All About Pocket Knives

I am considering selling my Southington congress, but honestly don't know what this sort of thing goes for, anyone have any ideas? I don't particularly want to sell it but if it's worth it I'll let it go. Good snap, no chips or cracks in genuine tortoise handles. Thank you!

Tough question Another Knife Collector and a maker I would consider... The blades have no doubt seen a fair amount of sharpening - just my own guess and I can be wrong but the master may have originally been a sheepsfoot blade... are you sure the scales are tortoise? - sort of looks like they can possibly be tortoise-like celluloid ... I again may be wrong but the surface scratches remind me more of celluloid scales... Not a $10 and not an $75 knife either in my opinion... but my guess is definitely less than $50...

Recently I have seen some crazy prices on knives on eBay that I am not sure reflect value at all but just bidding wars between folks with a vendetta ... quill knives going for well over $100... just not what I have seen or close to what I have seen as a value in the past for a few particular makers...

Thanks for the input Longblade, and honestly that was the answer I was hoping for, at that sort of price I won't feel guilty keeping it I am 100% confident it is genuine tortoiseshell though, I won't keep any celluloid knives because of their instability, so I touched it with a red hot nail, and had no reaction.

I think LongBlade is right on. The knife has a great name and the tortoise handles are a plus. Size and condition are working against the pluses. The right buyer might be in the $50 range but not a wide appeal for smaller knives like this. Nice piece of early USA knife history. Goins says c. 1867-1905.

I've never used the hot pin test on handles. If you can't tell by looking I've found that vigorously rubbing the handles on a course fabric like denim will give off a camphor odor if celluloid. Not necessarily the best method but non-destructive and will shine the handles up a bit too.

Wayne