All About Pocket Knives

Hello,
I am currently in the process of selling my late brother-in-law's knives. I have three knives that are not marked with a stamp. They have a small handwritten letters and numbers on the hand guard. The blades all have a pattern on them. I am at a loss as to how to price them. Is anyone familiar with these knifes? Any information would be appreciated. The photos are below
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404 could be the steel used.

It is more of a softer/less expensive stainless that a beginning knife maker might use.
Those are very handsome designs so it is difficult to say why all of the blades look like similar steel, and the 404 ID is on them... I'm just venturing a guess that might help.

Try a magnet as 404 is magnetic yet very rust resistant.

The swirls on the blade remind me of engine turning. Find this on some firearms, usually bolts, car dashboards back in the day.
Can't help with an ID though.

Thanks for the tip. A magnet stuck on all the blades. It looks like it say" ICR" for the letters. My brother-in-law seemed to get high end knifes but these are really hard to identify.

I thought the swirls on the blades might be a signature for the knife maker. I will try and do more research. Thanks for the info.

Those "swirls" are commonly called Machine Turning, and are a finishing method.
You will generally find that finish on softer metals like Aluminum but 404 stainless is not much harder than most aluminum.
In fact I think T-6 (6061 is actually harder than 404 stainless but this is all just guessing at your blade steel from an engraving that may or may not have any bearing on the blade.

The magnet, the number, and the swirls are leaning this direction tho...

I believe they are made by Ken Richardson. He is an avid knife maker. Check him out.

Hey there, cajancollector, to AAPK!
I believe you hit the nail on the head. I looked at the Ken Richardson site and found the brass hand scribed number on a guard just like the 3 pictured above, all on the same side, as well as the swirls on the blades.
Learn something new most every day but then I forget it.
Treefarmer

Sure looks correct!!! Bingo for the man in the front row.

The image on this link https://kenrichardsonknives.com/krk/blades/ shows the same turning, and a similar engraving on the guard but this one looks like A514 which IS a better steel for blades while still not all that common.

While Mr. Richardson has passed away, the about page on his site describes how the entire family joined in on knife making so I guess that could explain not so common blade steels... IF that is what the engravings are.
https://kenrichardsonknives.com/krk/ken-richardson/

Wow! Thank-you Cajancollector! I would have never found Ken Richardson's website. After looking at the knives and the sheaths I am convinced that Ken made these knives. Thanks to all who commented. Now I can move forward on these. Here are some photos of the knives in their sheaths. I have a box of sheaths and trying to match the knives up with them have been a challenge.

knifeseller wrote:I have a box of sheaths and trying to match the knives up with them have been a challenge.

Be thankful he didn't store the knives in the sheaths. Then you'd probably have a real mess to deal with, and the knives' value may have been substantially less.

Ken

cajancollector wrote:I believe they are made by Ken Richardson. He is an avid knife maker. Check him out.

Way to start off your membership with big bang info. Welcome aboard.