Needing some help with this knife!

[matthew7891]

Well I received this knife from my father and was just wanting to find out a little more about it. The only thing I know for sure is that it is a Taylor. It says Taylor Cutlery on one side and Designed by Stewart A Taylor on the other. I have only found 1 knife like it on the internet and it said pretty much nothing about it. I just mainly want to know what it's made of, the exact name of it, and maybe a ballpark estimate of what it could be worth. If someone could help me out I sure would appreciate it. Thanks!

[knife7knut]

Welcome to the forums Matthew! Stewart Taylor imported some pretty nice knives from Japan back in the 1970's and 80's.Some commemoratives and some fancy folders(like yours)which were very well made and not exactly inexpensive either.He is still in business today although I believe most of his knives are Chinese made now.
As to value that is always difficult to assess.If it were a gift from my father it would be priceless.Worth is usually determined by what someone is willing to sell for and what another is willing to pay.You might try checking e-Bay for prior sales of this type of knife although I suspect not many were made.Hopefully someone else here can give you a better idea of valuel

[matthew7891]

Thank you very much. My dad couldn't really tell me much about it. I'm not to worried about how much its worth, just more curious than anything. Thanks again.

[Randy]

Just out of curiosity...are those stamped bolsters or actual hand made? From my buckskinin experience anything with hand carving on it will normally cost ya regardless of the base material.

That scroll work however looks stamped. I could be wrong because it's a picture after all. But a lot of the scroll work I've seen by knife makers will have gouge marks deep inside the work where it's the hardest to polish out (not the large open areas by the way but inside the leaf itself). One other observation which may or not be viable is that I have talked to quite a few artists that would never think to waste their time doing intricate work on anything other than silver.

Take all this with a boatload of salt; I am in no way an expert on knives, scrimshaw, or metal carving; however, I do know a few folks from rendezvous who are and through conversations with them I have gleaned a little bit of what to look for in quality hand carving. So it may or may not be relevant to production knives. It's something to think about either way.

[jerryd6818]

I think they're cast bolsters.

[knife7knut]

They are indeed cast bolsters;here are a couple of my Taylor knives.The folding/fixed blade is very unusual for a production knife as is the folding tanto/push dagger.

[matthew7891]

Thank you all for your posts! This has helped me out a lot. My father is even getting a kick out of learning a little more about it. He has always been curious about how much it's worth. If you find out anymore, keep it coming.

[jerryd6818]

One very similar to yours sold for $15 on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Taylor-Cutlery- ... t_38wt_882