All About Pocket Knives

Okay so there is an auction about an hour and a half away from me, just wondering if i am wasting my time if I go for this ONE knife. Advertised as an LF&C trench knife. Could this be real? What should I look for in a real compared to a fake. What are the tell tale giveaways of its real-ity. any help is greatly appreciated along with a value. Will be up for private sale on AAPK if it is a real one. If you information leads me to purchase it and it is indeed real you get first dibs on it.

That picture doesn't help much in determining whether it is real or not.I'm not well versed in trench knives but I do know there are a lot of reproduction ones floating around.One thing I would look for is the overall condition of the knife.If the blade is pitted but the handle looks new or near-new that would raise a red flag with me.Another is the overall look of the blade steel.If you have looked at a lot of old knives,the differences in blade steel are obvious as to color and edge crispness and such.Most early blades even though they have been sharpened a lot and are pitted for some reason seem to keep the square edges very sharp and defined whereas newer knives seem to have rounded off edges.Hard to explain.

Need more and better pictures. Handle should be marked on opposite side...any reason that side isn't shown?

I also don't see a pommel/tang nut.

I don't know if this will help or not but it might, so... here it is, just in case.

i know, i wish i was the one who took the picture of it. I did some research on it and everything that i can see in the pic looks good. As old wullie pointed out the skull crusher nut on the bottom is missing, but as long as there is a threaded hole i think itll be ok. I'm gonna go check it out n let u guys know if i get it (and better pics).

I've got a trench knife that has a similar handle, but has a round spike for a blade. Pretty sure mine is a repro from the 1970s. Here is a website that has some info on them on what to look for....

http://usmilitaryknives.com/m1918mk1.htm