M Price knife

[timdog44]

I recently purchase some fixed blade knives. One in particular I would like some opinion about.

[Gunsil]

Sadly, this is a poor modern fake. The materials, style, marking, and construction are all wrong for an M Price knife. Post up the others, I hope they aren't all like this one or that you didn't pay a lot.

[timdog44]

these are the others I bought. Presented as "trade knives"

[Gunsil]

The top knife is a fairly modern chef's knife or kitchen knife, fur trade era knives did not use the large brass rivets. The second knife is a modern home made knife, sadly the bottom three are all modern poor quality fakes. Always beware of any knife with a date stamped into it, they didn't really do that back in the day although there may be exceptions (usually on military knives). The main clue you should have seen is the funky patina on the bottom three and the spurious Price knife are all very similar and even, unlike a naturally aged knife and the bottom three all look like they came from the same maker but with different marks and dates. Please save yourself some money and post knives here BEFORE you buy them and/or learn more about such items before you buy. Always be wary of knives advertised as fur trade era knives, very few still exist, the fur trade was basically over by 1850. 99.9% of all knives I have seen advertised as "trade knives" or "fur trade knives" are much newer kitchen or butcher knives or total fakes. There are a lot of very knowledgeable collectors and knife historians on this site who are always willing to help but you need to ask before you spend your money to avoid such mistakes. Most of us here have purchased a "bad" or a misrepresented knife over our collecting careers, everybody makes mistakes and hopefully learn from such mistakes.

[timdog44]

That being said, sadly for me, I should be able to go ahead and give them a good cleaning. I certainly dont want to list them as anything but what they are. They are still substantial knives and with a nice edge should serve someone well. I hate to ask, but if I did clean them and put an edge on them what would they be worth? Just a general idea?

[herbva]

That being said, sadly for me, I should be able to go ahead and give them a good cleaning. I certainly dont want to list them as anything but what they are. They are still substantial knives and with a nice edge should serve someone well. I hate to ask, but if I did clean them and put an edge on them what would they be worth? Just a general idea?

Timdog44, as Gene was saying, always research first, buy second. But, I know how it is getting caught up in the heat of the moment. I hope you didn't invest too much in these. I think it will be difficult to answer your last 2 questions. If you offer them for sale on fleabay with the full disclosure that they are fakes, you probably are going to get peanuts. Perhaps offering them as a group here, for a set price, or "best reasonable offer" might yield better results. But, I wouldn't clean, sharpen or tamper with them. Just my 2 cents.

[Gunsil]

Tim, Herb is correct, not a lot of value in those. The "Price" knife and the three similar bone handled knives look like they began life as cheap Pakistani imports, I see similar at flea markets for $12-15 each without the forced patina or spurious markings. The unmarked modern chef's knives sell for under ten bucks, and the home made maybe fifteen around here. Cleaning will not increase value in my opinion, there is little value to begin with.