All About Pocket Knives

Gents, I am typically a follower and sometimes contributor to the German Eye Brand Forum. However, I have always had an interest in fixed blade knives. I recently purchased the two fixed blade knives pictured from a seller on Ebay. I was a bit hesitant to go forward with the purchases in that the pictures of the knives looked too good to be true based upon what appeared to be good workmanship and quality, plus the prices were very appealing. Just was wondering if anyone else out there had purchased from this site and what your opinions of the knives might be. The maker is shown to be Andre Ronald. For myself, I was blown away (positive) by what I received. Have I missed something?

First of all they do look like beautifully crafted knives. I can't say much about their provenance and I do tend to be a bit skeptical of knives that may seem to be custom made but have no supporting history for where they actually came from. Looking on eBay I see there are currently 30 Andre Ronald knives for sale and 40 listed as sold. All are large Bowie type knives very much like the 2 knives posted.

I have made several large Bowie knives over the years and the labor and material involved with hand making this type of knife dictates large prices when it comes to selling. Given this I find it hard to believe the knives are custom shop made knives but rather made in some larger capacity shop somewhere in the world. There have been several posts here on AAPK involving knives that looked to be custom manufactured but were priced in a range that defied custom made logic. In these cases it can be difficult to actually find out where and by whom the knives are being made.

Regardless of manufacturing details they look beautiful and are selling at tempting prices.

I spent more time than I intended trying to track down Andre Roland. Discovered nothing about him. Did not find him listed as a Master Smith.
For truly individually hand made knives the prices do not make much sense. I suspect the materials are sourced from many different places and assembled by a crew. Possibly in England. They look fine. I suggest you contact the seller and ask for further info. Among other things, who awarded him MS status?

Here is a link to another AAPK post that may be pertinent to these knives.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=24892&hilit=RBH

Appreciate the thoughts, fellas. The maker is supposedly from South Africa and the seller a type of distributor in the U.S. In any event I am very pleased with the knives. Both would get the attention of most collectors that I have known throughout the years. Thanks to all.

Joe D.