I agree with your selections Jerry. There are some recent "one-of-a-kind" creations made for the sole purpose of being exactly that, but I rule those out because frankly they don't interest me. Then there's the more common patterns having rare handle materials, like the Tested 6488 in Winterbottom bone for example. Most certainly a rare knife, but not a rare pattern.zp4ja wrote:
Hey Greg,
Hard to determine the rarest of all. Hard to verify based on CASE record keeping on the real old stuff. You almost have to go by how many observed. As far as last ~50 years, would have to say a 10 dot Stag Cheetah with a saber blade or a ivory handled Cheetah same year.
Maybe a 6001 Trip fold for a earlier knife. As far as XX era, have to say a 6394-1/2 Green Bone. Could be biased observation since I own the last two I mentioned and have seen less than a one hand count of tri-folds and one XX 94. Maybe a Zipper. Quite a few real rare ones, hard to narrow.
Jerry
Limiting the discussion to patterns that were made for general distribution and use, the Zipper switchblades have to be in the conversation. And we have discussed the rarity of the 6001 tri-fold previously in this same thread so they need to be included. I'll add the Tested 6365 and 6465 folding hunters and the Tested 5394x gunboat.
I'm sure there are others that deserve consideration. Makes for some interesting speculation but we'll never know for sure.
Ken