

This one I've also shared in the past. My dad was EOD in the USAF. He carried a kit when he was out in the field for working with munitions. When he gave me this kit, it was in a different configuration. The PSK stone pocket had been removed and the tool pouch was taped to the front of the PSK sheath. I took everything apart, then made a new stone pocket and put my dad's initials on it. Lightly cleaned and oiled everything...I'll have to check, but the PSK is 1967 or 68 vintage, IIRC.

Dad also told me more than once he had once been offered the opportunity to be issued a Randall FB knife as part of his tool issue. At the time, he didn't know about them, so I guess he passed. He lamented what something like that would worth now. I don't know if that's true, but I don't imagine he'd have any reason to tell a story like that if it wasn't true. Maybe a Randall collector might confirm that....

[woodwalker]

Love hearing these stories and memories gents!!